Sheffield Wednesday secured their first win in eleven Championship games and ended a four-match home scoring drought by coming from behind to beat Wigan Athletic at Hillsborough.
The Owls had only lost 3 of their last 10 games but were finding wins and goals hard to come by having only scored 4 times in those games.
Stuart Gray made two changes to the side that were unlucky not to earn more than the 0-0 draw they got in their last outing at Huddersfield. Atdhe Nuhiu replaced Gary Taylor-Fletcher in attack with the latter having returned to Leicester City with his loan spell having expired. Chris Maguire came in for Jacques Maghoma in wide midfield.
The Owls started brightly and should have taken the lead when Nuhiu tamely headed a fine cross from Royston Drenthe over the bar. The home side continued to press and the goal drought was almost ended from an unlikely source just after the quarter-hour when defensive midfield stalwart Jose Semedo ran on to Nuhiu's lay-off and struck a shot from the edge of the area that beat Carson in the Latics goal but cannoned back into play off the post. Maguire was first to follow up but his shot from an angle inside the box was parried by the Wigan keeper.
The visitors showed signs of what they were capable of in attack as McManaman forced Westwood into a smart near-post save and with 25 minutes gone Wigan took the lead against the run of play when McCann stole a march on Semedo inside the area and powered home a header from McLean's corner. Given their recent scoreless run Owls fans would have been left fearing the worst at this point but it took barely a minute for parity to be restored.
Drenthe drove the Owls forward and as the ball broke in the tackle to McGugan the on-loan Watford man picked out Nuhiu with his cross, surrounded by defenders with his back to goal the Austrian produced a deft touch to find May and the Scottish international found the back of the net with a cool well-placed finish.
Chances then came and went at both ends, Carson denying Helan with a fine save after the full-back had been played in by Drenthe and McLean wastefully driving high into the side-netting although it looked as though the linesman had belatedly flagged the winger offside anyway.
Wigan started the second half on top with McGugan forced to clear off his own line from another set piece header. McManaman was a constant threat down the Wigan right but Helan stayed true to the task and as the half wore on his pace and energy took the Owls forward.
With just under 20 minutes to go a driving run from the Owls left-back resulted in a blocked shot and when the ball rebounded out to Maguire his cute cross was met by May's glancing header which struck both posts before creeeping over the goal line as confirmed by he linesman, much to the relief of the Hillsborough faithful.
The visitors pressed for an equaliser with McManaman finding a teasing cross that evaded everyone inside the 6-yard box. May could have crowned the day with his 3rd but his control allowed Carson to get in a block before he could find a finish. The missed chance didn't prove costly however, it was the first time Wednesday had scored twice on home soil in the league this season and the win – their first ever in a league game against Wigan - moves them to within a win of the top half of the table.