Flashes of art and buckets of blood - How Sheffield Wednesday scrapped their way back into the fight at Millwall

Treading about their six-yard boxes, James Beadle and Matija Sarkic had been spectators wearing gloves, called upon only to restart overhit passes and to retrieve the occasional cross. Millwall and Sheffield Wednesday traded possession in midfield, every intention there to grab hold of the game but opportunity scarce. Half an hour had clicked by, neither team had taken on a shot and misplaced passes reigned supreme. Cockney anguish provided the audio to a film stuck on repeat, Sheffield gallows humour turned to long ago making itself apparent once more. The match was tired, nervy, low on life.

And then came a dancing Dutchman. Drowning out those Cockney wails, Anthony Musaba picked up the ball in midfield and took his touch, the sound of Édith Piaf slowly raising in volume as the pitch before him fell into black-and-white slow motion. A turn, a pair of open Millwall legs. One touch, two touch and free, a match seconds before vice-tight in nature suddenly open and welcoming as he bounded into space on the corner of the Lions box.

It was a position he'd been in before with mixed results. Like one or two of his teammates, Musaba's record in promising positions ranges from fabulous to furious. Penetrating that barren wasteland with a fizzing left-foot cross, he found Ike Ugbo once again lurking with intent at the back post. With the very first shot of the game, Ugbo's finishing of Musaba's burst of bubbling brilliance opened up a match that had seemed unfizzable. With the two sides placed as they were in the table, it was going to take something special to open things up. Fabulous indeed.

Not but 10 minutes later saw the old master step up, not one to be upstaged by a Dutch understudy. A portion of Wednesday's transfer budget in windows to come would be wisely spent on cryogenically-freezing the Barry Bannan slip-through pass that has caused so many problems for opposition defences in the last few years. Where Marvin Johnson has so often been the benefactor was Musaba again and it was he who bounded on to dissect the space between Serkic and his far post with scientific precision belying the artistry of before. At 2-0 Wednesday fans rolled out the 'Olés' as Millwall melted under the heat of their own furious supporters.

If this was the afternoon that - as one or two had suggested - Wednesday's survival bid could have died, then they played in the second half like a team fighting for every last breath. Millwall, shrunken and beaten-up towards the end of the first half, tweaked their system and came out swinging. Wave after wave of attack was swallowed-up by the travelling Owls, their away record scrumpled up and thrown into the Thames. With Bannan and Will Vaulks in midfield, they scrapped and harried. With the defensive trio of Liam Palmer, Michael Ihiekwe and Di'Shon Bernard behind them, they headed and blocked and cleared. Warriors.

The crowd, not long previously a thorn in the hind of the home side, were up and at 'em, the Millwall two-fingered salute of old presented loud and clear as they bellowed down on the Wednesday travellers. This was pressure. And as the Lions continued to throw everything at the Owls backline, the travellers held strong. A first half that had been prized open by a bit of artistry had to be seen out by good, old-fashioned blood and guts. Sheffield Wednesday showed they can do both.

A word for those unmentioned. On either wing, Pol Valentin and Marvin Johnson fronted-up and did their bit in both halves of the pitch. James Beadle gave a performance belying his age in an atmosphere he may well not have experienced before. Djeidi Gassama worked his proverbials off, replacing a spent Musaba on the hour, while Ian Poveda continued to show why Danny Röhl was so keen to bring him down from Leeds with an easy-on-the-eye performance of flair and determination. Michael Smith's substitute effort will be underrated by some, Diabys Momo and Bambo a pair of nightclub bouncers brought on to ensure safety into the night.

Injury question marks of Poveda and Bannan are a worry after both hobbled out of the occasion. Ashley Fletcher came on to receive two yellows in the time is takes to boil an egg. But the lasting images will be of Wednesday's players approaching the away end to revel in one of the better away performances in recent years, one that showed both sides of the game, one that sparkled for periods and then left stained in blood and mud and sweat and nastiness.

QPR's win at Bristol City prevents true fairytale status for a day that may well prove to be the highlight of a doomed campaign. But with a run of favourable fixtures ahead, it may also prove to be the turning point of an unlikely miracle. From that opening half-hour of slumbering nothingness, to moments of artistry and a half of white-knuckle, all-for-one battle, Wednesday have once again pulled themselves into the realms of possibility. It's never dull.