Burton O'Brien was denied a spectacular stoppage-time winner for Sheffield Wednesday when his late shot hit the post in the South Yorkshire derby at Barnsley.

Tykes goalkeeper Luke Steele also made a decisive save to keep out another long-range piledriver from Owls substitute Ben Sahar to ensure Brian Laws' side remained in the Championship bottom three.

O'Brien's 30-yard thunderbolt in the third minute of time added on came back off the woodwork, while FA Cup hero Steele caught Sahar's stinging drive at full stretch shortly after Laws had sent on the Chelsea teenager in a bid to break the stalemate.

Barnsley were not without their own chances, with Tykes striker Jon Macken twice going close in the first half as Simon Davey's FA Cup quarter-finalists dominated the early exchanges in pursuit of a first league win in four matches.

But the visitors were in no mood to concede ground to their local rivals in their desperate bid to claw their way out of the drop zone.

Barnsley took control early on, with Jamal Campbell-Ryce volleying over the crossbar, Jon Macken's 25-yard shot curling just off target and Diego Leon also firing wide from distance.

Steele was forced to tip Graham Kavanagh's crossed free-kick over the bar and Marcus Tudgay blazed over as the visitors looked to gain a foothold in the match.

Owls winger Wade Small and Tykes defender Bobby Hassell were both booked for unsporting behaviour within a few minutes of each other before visiting defender Richard Wood failed to keep his header down from Kavanagh's corner.

Macken lashed a volley over as Barnsley looked to make their first-half dominance pay, but Wednesday held firm until the interval.

Rob Kozluk, Leon and Daniel Nardiello returned to Barnsley's starting line-up in place of suspended Dennis Souza, Martin Devaney and Istvan Ferenczi.

Richard Hinds came in for injured Wednesday skipper Lee Bullen, while O'Brien stepped up for the banned Jermaine Johnson.

Wednesday manager Laws replaced Small with on-loan Chelsea striker Sahar shortly after the restart, while Kayode Odejayi replaced Tykes striker Nardiello.

But neither side created any further clear-cut chances up to the hour-mark when O'Brien's drilled effort was caught by home goalkeeper Steele.

Steele then held Enoch Showunmi's angled shot from inside the penalty area and pulled off the best save of the match when holding on to Sahar's goalbound effort from 25 yards.

Both managers made further changes, with Showunmi making way for Deon Burton and Barnsley winger Martin Devaney replacing Leon.

Owls keeper Lee Grant kept his side on terms with 10 minutes remaining, parrying Stephen Foster's firm header from Campbell-Ryce's cross.

Both sets of fans had settled for a point as the game entered the 93rd minute, but O'Brien almost snatched all three points for the visitors, only to see his superb 30-yard shaot crash back off the post with Steele well beaten.