Owls victim of the 'smash n grab' yet again.

The Owls crashed to their second successive home defeat in what was also their second failed attempt at gaining ground on team's above them in the table. Promotion favourites Hull City left Hillsborough convincingly last week when they ran out 4-2 winners, and this time it was Martin Allen's Brentford side that took all three points.

Wednesday were leading the game 1-0, with a one man advantage, with ten minutes left but two goals inside a minute turned the game on it's head and left manager Paul Sturrock furious at what he described as a "mentality problem", and said the team "had to be improved".

The Owls had taken the lead in the 21st minute when Steven MacLean was axed down in the penalty area by Bee's defender Michael Turner, who was rightly dismissed. MacLean himself stepped up and calmly slotted away the spot-kick.

In the 80th minute Alex Rhodes was in the right place to bundle the ball home and level the match. One minute later Dion Burton put Brentford ahead. The Bee's caught the Wednesday defence on the backfoot after a counter-attack and although keeper David Lucas did well to stop Burton's first attempt, three Owls defenders couldn't stop his re-bound effort go over the line.

Half-time: Owls 1-0 Brentford

Paul Sturrock's post match comments:
"It must have been exapserating to have been a Sheffield Wednesday fan over the last two or three seasons. That hasn't happened just once at this football club, it has happened regularly. We've been one-nil up against ten or eleven men and ended up drawing or losing."

"It's a mentality problem. I talked to boys like Hamshaw and Proudlock, who have been here over the last two seasons, and asked them how many times they had come into that dressing room atmosphere after a game - they said it was probably more often than the exuberance of a win."

"I can get plenty of players who are about the same as ours, or not as good as them, but that would be a backward step for us. We have to improve the team."

"Any team must come here and believe that, if they can keep it to one-nothing with 15 minutes to go, they've got an opportunity. The whole fans base is jittery, so am I and the players. It's something we've just got to change."

Paul Heckingbottom's post match comments:
"It was unbelievably disappointing. The lads know we've let ourselves down big time. We were 1-0 up, they were down to ten men but we seemed to relax a bit. We didn't play with the same urgency and tempo and gave them a foothold. As long as it was 1-0, they were in with a chance."

"You want to get that second goal. We were a bit sloppy in front of goal and it just wouldn't happen. That gives them a little lift, they can start putting men forward thinking they're in with a chance. That's what happened."