Free scoring Owls fire four past Cherries

Last updated : 18 April 2014 By C. Morris

Sheffield Wednesday dealt a severe blow to Bournemouth's play-off hopes with a fantastic 4-2 away win.

The Owls led twice only to be pegged back but finished off their opponents in a frenetic final few minutes.

Wednesday came into the game on the back of two 3-3 draws and Bournemouth were unbeaten in 6 matches, winning 5 of those so an entertaining contest was on the cards and the two teams didn't disappoint.

The Owls got off to a flying start when Nuhiu pounced on a poor pass to advance and fire his third goal in two games to give Wednesday the lead after 15 minutes.

The two sides continued to attack each other in an open first half and it was the home side who were next to strike, Pugh heading home after good work from Grabban on the half-hour mark.

The equalizer certainly didn't dent the Owls confidence going forward though and within five minutes they were back in front, Hutchinson heading home from close range.

Kirkland denied Surman as the half drew to a close with Wednesday able to retain their lead going into the break.

The second half started badly for the visitors when Lewis Buxton was forced off with an injury, to be replaced by Liam Palmer and just before the hour mark Bournemouth found a leveller for the second time when Kermorgant headed home Harte's corner.

Things went from bad to worse for Wednesday when Hutchinson received a harsh second yellow card with around 30 minutes still to be played. At this stage the home side were firmly o the front foot and were only denied the lead when Kirkland produced an excellent save to deny Kermorgant. The Cherries for all their territorial dominance, struggled to find many more clear routes to the goal and inside the final five minutes they were hit with a sucker punch. Antonio broke away at pace and cracked a shot against the bar but just when it looked as though the chance had gone substitute Leon Best was on hand to tap the rebound into the net to send the sell out visiting contingent into raptures.

A tense finish was in store when the 4th official showed there would be 7 minutes of stoppage time but Wednesday put the icing on the cake late on when Best broke away and picked out Maguire to score the Owls 4th of the afternoon.

Wednesday now have back to back home games against Charlton on Easter Monday followed by Bolton next Saturday and they then finish their season away to Ipswich Town.

Two wins from those three games would see them finish on a higher points tally than last season, a feat that seemed a long way off when they had only managed one win from their first sixteen Championship matches at the start of the season.