Evans error leaves Owls with a point from high-flying Foxes

The Owls came away from high flying Leicester City with a respectable point, in a fixture where everybody had written them off before a ball had been kicked. Paul McLaren carried on where he left off in midweek, with a fine goal to set the Owls on their way in the 25th minute.

McLaren had struck one of the goals of the season in Wednesday's fantastic 5-1 thrashing of Coventry City in midweek, when he blasted the ball home from 30 years out. This time it was a carefully stroked free-kick on the edge of the box that found the back of the net for his third of the season.

Wednesday lead going into half-time, but disaster struck five minutes into the second period. Goalkeeper Paul Evans made the kind of mistake that you'd have nightmares about. McLaren strolled the ball back to his goalkeeper but the South African keeper took his eye off the ball, and much to his embarassment, he could only stand and watch the ball roll into the back of the net.

To his credit he rolled up his sleeves and still managed to put in a fine performance for the remainder of the game, with some goal saving stops. But Evans won't need to be told that his team can ill afford these types of mistakes at such a crucial stage in the relegation battle.

This match report from the BBC Football website :

Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper Paul Evans let in an own goal from a back-pass but Leicester could not capitalise as they missed the chance to go level with Portsmouth at the top of Division One. Owls' midfielder Paul McLaren scored a goal at either end, giving Wednesday a shock lead midway through the first half, but conceding the own goal after a mistake by Evans just after the break.

It was scant reward for the visitors, who looked comfortable as they soaked up everything the lacklustre Foxes could throw at them. McLaren, who ended a goal drought stretching back to last September with a superb strike in the Coventry game, made the breakthrough in the 25th minute for his third of the season.

Leicester defender Matt Elliott was pulled up for a foul on Shefki Kuqi just outside the penalty area and when Alan Quinn slipped the ball to McLaren, the midfielder fired in a shot which beat Ian Walker in the home goal.

Half-time: Leicester 0-1 Owls

Wednesday, with just one away win all season, were sitting pretty at half-time, but it all changed in the 50th minute. McLaren rolled a comfortable back-pass to Evans and the keeper inexplicably let the ball slip past him into an empty net. Leicester had much more of the possession, but could not break down a resilient Wednesday defence and were restricted to 25-yard efforts from Paul Dickov and Jordan Stewart in the early exchanges.

As half-time approached Evans had to be alert to tip a shot from James Scowcroft round the post, and the keeper then produced a superb save to push Dickov's header over the bar. Leicester threw on an extra striker in Trevor Benjamin as they went in search of a winner after their lucky equaliser, but they looked short of ideas in the final third and created no clear-cut chances.

The unfortunate Evans dived to tip a Stewart 25-yarder round the post and also saved a late Muzzy Izzet header, but the Foxes stumbled to a third consecutive draw.