Sheffield Wednesday came back from a goal down to earn a share of the spoils at home to Blackpool on Boxing Day.
The Owls responded well to going a goal behind early in the second half but in truth there was not a great deal to encourage the part-timers in the 25,000 strong crowd to return on a regular basis.
Wednesday were poor in the first half with only a free-kick from Spurr and a low drive from Watson worth any mention. Other than that the visitors looked well organised considering their current managerial issues and they passed the ball much better than the Owls who struggled to string any coherent moves of note together in the first 45.
Meanwhile off the pitch, regulars would have been less than surprised to find that shortly before kick-off, the extra demand from a predicted bigger-than-usual crowd had seemingly not been catered for and a 10 minute wait for pies to be warmed up on the Kop ensued. This was followed just before half-time with the news that no hot food was left at the main Kop kiosks.
Blackpool may have felt slightly disappointed not to have turned their performance into a goal advantage in the first half but they didn't have long to wait to rectify this in the second.
A minute of madness from Lewis Buxton saw him needlessly concede a corner at the Leppings Lane end and from the resulting set piece he pulled back Shaun Barker in the box and Alan Gow made no mistake from the spot.
Thankfully the goal served to lift Wednesday (momentarily at least) out of their Christmas slumber and the Owls were level inside 10 minutes when a well taken free-kick from Watson was prodded home by Slusarski.
It was then Blackpool's turn to respond well and Grant made a fine save to keep out a long range effort from Southern but the Owls were on top for the next ten minutes or so. They had a dubious penalty claim waived away when Jeffers went down under a challenge from 'Pools keeper Rachubka and the ex-Arsenal man was then denied by the keeper as he got a rare shot on target from a neat spin in the area.
With Small tiring following his return to the side he was replaced by McAllister with around 15 minutes left. Modest and Boden also entered the fold late on and the game fizzled out as the Owls chopped and changed their personnel up-front and in midfield on numerous occasions to try and accommodate these substitutions.
It was good to see a few players get back off the treatment table but with another game in just 48 hours time it was concerning that the overall performance seemed jaded and lacklustre and the team must retain and use the ball better if they are to get anything at the Ricoh Arena on Sunday.