Darren Moore hails big day for Sheffield Wednesday at Accrington Stanley as rivals falter

The Owls were the only team in the top five to record a win and pushed their fine run of form to one defeat in 11 league matches.

Alex Mighten’s first league goal for the club was enough to hand them the win in a scrappy affair that saw Wednesday dominate the ball but register only 18 shots on target.

The home side were kept well at bay throughout save for a snappy bit of goalkeeping from David Stockdale to snuff out an incisive counter attack.

“It was a professional performance,” Moore said. “We wanted the three points and what I was most pleased with was the reslience of our performance really. We knew it would be a scrap and a tough game because of the timing of it, coming off Wednesday night’s cup game.

“All the accolades the players got from the cup match were gone and this was our bread and butter, really. The players gave a strong performance.

“The chances that Accrington had really were long distance chances that David Stockdale was in the right position for.

“Alex Mighten got his second goal so that’s two in two and it set us on our way really.”

Wednesday had a handful of chances to double their lead – most notably for Josh Windass, Michael Smith and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru – but were unable to stretch their lead.

“There were moments we could have got a second goal but we just never got the right contact on it,” Moore said.

“The thing that pleased me most was coming here and getting a clean sheet under difficult circumstances and getting the three points.

“That’s the second year running we’ve done that here in front of our travelling fans and it’s great to see.”

With Ipswich Town drawing 1-1 with plucky Cheltenham Town, the result moves Moore’s side to within a point of the automatic promotion places. To please the Owls even more, table-topping Plymouth Argyle were held to the same scoreline at Lincoln City.