Jeff Hendrick snatches Sheffield Wednesday unlikeliest of points against Championship leaders Leicester City

And so it proved for Sheffield Wednesday against Leicester City on Wednesday, two teams separated by 36 points in the league table after just 17 games and up until the 93rd minute by one piece of clinical finishing on an icy night at Hillsborough.

Abdul Fatawu had appeared to be the difference-maker for the league leaders, a 19-year-old Ghanaian who Leicester will have to pay Sporting Lisbon £17m to keep at the end of the season finding himself in acres of space at the back post to control a cross and pick his spot inside Cameron Dawson’s inside post.

But Wednesday, who have endured a wretched season since winning promotion on an epic day at Wembley at the end of May, at last summoned a bit of fight from within and a stole a draw at the death, Jeff Hendrick volleying in after Callum Paterson had nodded on John Buckley’s high ball into the area.

Not the prettiest goal and the Owls still have an awful lot of ground to make up if they are to survive relegation, but in a season of torture this was at least a ray of sunshine on a freezing cold night.

It is only the fourth point of German Danny Rohl’s seven-match reign but on such moments can seasons turn. He will certainly be hoping so.

As for Leicester, Yorkshire sides have been their nemesis this season. They have dropped points in just four of their 18 games, losing to Hull, Leeds and Middlesbrough and now dropping two points at Sheffield Wednesday, the least likely of any team to thwart them given all that had gone before.

There didn’t look 23 places between two clubs who were two divisions apart six months ago.

There were flashes of ingenuity from Wednesday but all too brief, like Famewo’s control on the edge of the area in a second half kicking towards a half-empty Kop, but too often it resulted in nothing.

The Owls kept Jamie Vardy quiet – how he would have loved a goal against the team he supported as a boy – but this is a much-changed Leicester team to the one winning the FA Cup just two years ago.

Before Fatawu’s 23rd-minute opener, Wednesday had two glorious opportunities in the opening four minutes created chiefly through errors by Leicester players guilty of over-confidence when playing out from the back.

First Barry Bannan was presented with a clear path to goal but steered his left-foot shot wide of the post when his right foot would surely have curled the ball beyond goalkeeper Mads Hermansen and into the bottom corner.

Then when Hermansen went walkabout, the ball fell to Callum Paterson on the edge of the area but he couldn't guide the ball past the covering defender.

Wednesday toiled in the second half and never looked like scoring, Leicester comfortably keeping an attack that began with young Bailey Cadamarteri and finished with Paterson leading the line at arm’s length.

Until that hopeful punt, that prod from the hard-working Paterson and that cool head from Hendrick.

There was still time for Dawson to save Jannik Vestergaard’s header with his feet, the big Leicester defender livid, the Wednesday goalkeeper mobbed as the referee blew his whistle.

Cheers from the home fans at Hillsborough. All too rare this season.

Wednesday have a heartbeat again.