Burton keeps Sheffield Wednesday's hopes alive

West Brom 0 Sheffield Wednesday 1

Deon Burton kept Sheffield Wednesday's faint Coca-Cola Championship play-off hopes alive with a second-half winner against Tony Mowbray's nine-man West Brom.

Burton extended the Owls unbeaten run to 10 matches with a 60th minute strike - his 12th of the season - and they are now just three points outside of the top six.

It ended Albion's slim chances of breaking into the automatic promotion spots and, to add to their misery, Neil Clement and Darren Carter were sent off in injury-time.

Clement was given a straight red card after headbutting Leon Clarke and Carter quickly followed after receiving his second booking of the game.

A run of five home matches without a win has severely damaged West Brom's hopes of booking a quickfire return to the Barclays Premiership.

They had the better of the first 45 minutes, with Diomansy Kamara looking sharper than in recent games and Darren Carter impressing in the centre of the park.

But Wednesday weathered the storm and were the better side in the second half, with Chris Brunt and Burton always posing a threat.

West Brom quickly settled and Kamara burst clear on the left but he hesitated over his shot and Richard Wood was able to get back and block his shot.

Carter was not afraid to shoot for Tony Mowbray's side and Iain Turner twice had to be watchful in dealing with drives from the former Birmingham player.

Kamara found himself in space when he controlled a ball over the top from Robert Koren and he should have at least tested Turner but drilled his shot into the side-netting.

It was 25 minutes before Wednesday had their first shot on goal and Dean Kiely got his body firmly behind Burton's first-time attempt after he accepted a pass from Chris Brunt.

Brian Laws' side enjoyed their best spell of the half with Wood having a header blocked and Steve MacLean shooting into the side-netting after he had intercepted Sodje's intended pass for Kiely.

But it needed a good near-post block by Owls skipper Lee Bullen to deflect Nathan Ellington's close-range shot for a corner following a Martin Albrechtsen cross.

Ellington then was only just off target with a volley while leaning back from Jonathan Greening's inswinging corner.

Albion began the second half on the offensive and Koren had a fizzing drive deflected for a corner.

Carter was left with a free run at the Wednesday goal after a flick from Kamara but his control let him down and Turner was able to collect.

But, after an hour, Albion were stunned when Burton broke the deadlock.

Chris Brunt was the creator with a low ball across the six-yard box from the left and Burton squeezed the ball over the line despite the efforts of Kiely to keep it out and his protests to the referee's assistant.

Mowbray's response was to immediately replace Greening with Jason Koumas and then Sodje limped out of the action with Clement taking over at centre-back.

But Albion now looked disjointed and Kiely had to react sharply to parry a deflected Brunt free-kick around the post.

Kamara twice headed just wide and a late Koren effort was deflected past the post but Wednesday were relatively untroubled.

Then came the double sending-off to compound Albion's frustration.