Owls boost safety hopes

The Owls recovered from an early set back to secure three massive points in their bid for Championship safety against fellow strugglers Colchester United.

Wednesday trailed 1-0 after a fourth minute goal from Kevin Lisbie for the home side. Karl Duguid's right hand cross found an unmarked Lisbie who slotted into an empty net. Deon Burton netted a brave equaliser 14 minutes later to bring the scores level though. Graham Kavanagh whipped in a left footed free-kick and Burton pipped Colchester keeper Dean Gerken to the ball to head home his seventh goal of the season infront of the travelling Wednesday fans.

The comeback was complete just moments before the break when Wade Small latched onto Burton's pass and paced past the home side's defence before firing past Gerken for 2-1.

Wednesday held onto their lead in the second half, but had their fair share of scares. First, Lisbie thought he had levelled matters ten minutes after the break after latching onto a long clearance from Gerken. That effort was ruled out by an offside call. The Owls were later saved by the crossbar as Duguid's deflected shot beat Lee Grant but not the woodwork.

Burton almost put the game to bed late on but Gerken denied him a second and Wednesday a vital third goal. They held on though and climbed out of the bottom three with results elsewhere in their favour.

Laws verdict: "This match - it was a must-win game for us. It wasn't pleasing on the eye but we really had to dig deep." "This could be the turning point in our season and the players put in a good shift for us." "This match might have been Colchester's last chance to climb out of the bottom three. We may have killed them off tonight."