Sheffield Wednesday close to blowing automatic promotion after miserable 3-2 defeat at Burton Albion

Plymouth beat Exeter in the lunchtime kick-off while Barnsley thrashed Forest Green Rovers and Ipswich hammered Charlton to leave the Owls third, a point behind the top two but having played a game more.

Returning versatile Owls Callum Paterson cancelled out John Brayford’s opener for the Brewers before January signing Mark Helm took a starring role with a brace, his first professional goals, before half-time as Burton took control.

Owls boss Darren Moore was left with more questions than answers after defeat saw his side slip out of the top two.

He said: “When I look back it is two first time contact goals. Was it a lapse of concentration or misjudgment of the ball? To concede from a corner and a set-piece like that just wasn’t us.”

Substitute Michael Smith netted a late penalty to give Wednesday hope, but Moore felt it came too late.

“We got a couple of goals down and then got back in the game,” Moore added.

“We tried to get back in the game but the penalty came a little too late for us to get any sustained momentum.

“I said to the players that if you don’t perform, you can’t expect to win. We didn’t perform so how can we expect to win? I don’t care what the stats say we didn’t do our work clean enough today.

“We knew Burton would try and make it into a frenzied game but we didn’t deal with it well enough.”