Owls are on the up

GARRY MONK claimed Sheffield Wednesday are finally heading in the right direction after taking 10 points this week to climb off the bottom of the table.

Wednesday followed the halving of their 12-point penalty for breaching

EFL financial rules and beating Bournemouth with a point and another clean sheet at Hillsborough.

“We’re moving in the right direction after the hand we were dealt,” said Owls boss Monk.

“We wanted the maximum of another win and that would have been the icing on the cake for us and how we didn’t score, I don’t know.”

Millwall boss Gary Rowett admitted his side (Mason Bennett, above) were lucky to escape with a point and he was unhappy with their second goalless draw this week on the road.

“It was a really disappointing performance today,” he said. “When you talk about away to Norwich and Sheffield Wednesday, you might take two draws and two clean sheets, but our standards are higher than that.”

While the Owls showed graft, they did not display much craft.

Elias Kachunga shot wide early on and Josh Windass was denied by Bartosz Bialkowski after pouncing on Shaun Hutchinson’s loose pass.

Millwall were not any better and Scott Malone headed wide before Ryan Leonard dragged a shot past the post.

The Owls nearly won it at the death, only for Bialkowski to deny them yet again, diving to his right to keep out Jack Marriott’s header.

SHEFF WED: Wildsmith 5; Van Aken 5 (Marriott 80, 5), Iorfa 6, Borner 6; Palmer 7, Bannan 7, Pelupessy 6 (Brown 58, 5), Reach 7, Odubajo 6; Kachunga 5 (Paterson 68, 5), Windass 6.

Unused subs: Dawson, Dele-Bashiru, Rhodes, Hunt. MILLWALL: Bialkowski 8; Hutchinson 6, M Wallace 6, Cooper 5; Romeo 6, Leonard 6, Woods 5, J Wallace 7 (Mahoney 68, 6), Malone 6; Bennett 5 (Bodvarsson 81), Smith 5 (Bradshaw 81). Unused subs: Fielding, Williams, Thompson, Pearce.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Bartosz Bialkowski. Made a string of fine saves in the second half to earn Millwall a point. REFEREE: Tony Harrington 7.