Tommy Spurr's outstanding equaliser rewarded Wednesday for endeavour and spirit, and left their former boss feeling that an elusive win is bound to come soon after seven consecutive draws.

Sturrock said: "I'm very confident, after watching them, that Wednesday will stay up.

"Some of the games they have to play, I'm confident they'll win. Looking at them, there's no way they'll get relegated."
The Owls bossed almost the whole game after going behind in the second minute to a bit of dreadful misfortune.

Left winger Peter Halmosi tried to bend a 25-yard free kick into Lee Grant's left-hand corner. The ball took a huge deflection off Deon Burton, which completely wrong-footed the blameless Grant and dropped into the net to his right.

There was also a lesson for the Owls: the wall should stay still and hold firm, not break up.

The crowd responded immediately, however, and so did the team, with some boisterous raiding.

Sturrock was to conclude: "The worst thing we did was to score so early. Mentally it changes your whole complexion. What we did was to try not to lose the game. We dropped back 20 yards and allowed Sheffield Wednesday to dictate the next 89 minutes."

The Owls forced an eighth-minute chance: Jermaine Johnson's low ball was seen late by Burton as it cleared a defender and the striker could only deflect it wide from five yards.

Ben Sahar added improvisation to Wednesday's attacking drive when he tried to lob the keeper from 20 yards, but the effort was a shade too low.

The Owls' resolve and work-rate were beyond reproach. Another opportunity beckoned in the 22nd minute as a Johnson through ball released Adam Bolder, and the two-goal hero of the Sheffield derby was unable to find the unmarked Burton before defenders closed in.

Then a free kick gave Burton O'Brien – replacing the injured Graham Kavanagh – a shot from 18 yards but it sailed off target, as did an earlier free kick by Franck Songo'o.

What Wednesday lacked was quality in their final ball and finishing.
Johnson could only lash a volley yards off target from 16 yards after a lovely cross by Spurr created the chance.

Bolder missed an easier opening, scuffing the ball wide from 12 yards after being sent clear by Ben Sahar, though in fairness to the midfielder, I thought the ball might have bobbled just as he tried to strike it.

The ref then pulled play back, after playing the advantage, and gave Wednesday another free kick in a promising position. Burton hit it, the ball was half-stopped, and Sahar almost forced it home, with the ref spotting a deflection and giving a corner.

The danger for Wednesday as the second half began was that Plymouth were surely capable of raising their game and Sturrock cannot have been a happy man at half-time.

Sure enough the Pilgrims carved out a chance in the 57th minute: Easter got away from Beevers and brought an athletic save from Grant with a low effort to the keeper's left.

Brian Laws did not leave it too late before making changes in a attempt to find that elusive cutting edge. In the 65th minute, Bartosz Slusarski replaced Sahar, and Wade Small took over from Johnson, going to the left wing with Songo'o switching to the right.

But it was strictly a defender's finish by Spurr when he missed the target from 18 yards.

When the Owls at last produced a crisp, on-target strike it was from a free kick by Songo'o from just outside the box.

Luke McCormick made a flying save to his right, and repeated the feat five minutes later, clutching a Burton header by his post after Richard Wood flicked on a Spurr throw-in.

An 80th-minute miss by Small seemed crucial; Spurr supplied him, and the winger dragged his shot across goal from the left.

But a minute later Spurr showed the forwards the way when the ball bounced out to him, at least 25 yards from goal; he struck an instinctive volley to send the ball dipping past McCormick, though the keeper got a touch.

Spurr dashed down the field to jump into the arms of Grant midway in the Owls half.

Spurr said: "Granty has been moaning that nobody has been celebrating with him when we score; as a joke, I told him before the game that if I scored, I'd go running to him!"

Wednesday kept up the pressure in the last few minutes, roared on by the crowd, who also applauded Steve MacLean when he was taken off.

A Songo'o shot sped along the floor to the keeper; acrobatic defending prevented a Burton cross reaching Slusarski; Small and O'Brien had efforts blocked.

Wednesday could have done with a win but one point and a stirring fightback were enough to see them applauded from the field – and Spurr's goal, only his second for the club, left an abiding memory.

He said: "I think it was in the under 10s when I last scored a goal like that. On Thursday we did a bit of shooting in training, joining in with the strikers. We were practising volleys like that – not many went in. That one did!

"I just hit it. It's taken us out of the bottom three. Hopefully it will be a very valuable goal by the end of the season.

"We'll go to Blackpool on Saturday full of confidence, having played well.

"Hopefully we'll kick on now and stay up."

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