Bottom-of-the-table Wednesday turned the Championship formbook upside down to defeat previously unbeaten Bournemouth 1-0 at Hillsborough tonight.
A second-half Barry Bannan penalty proved to be the difference between the two sides, Wednesday earning three vital points with a much-improved team performance after four successive defeats and in a game which saw both teams end the 90-plus minutes with 10 men.
The win takes us to minus one point and with the opportunity to move into a positive points tally if we can follow this with another home victory over Millwall on Saturday.
Looking for our first home success at S6 since February, we more than matched the third-placed Cherries in the first half, creating a handful of chances but failing to test keeper Asmir Begovic.
Adam Reach had an early effort deflected for a corner and Liam Palmer missed our best opening of the half on 13 minutes, heading wide from Barry Bannan’s corner when well placed.
Elias Kachunga was next to threaten, his header also off target rom a Kadeem Harris cross, and then Josh Windass went close with a 30-yard free kick.
Little had been seen of Bournemouth as an attacking threat and they had to wait until just before the break for their first effort of note, Chris Mepham heading over from close range, before Joe Wildsmith tipped over the bar from Arnaut Danjuma’s long-ranger in added time.
As expected, the visitors came out in more aggressive and attacking style after the interval and Josh King immediately sounded the alarm bells with a dangerous low ball across the six-yard box.
They went even closer to scoring a minute later when King outmuscled Dominic Iorfa, the Bournemouth man clipped the ball past Joe Wildsmith to David Brooks but the ex-Sheff U player saw his shot blocked near to the line by Julian Borner.
Bannan’s corner at the other end flashed across goal with no Wednesday player able to get the finishing touch and then Bournemouth missed an excellent chance when the unmarked King headed wide.
And it was the Owls who finally made the breakthrough from the penalty spot on 69 minutes. Josh Windass was brought down in the box by Steve Cook as he latched onto an excellent Bannan through ball and, fittingly, Bannan kept his cool to slot past Begovic and salute a deserted Kop end.
To add to Bournemouth’s troubles, Cook was red carded for the foul.
The visitors continued to look dangerous with 10 men and Liam Palmer came to the rescue when he headed off the line before Wildsmith just managed to keep out a header from King.
Wednesday were then also reduced to 10 men four minutes into added time when Harris was sent off after a clash with Jefferson Lerma but we held on to take a precious three points to leave us seven points from safety, albeit having played one more game than the teams just above us.
Wildsmith, Borner, Iorfa, Palmer, Odubajo, Harris, Bannan, Pelupessy, Kachunga (Paterson 80), Reach (Brown 84), Windass (Marriott 88). Unused subs. Dawson, Hunt, Dele-Bashiru, Rhodes.