Sheffield Wednesday 1 Brighton 0: Win came from training ground work, says Irvine

As strikers Clinton Morrison and Neil Mellor took the headlines, 24-year-old Coke quietly arrived on a free transfer from Motherwell after spells at Mansfield and Northampton.

But an impressive pre-season saw him secure a starting place in Alan Irvine's midfield and he has grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

He thought he had scored a debut goal against Dagenham & Redbridge, but it was credited as an own goal, before scoring the winner against Bury in the Carling Cup.

And he scored the solitary goal of this entertaining match against Brighton to put the Owls level on seven points with a pack of teams at the League One summit.

It came in the 38th minute, Coke playing a neat one-two with Marcus Tudgay before curling his shot beyond the despairing dive of former Leeds United goalkeeper Casper Ankergren.

With Coke and recalled Darren Potter bossing midfield, Wednesday always seemed in control despite a lead that momentarily looked precarious when Jamie Smith struck a post before clipping the top of the crossbar.

But the Owls kept a third successive clean sheet at Hillsborough this season, picking up four bookings along the way.

Irvine praised the Coke-Potter combination, but felt the Owls should have added to their solitary strike. He said: "I thought we looked quite comfortable throughout because of our hard work and we probably should have put the game to bed. We had plenty of good chances but didn't make the most of them.

"I chose to go with Darren Potter in the midfield because I thought the game would be more suited to his style of play, and together with Giles Coke I thought we controlled things. They were a very busy side and we did well making sure that they didn't over-run (us) in the midfield."

Sheffield Wednesday: Weaver, Buxton, Purse, Beevers, Spurr, Sedgwick (O'Connor 73), Potter, Coke (Palmer 88), Teale, Mellor (Heffernan 81), Tudgay. Unused substitutes: Jameson, Hinds, Jones, Otsemobor.

Brighton: Ankergren, Elphick, Bennett, Barnes, Calderon, Murray, Dicker, Painter, El-Abd, Smith (Battipiedi 71), Kishishev (Baz 78). Unused substitutes: Walker, Hart, Holroyd, Caskey, Cook.

Referee: A Woolmer (Northants).

Man of the match: Giles Coke.

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