Birmingham City Secures First Away Win at Sheffield Wednesday

Birmingham City picked up their first Championship away win since October with victory at bottom side Sheffield Wednesday. Blues had failed to win any of their past eight league games on the road but late goals from summer signings Marvin Ducksch and Kyogo Furuhashi helped keep them in touch with the play-off places. Wednesday came close to opening the scoring when forward Bailey Cadamarteri struck the post. But the hosts ran out of steam as Blues turned up the heat in the closing stages and got their reward as Ducksch tapped in the first, before Kyogo followed up in added time for his first Championship goal. While Sheffield Wednesday remain with just a single victory all season, Birmingham still have ambitions of making the top six. However, they will have to start picking up more points away from St Andrew's having only won twice on the road all season before their trip to Hillsborough. Blues forward Jay Stansfield provided the only shot on target in the opening half, forcing a superb save from Wednesday keeper Murphy Cooper to deny his stinging strike. The Owls struggled to threaten Blues keeper James Beadle, with skipper Barry Bannan squandering their best opportunity with an off-target curling strike. Yan Valery then came to Wednesday's aid with a vital challenge as Lewis Koumas drove into the centre of the box. The second half started positively for the hosts and they almost took the lead when Cadamarteri's low effort towards the bottom corner struck the post. Cooper almost made a blunder as he stumbled backwards while collecting Tommy Doyle's shot, but the officials decided the ball had not crossed the line. Cooper recovered well, providing a smart double save to keep out Tomoki Iwata's venomous hit before blocking out Ducksch on the follow-up. However, Blues went into the ascendancy as the game edged towards its conclusion, seeing their sustained pressure count as Stansfield sliced a ball into Ducksch in front of goal to break the deadlock. Kyogo then scored a beauty to make the game safe in added time with a low, sharp strike that gave Cooper no chance.