FT: Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 Middlesbrough - Owls are safe

Dave Jones’s side could have been relegated but they scored those two goals in a dominant first 45 minutes and then controlled the second half to ensure their safety.

After an energetic start, Howard got the early goal Wednesday craved when he collected Miguel Llera’s through ball, turned and fired home off the underside of the cross bar.

Then on 31 minutes, Lita glanced home Lewis Buxton’s left-wing corner at the front post.

Howard then missed a golden chance to put the result beyond doubt but it has been a dominant first half for the Owls, for whom Jermaine Johnson - rated at 50-50 beforehand as he struggled with a hamstring injury - was terrific in the first half before being replaced at half-time.

Middlesbrough’s woeful second half to the season continued as their campaign petered out with a whimper.

Chris Kirkland was rarely tested with the closest Boro came being a penalty shout when Llera appeared to bundle over Rhys Williams.

Jones described guiding Sheffield Wednesday to npower Championship safety as a bigger achievement than promotion from League One last yearJones said: “This is a far bigger achievement than last year. Nobody will ever sway me on that because this has been a tough year for this football club.

“I think we’ve moved up about four places so when you look at the table it looks like an easy one.

“But it’s been a tough one and I am delighted with everybody associated with the club.

“And that includes the supporters as well because that has been absolutely next to none.

“Everything was in jeopardy: if the club gets relegated it affects everybody, not just the players - the supporters, the whole staff. So I made sure the players knew about that today: their responsibility is to keep this club in this division.”

Despite their precarious position entering the match, Jones insisted he had had no fears - and revealed he had used Peterborough’s celebrations following their victory against Wednesday last week as a means of galvanising his side.

Ultimately, it worked as the Owls stayed up and the Posh went down.

“After the game against Peterborough people were talking to me as if we were down, “ he said.

“At no time have I never felt we were in danger of that it would have taken four or five results to conspire against us and then your luck’s out anyway.

“You take away all that fear by going to win the game and we set up to do that.

“Even when we went through that barren spell and couldn’t get a win but we weren’t playing badly - it was just about when it would turn.

“Today was about putting the icing on the cake and the players delivered that.

“Last week they were poor and it was Peterborough’s day but afterwards they celebrated as if they were safe. That is a dangerous game in this league so I used that, it’s a nice feeling.”

Boro finished the season with just three wins in 2013 and manager Tony Mowbray said: “They played how we expected them to play - they didn’t have to work too hard for the first goal, it was self-inflicted.

“The second one, another set-play we conceded.”

Of the season, while bemoaning an extensive injury list, he added: “Disappointing for us: we could have gone top new year’s day if we’d beaten Derby.

“So for 27 games we were as good as anybody in this league, for the rest we have struggled, we’ve won three of them so it should be no surprise to us we didn’t get a victory today, we have to get stronger I think.

“Ultimately the squad has to be stronger and deeper and try and sustain it.

“And hopefully you keep your best 11, 12, 13 players fit for most of the season but we’ve fallen away, we can’t hide that fact, it is what it is.”