Our fate still rests in our own hands insists Owls boss Irvine

Lee Williamson's second-half equaliser stopped the Owls from securing all three points and means they are still one point adrift of safety in the drop zone with only two games to go.

Manager Alan Irvine remained defiant last night stressing that his club's future still rests in their own hands.

However, should the Owls fail to beat play-off qualifiers Cardiff City next weekend, and if other results go badly, they could be condemned to life in League One with a game to play.

"It is still, to a large extent, in our own hands," said Irvine. "If we can match or better Crystal Palace's result next week, then it goes to the last game (which is against Palace at Hillsborough).

"Unfortunately, that was one of the things I predicted when I first got the job. If we go about things in the right way, be that little bit more clinical up front, and if we can just stop getting some awful goals against us in terms of luck we have got a chance."

A goal from Darren Potter appeared to put the Owls on course for victory but Williamson levelled with a freekick on the hour that embarrassed goalkeeper Lee Grant.

"I guess it probably was a fair result," said Irvine. "But I am very frustrated because we had got ourselves ahead and the goal we conceded was a bit of ill fortune.

"It was a game we could have won and, once we got ahead, I felt quite confident that we would go on and win .

"We started the second half giving away needless free-kicks and one of them lead to the goal which I felt was probably the only way they were going to score.

"I didn't feel they were going to score against us in open play."

Defending his tactics in the final stages, when midfielder Tom Soares was introduced rather than striker Francis Jeffers, Irvine said: "I don't think I could have been anymore attacking. It was 4-2-4 so I did go for it.

"I was desperate to win the game and I felt we could do it with that team – and we nearly did."

The Blades are now resigned to another season in the Championship after other results at the weekend made play-off qualification mathematically impossible.

Now 10th in the table, that position at the end of the season would represent the club's lowest league finish for eight years.

Manager Kevin Blackwell, who was angry over a challenge by Jermaine Johnson that left striker Richard Cresswell needing stitches to a head wound, praised his side's performance, saying: "People had questioned whether my players would show enough desire because so many of them are on loan or leaving at the end of the season but they all showed the desire and passion we wanted.

"I think we should have won. We shaded the whole game.

"People might consider the goal fortunate but it's a set play we work on and if the ball goes past everyone, it goes in."

Although the Blades failed to gain revenge for last season – when the Owls recorded a league double in the Sheffield derby for the first time in 95 years – Blackwell said: "To take four points of six against Wednesday is pleasing. If we had done that last season, we would have been promoted to the Premier League.

"Whatever goes by now for Sheffield Wednesday, all the best," he added.

"You just want to do the best for your own club. You want to be able to walk around this city and buy a bag of chips without being slated or someone putting something in it.

"It was a terrific atmosphere and this is a derby that should be played in the Premier League. I was speaking to a cameraman who went to the Manchester derby on Saturday and he said this had far more passion and the noise was louder."

The Blades' remaining two fixtures are against promotion-chasing Swansea City next weekend and Ipswich Town, away, on the final day of the season.

But while the Blades are left playing only for pride, there is plenty at stake for the Owls in fixtures over the next six days.

If Newcastle clinch the title tonight against Plymouth Argyle, it will mean second-placed West Bromwich Albion can afford to relax next weekend against Palace.

Mathematically, two clubs from six – Plymouth, Wednesday, Palace, Watford, Scunthorpe United and Queens Park Rangers – can still go down with already-relegated Peterborough United

Watford visit QPR tomorrow night and Scunthorpe host Reading.