CRASH MATT Smith’s 10-man Lions derail Owls perfect start

wave of attacks with Alex Pearce and Jake Cooper solid at the heart of the defence.

Harris said: “That’s a Millwall result if ever you are going to get one. Get your noses in front from a set-play and then in a scrappy affair, with nothing between two committed teams, the red card changes the game.

“Wednesday had a lot of ball anyway without causing us any trouble except for Adam Reach’s moment of genius.

“Then you go down to 10 men and you know they are going to dominate play and get the ball in the box, and in Fletcher and Rhodes they have top players.

“But I give credit to my players. They put in a really strong second half. To stand strong against that quality of opponent, in the form they are in as well, it is impressive.”

The first half- hour was a scrappy affair except for that moment of Reach genius which provided Harris with his first palpitation of the afternoon.

He pounced on a loose ball 30 yards out to smash a volley that had Bartosz Bialkowski beaten but dropped on top of the net.

If that would have been a typical Reach goal, then Smith’s was trademark too.

Owls keeper Keiren Westwood was caught out by Connor Mahoney’s farpost corner leaving the striker to nod the ball into an unguarded net.

The visitors were handed a path back into the game when Wallace caught Lee on the halfway line and was sent off by referee Gavin Ward.

It was pretty much one-way traffic in the second half but other than a Barry Bannan strike from the edge of the box, Bialkowski was not called upon to make a standout save.

Owls caretaker boss Lee Bullen said: “Millwall deserve a lot of credit, for hanging on for that amount of time under that amount of pressure.

“The frustrating thing is we had 21 shots on their goal, with nine on target, and not one of them was really clear-cut bar Barry’s. Today it was not meant to be.”