Forest 3-3 Wednesday

Wednesday threw away a two-goal lead and had to settle for a point in a six-goal thriller against promotion-chasing Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Tuesday night.

Goals from Chris Maguire, Lewis Buxton and Joe Mattock had the Owls 3-1 up with Jamie Mackie scoring for the hosts. Former Owl Marcus Tudgay pulled a goal back and despite seeing Danny Collins sent off Jamie Paterson rescued a point for ten-man Forest.

The result saw the Owls bounce back from consecutive defeats but the draw will feel somewhat like a defeat after leading for most of the way against a Forest side that had not won in eleven matches going into the contest.

Owls boss Stuart Gray had to ring the changes to his side after suffering a double defensive blow in the defeat at Leicestr City last time out. Glenn Loovens and Oguchi Onyewu were both absent, leaving Miguel Llera and Lewis Buxton to plug the gap at centre-back.

Wednesday made a bright start and got their rewards just 13 minutes in when Collins fouled Maguire inside the box. The Scot dusted himself down to drill home the resulting spot-kick and give the visitors the early advantage.

Forest went into the game desperate for all three points to keep their play-off hopes alive and after Matt Derbyshire saw an effort cleared off the line by Llera, Gary Brazil’s men did level just before the break through Mackie.

It looked to be enough to send the sides into the half-time interval on level terms but the Owls hit straight back when Buxton prodded home a Maguire cross to see the visitors regain the advantage at half-time.

It got better for Wednesday on the restart as they extended their lead from another set-piece. Maguire was again the architect, producing a short corner for Mattock to drill home from the edge of the box.

The game was far from over, however, and as the Owls showed some signs of tired legs the hosts got back into it when former Wednesday man Tudgay got on the scoresheet.

The task was made tougher for Forest when Collins saw red for a second bookable offence and another late challenge on Maguire but they refused to throw in the towel and grabbed a share of the spoils thanks to Paterson’s late leveller.

Forest: Darlow, Harding, Collins, Henderson (Tudgay 61), Lansbury (Osborn 83), Mackie, Lascelles, Jara (Halford 76), Paterson, Derbyshire, Peltier.

Wednesday: Kirkland, Palmer, Buxton, Llera, Mattock, Antonio (Lavery 71), Lee, Coke, Helan (Nuhiu 83), Maguire, Best.