Sheffield Wednesday manager Alan Irvine rued his side's bad luck following the Owls' narrow defeat at Middlesbrough on Saturday.

The game was settled by a deflected Scott McDonald strike that wrong-footed Lee Grant after a wicked deflection off Mark Beevers.

To compound matters, Luke Varney struck the woodwork on an afternoon of ill fortune for Wednesday, who remain in the relegation zone with three games left to play.

Irvine said: "That's the third deflected goal we've had against us since I came to the club. I don't think Middlesbrough deserved to win that game.

"It was a good performance and we hit the crossbar when that could have gone in. But we are staying positive. Obviously, the lads are feeling really low right now after that defeat but the good thing is they are very determined and are staying together."

Irvine also suffered a blow even before a ball was kicked at the Riverside when Leon Clarke withdrew from the starting line-up with a hamstring strain.

That meant Jermaine Johnson was thrust into the team, despite the pace ace having only featured sporadically of late as he continues his recovery from a hamstring injury.

However, JJ lasted the full game, which Irvine noted was a positive on an overall bleak afternoon for Wednesday.

He said: "Leon felt his hamstring a little in training on Friday but we thought he was going to be OK. It wasn't right, though, in the warm-up, so we had to put JJ in there.

"We had to play him as an attacker because I don't think he would have lasted the whole game on the wing.

"To be fair, he did really well to complete the game and I'm sure he will be stiff tomorrow. We will assess him on Sunday but thankfully, he doesn't seem to be injured, he's only tight after playing the full 90 minutes."