- Owls and Bournemouth draw 2-2
- Championship thriller on South Coast
- Late Maguire penalty snatches point
After beating Brentford in midweek, the Owls headed to the South Coast and upset ten-man Bournemouth’s promotion ambitions on Saturday.
Stuart Gray’s side took the lead through Kieran Lee in the first half and looked like springing a shock defeat on the Cherries.
But Yann Kermogant levelled after the break before Matt Ritchie fired a stunning free kick late on to seemingly take the points as the contest swung.
But right at the last, the Owls won a penalty that was guided home by Chris Maguire to give the visitors a deserved share of the spoils.
And to cap a frustrating afternoon for Bournemouth, defender Simon Francis was sent off with ten minutes to go having accrued a second yellow card.
Chris Kirkland made his second league start of the season for Wednesday, with the statistics pointing towards a busy afternoon for the experienced goalkeeper.
Free-scoring Bournemouth were the leading marksmen in the country going into this game, but the Owls were relatively untroubled through the first half.
In fact, the only blow was the loss of Sam Hutchinson to injury just before the 15-minute mark as the visitors gave as good as they got.
The Cherries did show glimpses of their firepower, though, and particularly when Ritchie raced in on goal to come within a whisker of profiting from Harry Arter’s feed.
Wednesday threatened themselves, with Lee going close following good work by substitute Jacques Maghoma – before they went one better and took the lead on 36 minutes.
Lee started and finished the move, first by having the vision to sweep out wide to find Lewis Buxton, whose cross was pinpoint for the in-form midfielder to send an unstoppable header into the top corner.
Bournemouth hit back with Arter forcing Kirkland into an acrobatic save three minutes before the internal and Wednesday went up the tunnel in the ascendancy.
It was a similar story in the early throes of the second half as the home side shaded possession but failed to truly trouble the Owls’ goal.
And it was Wednesday that came within a lick of paint to doubling their advantage on the hour when a wicked free kick from Maguire crashed off the inside of the post and Caolan Lavery shot the rebound over the bar.
But Bournemouth were far from finished and had a penalty claim turned down on 65 minutes after Callum Wilson rounded Kirkland and Buxton denied the striker with a last-ditch challenge.
And on 69 minutes, they did get back into proceedings with a neat move that saw Arter dink an accurate cross into the mix and Kermogant was on hand to nod emphatically past Kirkland.
It was one-way traffic from there on in as the hosts sought that vital second goal but they were pegged back when Francis fouled Marnick Vermijl and saw red.
But Bournemouth were not to be denied and claimed what they thought was victory with six minutes to go when Richie drilled a vicious set piece from distance out of Kirkland’s reach.
Still there was time for the Owls to hit back and Lavery rolled agonisingly wide from a Vermijl feed on 90 minutes.
Then deep into stoppage time, Atdhe Nuhiu was tripped inside the box and Maguire stepped up from the penalty spot to give Wednesday the most dramatic of draws.
Bournemouth: Boruc, Francis, Cook (Jones 63), Elphick, Surman, Pugh (Smith 57), Arter, Daniels, Wilson, Kermogant (Ward 81), Ritchie
Owls: Kirkland, Buxton, Hutchinson (Maghoma 14), Maguire, Lavery, Lees, Helan, Zayatte (Vermijl 46), Lee, Isgrove (Nuhiu 63), Melo