Substitute Richard Barker returned to haunt his old club as his last-minute
header earned Rotherham a priceless win at Hillsborough.
The 26-year-old Sheffield-born striker, who started his career with the Owls
in 1993, pounced in stoppage time to move Ronnie Moore's side a giant step
closer towards First Division safety.
Shefki Kuqi looked to have rescued a point for Wednesday 19 minutes from time
when he headed home in a hard fought and at times bad-tempered clash.
Alan Lee had given the visitors the lead shortly after half-time before the
dramatic conclusion.
The Owls had been looking to extend their recent revival with a third
successive win but Rotherham, who started the day ahead of their hosts only on
goal difference, had other ideas and Wednesday still have much to do to ensure
First Division football next season.
The significance of the fixture for both sides perhaps ensured that it was
never going to be a pretty game, and that was certainly the case on the hard,
muddy pitch in the early stages.
Indeed neither team produced a chance worth its name until the 16th minute,
when neat interplay between Gerald Sibon and David Johnson inside the box should
have seen the latter register the first shot on goal.
Two minutes later however Johnson was not to blame when hauled back by Rob
Scott - the centre-half who actually began his career at Sheffield United - when
virtually clean through on goal, a crime for which the referee punished with a
yellow card.
The hosts continued to enjoy much of the possession and went close again in
the 27th minute, with Mike Pollitt scrambling to save Kuqi's header after Alan
Quinn's free-kick.
The swirling conditions were not conducive to good football however, a fact
highlighted in the 37th minute when a complete airshot by Rotherham's Nick Daws
allowed Sibon a shot on goal, only for the former Ajax striker to slice his
effort in even more comical fashion.
The game livened up markedly after the break but somewhat against the first
half's play it was Moore's men who opened the scoring.
Incisive work on the right flank by Chris Sedgwick enabled him to cross for
Lee to header beyond Kevin Pressman and send the large travelling section of the
28,179 crowd berserk.
It was the 23-year-old former Aston Villa trainee's sixth goal of the season
and for a time looked like being his most important.
Efan Ekoku did have an opportunity to level almost immediately but it was
former Manchester United man Mark Robins who will perhaps feel he should have
done better with a double chance with only Pressman to beat.
Wednesday were not posing the kind of threat to suggest an equaliser was
imminent. And so it was not surprising that when their goal came, after 71
minutes, it was from a set-piece, with an unmarked Kuqi crashing home a header
after sub Matthew Hamshaw's corner for his fourth goal in six games since his
£1million arrival from Stockport.
That looked to have been enough for Wednesday, but Barker scrambled home a
header in stoppage time to give Rotherham an invaluable three points.
Teams:
Sheff Wed: Pressman, Haslam, Westwood, Soltvedt, Armstrong,
Sibon (Hamshaw 62), McLaren, Quinn, Ekoku, Kuqi, Johnson.
Subs Not Used: Heald, Bonvin, Broomes, Donnelly.
Booked: Armstrong.
Goals: Kuqi 70.
Rotherham: Pollitt, Hurst, Scott, McIntosh, Talbot,
Sedgwick (Monkhouse 80), Daws, Bryan, Mullin,
Robins (Richard Barker 68), Lee.
Subs Not Used: Gray, Warne, Branston.
Booked: Scott, Hurst.
Goals: Lee 50, Richard Barker 90.
Att: 28,179
Ref: K Hill (Royston).
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