Sheffield Wednesday secured a deserved point in their first away outing of the new season thanks to substitute Neil Mellor's late strike against a hard working Colchester United side.

The man on a season-long loan from Preston netted his first goal competitive goal for the Owls late in the second half, superbly barging his way through the Colchester defence and firing home, after Andrew Bond had given the hosts the lead in spectacular fashion.

Wednesday manager Alan Irvine made six changes to his starting line-up for the trip to the Weston Homes Community Stadium.

After the midweek cup victory over Bury, Lewis Buxton, Marcus Tudgay, Chris Sedgwick, Giles Coke, Clinton Morrison and James O'Connor all returned.

Only three sides left Colchester with maximum points last season - Leeds, Norwich and Millwall - all of whom secured promotion to the Championship, and the Owls started brightly.

Gary Teale in particularly was looking lively down the left flank. First he cut inside his marker and fired wide, before minutes later whipping in a cross that only narrowly eluded the waiting O'Connor and Morrison.

The hosts enjoyed their first real spell of possession ten minutes in. A neat passing move culminated in Ian Henderson's effort that fizzed wide of Nicky Weaver's post.

Blustery conditions on a sunny afternoon in Essex somewhat hampered any attempts of free-flowing football from either side. Instead the game turned into a contest that was largely dominated by both defences. U's striker David Mooney did beat the offside trap, but could only skew his effort across the face of Weaver's goal.

Wednesday then created the best chance of the game just after the half hour mark. A direct free-kick into the Colchester box was flicked on by Tudgay into the path of Morrison, who saw his scooped effort from just outside the six-yard box drift narrowly over the crossbar.

The Owls continued to turn the screw. Moments later Tudgay found Teale out on the left flank, and the Scotsman curled a delightful ball into the box, only for U's defender Magnus Okuonghae to clear the ball against the onrushing Morrison, who in turn was unlucky not to bundle the ball over the line beyond a stranded goalkeeper.

After the interval John Ward's men flew out of the traps. David Perkins tested Weaver from distance, but the Wednesday goalkeeper could do nothing about Bond's spectacular effort minutes later. Colchester collected the ball in the midfield, before farming possession out wide to Bond. The 24-year-old then superbly let the ball run across his body before letting fly from all of 25 yards leaving Weaver helpless as the ball thundered into his top corner.

Buoyed by the goal the hosts pushed to double their lead. Mooney had two glorious chances, first sliding an effort wide after clever work from Perkins and then smashing an effort against the foot of the post.

Wednesday rallied, and Mellor was thrown on in place of Teale in an attempt to add more bite to the frontline. And it almost worked immediately when Tudgay wriggled away from a couple of defenders in the area, but his low drive was well held by Mark Cousins in the Colchester goal.

As time trickled away from the Owls, the Colchester players did all they could to slow the game down, taking their time over throw-ins and free-kicks. Wednesday huffed and puffed and bombarded the Colchester area in the last 15 minutes, but for all their hard work it just seemed as if the ball would not go in.

Morrison had an appeal for a penalty turned down whilst at the other end Mooney fired over after a breakaway Colchester attack.

Just when it seemed Wednesday were dead and buried, they got the goal their pressure deserved. Mark Beevers diverted a header back into the Colchester box towards Mellor, who controlled the ball with his head before bustling his way into the area and firing home in front of the travelling Wednesdayites.

Despite pushing for what would have been a dramatic winner, there was to be further drama as the hosts held on for a point.

Colchester United: Cousins, Okuonghae, Reid, Izzet, Bond, Henderson (Vincent 80), Perkins, Mooney (Odejayi ), Wilson, Wordsworth, Tierney.

Unused substitutes: Pentney, Baldwin, Hackney, White, James.

Owls: Weaver, Buxton, Purse, Beevers, Spurr (Jones 82), Sedgwick, O'Connor (Potter 67), Coke, Teale (Mellor 59), Morrison, Tudgay.

Unused substitutes: O'Donnell, Otsemobor, Palmer, Heffernan.

Attendance: 6,011 (1,817 away)