Sheffield Wednesday 1 Wigan Athetic 0: Barry Bannan penalty makes it four successive wins for Owls

Sheffield Wednesday’s win over Wigan Athletic was neither barnstorming nor emphatic - but it was another victory.

Not since February 2017 have the Owls won four matches on the trot and that season ended in the play-offs, albeit one division higher than they are now. The sequence started with a 1-0 win over Wigan Athletic.

That was the scoreline again at Hillsborough last night, a result that snuggled Darren Moore’s side a point behind fifth-placed Oxford United. They remain outside the play-off positions but only just. Even beating a team like Wigan who came into the match with the games in hand to go top of the table is not a result to make people sit up and take notice - not in League One where the surprises are so frequent they barely make you flinch these days. But if Moore’s time are finally starting to find a bit of consistency, that is a different matter.

The goal itself came from a Barry Bannan penalty - some argued a soft one - but it was deserved on the balance of play. There were times when you wished the hosts would just move through the gears a bit but it is hard to question the methods when the full-time whistle blows with three more precious points in the bag.

Not that things get any easier. On Sunday they host the Rotherham United side who actually are top, and who beat them home and away last season. They will probably need to play a touch better to beat Paul Warne’s side but crucially they will go into that game believing they can.

For a lot of the night the Owls were the better team but seemed content to wait for something to happen, rather than force it. It took until Massimo Luongo went down in the penalty area after 52 minutes to open the scoring. Rather than bursting the dam, it just allowed Wednesday to keep playing the same way.

Their best chance until then was actually unintentional, Marvin Johnson combining well with Bannan and forcing a save Ben Amos pushed onto Florian Kamberi. The ball bounced just wide.

Liam Palmer had a good shot in the eighth minute which took the crowd by surprise but not former Hull City goalkeeper Amos, who held it. He could not say the same about Johnson’s cross a couple of minutes later, but nobody got on the end of the spill.

Plenty in the crowd thought Jordan Storey had headed in from a 12th-minute corner but the ball went just wide. Jack Hunt failed to get enough on Johnson’s deep cross and the save was easy. Bannan hit a free-kick into the wall.

Every now and then Wigan did something to remind their hosts they posed a threat too.

Tom Naylor should have done better after arriving late onto a knockdown from Josh Magennis - a player of more recent Hull vintage - but volleyed wide. When Naylor returned the favour, Magennis did well getting to the cross but directing it goalwards as well was asking a bit too much.

Tenday Darikwa hit the post after Wigan broke too easily down Wednesday’s left but Magennis was offside when he put the rebound in.

Wednesday were especially strong down their left at the start of the second half and Bannan took the ball from Johnson and threaded a lovely pass to Luongo, whose momentum perhaps made Jack Whatmough’s foul look more dramatic than it was. Tim Robinson pointed to the spot.

Amos dived the right way, but Bannan put the ball over him.

Eight minutes later came another good move down the left. Johnson’s pull-back picked out Kamberi, but he was not having one of his best nights.

Wigan were pretty anonymous after the break but there was no barrage of chances at their end either. Callum Paterson floated a 78th-minute shot wide and Amos made a good tip-over from Bannan but Wednesday went about their business with quiet efficiency.

On the League One roller-coaster, that is nothing to complain about.

Sheffield Wednesday: Peacock-Farrell; Storey, Hutchinson, Palmer; Hunt, Luongo, Byers, Bannan (Brennan 90), Johnson; Paterson, Kamberi (Mendez-Laing 76). Unused substitutes: Wildsmith, Brown, Waldock, Berahino, Sow.

Wigan Athletic: Amos; Power, Whatmough, Tilt, Darikwa (Massey 77); Lang, McGrath (Humphrys 69), Naylor, Shinnie (Kerr 69), McClean; Magennis. Unused substitutes: Jones, Watts, Bayliss, Rea,

Referee: T Robinson (West Sussex).