Sheffield Wednesday and Ipswich Town took a point each from this stalemate encounter on Saturday afternoon as the Owls yet again failed to make the most of an impressive first half display and were lucky not to be punished in the second 45 minutes.
A bright first-half included fine display in midfield from the returning Steve Watson. The club Captain was full of running and could have scored himself on a couple of occasions but was denied by a smart save from Richard Wright and also tamely mishit a shot at the keeper following a forceful run that saw him beat three men.
Marcus Tudgay was unlucky to see his thunderous drive rebound out off the crossbar but should perhaps have done better when his stooping header from close range clipped the top of bar.
Wednesday would have felt aggrieved not to be on top at half-time but once again the second half was a different story. Although the visitors continued to offer little in the early second half exchanges there was less impetuous from the Owls and the game appeared to be petering out.
While Wednesday can be happy with the clean sheet having shipped six in midweek against Reading in truth they have goalkeeper Lee Grant to thank for that rather than a solid defensive display as he bailed them out three times with top class saves from chances resulting from defensive errors and uncertainty.
Also of concern was the fact that the game appeared to drift away from the home side following Brian Laws tactical changes.
As stated the game was turning into something of a non-event in the second half but the substitutions that Wednesday made seemed to work against them.
First of all Etienne Esajas was replaced just after the hour mark by Deon Burton which meant a change of formation. Burton played in the centre of the attack with Tudgay and Johnson in wider attacking positions and a midfield three of Watson, O'Connor and McAllister-who had previously been playing on the right side of midfield. Burton however failed to get into the game and as a result the Owls were unable to keep possession and Ipswich then began to have more of the ball and created chances as a result.
It wasn't until Francis Jeffers came on with seven minutes to go and the Owls returned to a 4-4-2 that they managed to stem the flow and play the game in the oppositions half again but by this time it was too late to build up any concerted momentum and a draw was a fair result.
Grant will rightly take the plaudits for his display but his saves and the resulting clean sheet have somewhat hidden a shaky defensive performance and it is disappointing that the Owls rarely seem to be able to build on impressive first half performances and too often seem to lose their way as the game progresses.