Wednesday retained their playoff place in the Championship thanks to two on Tuesday nights games. The first was a hard fought point on the South coast against Brighton at the Amex Stadium and the second was from an unlikely source of Wednesday joy as Bolton clawed back from two goals down to earn a point against Ipswich Town.
Brighton for their part moved above Hull City into third place in the Championship but they missed a chance to record a fifth successive home victory. In truth during the second half the home side were hanging on against Wednesday.
Wednesday boss Carlos Carvalhal made six changes to the team that had lost at home to Rotherham United at the weekend including recalls for Joe Bennett, Liam Palmer and Marco Matias. Brighton made one change in the wake of their goalless draw away to Preston North End, resting Beram Kayal and giving Steve Sidwell his first home start.
Kick-off was delayed by 15 minutes after two road incidents near to the Amex stadium. Spreading of rumours involving Wednesday fans being involved appeared to be thankfully false.
Carlos`s side aimed to frustrate the home side defending with nine players behind the ball, this limited the home side to pot shots and long range efforts with ex-Blade Jamie Murphy flashing over the Owls post. Sam Baldock and Liam Rosenior both got to the byline only to cross the ball too close to goalkeeper Kieren Westwood, and the only other chance came just before the interval when Murphy fired wide after a corner-kick.
The Owls edged an equally tight second half which saw the best chances fall to Barry Bannan with David Stockdale twice pushing away his well-directed long-range efforts.
The lack of goalmouth action was in stark contrast to the form of and league positions of both teams. Wednesday’s attacking intent was not helped by the absence of top scorer Fernando Forestieri, but the Italian forward is back for Saturday’s visit to the City Ground to face Nottingham Forest.
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