Sheffield Wed. 2 - 1 Blackburn Rovers: Sheffield Wednesday post fourth straight win to stay on course for play-offs

Posted Wednesday, April 06, 2016 by PA

Sheffield Wednesday moved a step closer to securing a Sky Bet Championship play-off spot by claiming a fourth straight win with a come-from-behind 2-1 triumph over Blackburn at Hillsborough.

Craig Conway opened the scoring for the visitors at the start of the second half, but an Adam Henley own goal made it 1-1 on 51 minutes.

Conway was given a straight red card two minutes later, and Ross Wallace then netted the winner to keep Carlos Carvalhal's side fifth and well on course for a top-six finish.

Wallace had the first attempt on goal of the evening when his low driven effort was comfortably saved by Jason Steele.

Blackburn's Ben Marshall then cut inside, and went past two Wednesday defenders, but their team-mates recovered well to block the shot.

The hosts suffered a huge setback in the 25th minute when their captain Glenn Loovens was forced off through injury, with Vincent Sasso coming on to replace him.

Jack Hunt continued to get forward for the home side and his cross found Gary Hooper inside the six-yard box. He held off Grant Hanley and turned, but his shot was easily saved by Steele as he failed to make a proper connection.

Lucas Joao then burst into the box and played in Fernando Forestieri but the striker could not sort his feet out in time to get a shot away.

The deadlock was broken within 30 seconds of the restart, courtesy of Conway's diving header. Darragh Lenihan delivered a cross from the right and Conway found the bottom-right corner of Keiren Westwood's net.

Wednesday replied swiftly, though, and were level within five minutes. Wallace was found by Hooper on the corner of the box, and he fired the ball back across the box. It deflected off Henley then up and over Steele into the back of the Rovers net.

Conway was shown a straight red card by referee David Webb for a mis-timed lunge on Alex Lopez in the centre circle.

The home side then capitalised on their one-man advantage when Forestieri drove into the box and got to the byline before drilling the ball across for Wallace to volley the Owls into the lead.

Wednesday continued to create plenty of half-chances and kept good possession while 10-man Blackburn were forced to dig deep and rarely got forward.

Joao narrowly failed to double the Owls' lead when his curling shot went just wide of the far post. Five minutes later he found himself in a similar position but his shot had the same outcome after it was deflected for a corner.

Second-half substitute Aiden McGeady then smashed a shot from range which cannoned off the crossbar in added time, but Wednesday had done enough.