Bad day at the office for bottom placed Owls

Wednesday survival chances took a turn for the worse when Matt Holland's 17th minute header proved to be a winner for Ipswich Town, visitor's to Hillsborough on the weekend. To make matters worse Wednesday's three relegation threatened rivals all picked up points.

The Owls now find themselves bottom of the table and five points away from Brighton & Hove Albion, who are currently in the safety zone. The result against Ipswich was a real disappointment after the Owls had grinded out some hard fought results over the past few weeks.

The midweek game against Yorkshire rivals Bradford City is now even more crucial. But manager Chris Turner and his players are refusing to be drawn into how other teams are doing, and are just concentrating on what they can do in their nine remaining games.

This report from the BBC Football website:

Matt Holland's strike gave Ipswich's play-off hopes a shot in the arm and deepened the threat of relegation hanging over Sheffield Wednesday. Republic of Ireland international Holland, with just one goal since September, moved on to Darren Bent's flick-on from Jim Magilton's corner to head high into the net after 17 minutes.

Wednesday's chances had already taken a knock when they were forced to replace the injured Darryl Powell with Steven Haslam after 14 minutes. They could have gone ahead moments before Holland's breakthrough as well-placed Shefki Kuqi volleyed into the clutches of visiting goalkeeper Andy Marshall.

Fabian Wilnis' rasping 30-yard drive was the closest Ipswich came in the opening exchanges - but after the goal both teams had chances as their equally pressing need for points drove them forward. Wednesday midfielder Alan Quinn tried his luck from distance while another Kuqi volley and a Brian Barry-Murphy shot both forced Marshall to hold on.

At the other end Jermaine Wright's angled drive brought home goalkeeper Paul Evans into action. Matthew Richards failed to direct his header from Darren Bent's cross before Evans escaped with a yellow card after fouling Darren Bent outside the area.

Wednesday could have equalised within two minutes of the restart as Michael Reddy's close-range effort was parried to safety by Marshall.

Half-time: Owls 0-1 Ipswich

After 49 minutes Ipswich had two chances in quick succession to extend their lead - Marcus Bent bringing a save out of Evans from close-in and Reuser seeing his drive smack the woodwork. But it was goal-scorer Holland who went closest to notching again, Evans parrying from close range to deny the midfielder his second double of the season.