Sheffield Wednesday 4 Burton Albion 2: Six goals, two shots against the bar and still much-needed Owls win feels a bit flat

After 39 shots in their last two matches produced only back-to-back 1-1s, it was probably a step in the right direction, even if it did not do as much as it should have to raise the spirits.

Like a disappointing fireworks display, for an hour at least Sheffield Wednesday produced the odd flash but there was a lot of waiting around for something to happen. For such a convincing victory – they hit the bar twice – it was a strangely flat one.

And then when the game was done, Wednesday were lax enough to inject a bit of jeopardy into its final stages. At last some excitement, and precisely the type the home fans did not want.

In the end, though, it was certainly mission accomplished, especially with Ipswich Town drawing a crazy game at Charlton Athletic 4-4. The Owls are now just three points behind Kieran McKenna’s men.

For 20 minutes at Hillsborough, the game was as grey as the weather.

Sheffield Wednesday's football was pedestrian and plodding, but enough to keep Burton Albion at arm's length. In fact, the Brewer's all-yellow kit was the only think that brought some brightness to the afternoon.

Two goals in four minutes threatened to kick-start things but did not. It would not be until Mallik Wilks added a brilliant third in the second half that it became one-day traffic.

Darren Moore's latest odd line-up – with a surprise start for Wilks, an even more surprise benching for Lee Gregory, Callum Paterson on the left wing and Marvin Johnson behind him at full-back – had certainly not been terrible, but nor had they been that great.

It was the sort of team that meant Moore had to win. He did.

At least the formation gave Burton something to think about, quickly changing from three to four at the back, at which point Paterson and Wilks went from hugging the touchline to getting close to centre-forward Michael Smith.

It took 21 minutes for the Owls to have a shot, although Johnson ballooned his volley. Burton had already registered one, although Tyler Onyango's stretching effort lacked power and placement.

The Owls obviously got a taste for it, though, holding midfeilder Tryeeq Bakinson letting fly a minute later. Barry Bannan latched onto the rebound and, leaning back a touch, put his shot in off the crossbar.

Within minutes Smith was standing over a penalty, after a Burton handball. Ben Garratt guessed the right way but the strike had too much power in it.

With 26 minutes gone, it looked as though that might be the shot which opened the floodgates, but it was not the case.

Nothing much happened at the start of the second half but when it finally did, it was well worth the wait, Wilks curling a lovely shot inside the far post after

Bannan laid the ball off. It was he former Hull City forward's first league goal for his new club, but his second goal against Burton this season, having netted in the Football League Trophy.

Then for a while we had a bit of a coconut shy, Smith's goalbound header somehow scrambled behind, defenders converging to clear Paterson's steered shot, then his header from a Fisayo Dele-Bashiru cross clipping the crossbar.

Eventually Dele-Bashiru did get the fourth, from a Wilks lay-off, and with only 15 minutes left, we all should have been able to go home, the job well and truly done.

Instead, two minutes later former Owls forward Sam Winnall muddied the clean sheet with a diving header, his third goal against his old club this year, and when a pull on Paterson's shirt presented Gregory with a penalty - he had come on for Smith - he smacked it against the crossbar.

So when Winall shot wide shortly after Tom Hamer outjumped the defence to make it 4-2, things go unnecessarily twitchy. Jack Hunt came on for Wilks to try to lock the door, and despite one late scramble cut short by an offside flag, they did.

It was a strange game to get one's head around, but perhaps this was a day to just look at the result and not much else.

Sheffield Wednesday: Stockdale; Palmer, Iorfa, McGuinness, Johnson; Bakinson; Dele-Bashiru (Vaulks 87), Bannan (Byers 68); Wilks (Hunt 87), Smith (Gregory 69), Paterson.Unused substitutes: Dawson, Mighten, Windass.

Burton Albion: Garratt; Hughes, Mariappa, Butcher (Winnall 58); Hamer, Powell (Keillor-Dunn 59),Oshilaja, Taylor, Smith; Adeboyejo (Kamwa 81), Onyango.Unused substitutes: Lakin, Carayol, Sinisalo.

Referee: D Rock (Hertfordshire).