Sheffield Wednesday 1 Blackpool 1: Owls showcase flair and fight for Dave Challinor to work with

Sil Swinkels' debatable first-half red card turned Sunday at home to Blackpool into one of them and, cheered on by a crowd of 30,674, they dug in for victory, only to have to settle for a 1-1 draw.

Spirit was not to blame, but 41 minutes playing a man down and the ex-factor of Jerry Yates, the South Yorkshire-born striker who spent the second half of last season on loan at Hillsborough, did for them.

Even after his frustratingly simple 81st-minute goal, the 10 men refused to settle for just a paint, but in the end it was all they could take.

Normally new managers inherit teams low on moral, quality or both, but Challinor, appointed hours before kick-off, cannot grumble on either front.

Having taken a while to find their feet, when they did an injury-hit Owls played some good flowing football as he watched on from the director's box.

Caretaker manager Matt Hamshaw liked a 3-4-1-2 at Rotherham United, and for the forwards Challinor will inherit, getting three of them central makes some sense.

Davis Keillor-Dunn, Callum Slattery and Mason Burstow combined well.

Slattery played a lovely ball in behind in the 14th minute, but the man who got on the end was wearing tangerine orange.

A minute later, a good flowing mov got the ball out to Max Low, but he made a mess of his stabbed shot.

Burstow shot from distance without troubling Bailey Peacock-Farrell on his return to Hillsborough.

The Northern Irishman gave the ball away to left wing-back Lowe in the 21st minute but Keillor-Dunn, twice, and Slattery had shots blocked.

When the corner came in the Kop started celebrating a goal for Burstow, who had earlier had dinked a ball from Swinkels wide under pressure, but he missed the target again, this time under far less duress.

For all the good football the Owls were playing, the game came from a gift to Keillor-Dunn the day before his 29th birthday.

Leighton Clarkson was trying to find right-back Andy Lyon but instead picked the forward out. Keillor-Dunn drove forward and found the bottom corner.

Lyon had missed a free header at a corner and Ernie Waver made an excellent tackle after Dion Taylor turned Swinkels too easily, but at 1-0 up it was hard to see past a home win.

That was until Swinkels was sent off 40 minutes into his first start since August.

The centre-back was penalised as the last man when he fouled Tom Bloxham, who appeared to be going away from goal.

Suddenly, Keillor-Dunn and Slattery had to play wide in a 4-4-1.

Blackpool struggled to make inroads in the first half of the second half, although Hayden Coulson missed the target with a gilt-edged opportunity, and Burstow needed to throw himself in the line of fire for a mighty block.

The hosts, inevitably, had to rely on sporadic moments but Keillor-Dunn almost caught Peacock-Farrell AWOL, shooting wide from inside his own half, and forced the former Leeds United goalkeeper into an excellent stretching tip-over.

So Ian Evatt played all his remaining cards in the 67th minute, throwing on his last four substitutes at once and going to a 3-1-2-4 shape with former Owl Yates and ex-Huddersfield Town striker Dion Charles at the head.

Josh Bowler forced a good save from Ashley Maynard-Brewer in the 76th and although Yan Valery responded by bringing Peacock-Farrell into the game as Burstow lay injured, it made sense for Hamshaw to try to lock the door more securely.

But within seconds of bringing Keillor-Dunn off so Ricardo Santos could restore the back three, Blackpool equalised.

Inevitably it was Hamshaw's good friend Yates, shrugging off Weaver to the very obvious disappointment of the youngster, to apply a first-time finish to a long ball.

The Owls refused to accept their fate, Burstow showing Keillor-Dunn how to do it with an effort from the halfway line that Peacock-Farrell only just scrambled around his post, then bringing on Harry Gray and Kieran Morrison, with defender Lowe one of them making way.

But Blackpool wanted three points too, defender Olly Casey striking the crossbar with a long-range effort, but Hamshaw's stint as caretaker manager ended with consecutive draws – something for the new man to build on.

Sheffield Wednesday: Maynard-Brewer; Palmer, Weaver, Swinkels; Valery, Heskey, Bannan, M Lowe (Gray 89); Slattery; Burstow (Morrison 89), Keillor-Dunn (Santos 81).

Unused substitutes: Fusire, Otegbayo, Liongola, Trueman.

Blackpool: Peacock-Farrell; Lyons (Bowler HT), Casey, Ashworth (Niskanen 67), Coulson (Yates 67); Clarkson (Munroe 67), Morgan; Williams, Taylor, Anderson; Bloxham (Charles 67). Unused substitutes: Brown, Southwood.

Referee: S Mather (Atherton).