Alan Irvine was disappointed not to convert chances and win against Derby County on Saturday afternoon following a 0-0 draw at Hillsborough.

Wednesday had a good chance to open the scoring in the first minute through Tommy Miller but Steven Bywater saved. And despite a couple of fine saves from Lee Grant in the first half, the Owls had other chances to score themselves.

"It was a really good chance at the beginning of the match and Franny Jeffers had a really good chance at the end of the game as well when he had a header in front of goal but he didn't catch it so they were two of the good chances that we had.

"We had two big incidents for either side, Lee Grant's save in the first half and then Michael Tonge's clearance from right under the crossbar (from Richard Hinds' header) was fantastic defending.

"I feel that we desperately need some wins and this was not a foregone conclusion by any means but I thought we certainly had enough good chances to win the game," the Owls boss said. "Derby had their share of it in the first half but in the second half I thought we dominated in terms of possession. We had some good chances in dangerous territory but we didn't take them and that's disappointing.

"The plus side is that we didn't concede again and if we can keep that up we have a very good chance between now and the end of the season.

"We had some good chances today and you have to take them when you get them. You are not going to get lots of chances in these games because they are so tight, you're not going to get double figures in terms of decent goal scoring chances. When you get two or three you've got to be able to take them."

While Irvine desperately wanted a win against the Rams he acknowledged that a point in each of the last three games may mean that the Owls need just four more wins to guarantee safety, rather than the five that the manager was previously aiming for.

"We've picked up three draws and in my simple arithmetic it was eleven wins and a draw when I came here so we may well need four wins and a draw from the remaining games to get the points I am hoping for but five wins would be nicer," Irvine insisted. "I still think it's going to be a high points total and I won't rest easy until we get to the 53 points we are aiming for."

The Hillsborough chief is also hoping skipper Darren Purse will be available for Wednesday night's visit of Watford following a precautious substitution:

"Darren Purse has been feeling his hamstring since the Preston game and he hadn't trained until yesterday. He says that he doesn't think that he has pulled his hamstring but he feels he has just come off in time as it was a problem he felt could lead to a proper hamstring injury. We have hopes that he will be available for Wednesday," he added.

To comment on this story log into the forums on ourwednesday.com - the official Sheffield Wednesday social network.