Sheffield Wednesday were beaten for the first time in five steel city derbies on Friday evening as they lost out by three goals to two at Bramall Lane.
The Owls got off to a slow start defensively and were on the back foot after diminutive attacker Jamie Ward had pounced on some slack defending after little more than 5 minutes. Darren Purse failed to pick up Chris Morgan from a set piece and when the defenders header was blocked Ward reacted quickly to stab home at an unguarded back post.
Little more than ten minutes later Wednesday found themselves two down as they failed to clear a long throw out of the penalty area and a Ched Evans shot was deflected in, possibly off Darius Henderson or Richard Wood.
Worse still was to follow as half-time approached when Lewis Buxton inexplicably headed into his own goal under little pressure from Henderson.
Etienne Esajas replaced the ineffectual Jermaine Johnson at the break and the impact was immediate. The Dutchman saw a header blocked a minute into the second half but the clearance fell to Marcus Tudgay who steered home astutely from the edge of the area to give the Owls a lifeline.
Buoyed by the early goal, Wednesday started to dominate the game in the second half. Tudgay blazed over after the Blades failed to deal with an Esajas free-kick and Wednesday gave their fans real hope midway through the half when Esajas found the bottom corner with a fine free kick from 25 yards out.
At this stage the Owls were enjoying over 60% of the possession on their rivals turf with the home side resorting to long clearances to try and stem the tide.
Wednesday were unable to maintain the intensity as the match drew to a close however and the home side were denied by excellent saves from Grant on a couple of occasions as the Owls began to tire.
So Brian Laws unbeaten Sheffield derby run has been ended, thanks in the main to some very poor defending both individually and collectively but credit to the players for not throwing in the towel and giving it a go in the second 45. At half-time the home crowd seemed sure their side was ready to mark the history of the Sheffield derby in a manner akin to the Owls 4-0 Boxing Day massacre of 1979 but by full-time they were relieved just to have won the game.
Wednesday have proven this season that they have the ability to be a threat to most defences in the Championship but with just one clean sheet in eight league games it is fairly obvious where Wednesday need to improve if they are to make an impact in the top half.