Sheffield Wednesday have moved to within striking distance of the League One promotion chasers after securing their fifth away win of the season with a comprehensive 4-1 thrashing of Bristol City.
Leading at the break through Adam Proudlock's goal, they took charge of an explosive second half after City's Danny Coles had been sent off.
The centre back saw red five minutes into the second half for an elbow into Paul Heckingbottom on the touchline.
With City's other centre back Tony Butler sitting out a one-match suspension the home side knew their unbeaten run of nine league games was in deep peril.
But they clawed themselves back into the game briefly as their player manager Brian Tinnion made a double substitution going on himself in place of his captain Tom Doherty.
With his first touch Tinnion set up an equalizer for Paul Murray but within minutes a mistake of his own saw Wednesday take over.
Chris Brunt restored their lead and then two minutes later Proudlock scored his second turning swiftly to shake off his marker as Brunt crossed from the left.
They were to wrap up their win in the 84th minute when Pat Collins turned in a Brunt corner from the right.
From the start there was awareness this game would always have a physical edge and Wednesday had the strength to come out on top of it.
They picked up an early caution for Heckingbottom, but Doherty was soon seeing his season's seventh yellow card for his third foul.
His midfield encounters with Proudlock was often on a short fuse but the striker's physical presence was the difference between the sides in the first half.
He powered and bustled past defenders and opened the scoring in the 15th minute as he seized a long ball from John Paul McGovern.
A solo battle with Matt Hill down the right saw him cut inside for a blistering shot which Steve Phillips failed to cover at the near post.
Near the end there was a five minute hold up as medics were called to a collapsing fan.
The incident looked serious and the referee blew up on 90 minutes rather than play the added on time.
A spectator leaving the terraces was hit in the head by a hard clearence. He collapsed unconcious and was taken to hospital for a checkup. Referee Fletcher declined to explain why stoppage time was not added.