Sheffield Wednesday rose above Crystal Palace too 11th in the Championship with a 2-1 win at Selhurst Park.

Wednesday completed a double over the Eagles this season with a fine second half display following a lacklustre opening period, extending their unbeaten streak to eight matches.

Goals from Deon Burton and Marcus Tudgay sandwiched a leveller from Clinton Morrison and extended the Owls' unbeaten run to eight games.

With Frank Simek starting a three-match suspension for his red card against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Lee Bullen switched to right back with Steve Watson moving to central defence and Kenny Lunt returning to the starting line-up in midfield.

John Hills' progress following a calf injury also allowed Brian Laws to award the left back a place on the substitutes bench.

The game started in a strangely quiet manner with little atmosphere generated from the Selhurst Park crowd and little action of note in the first ten minutes on the pitch.

Burton worked his way into the box in the third minute but his left foot shot from 15 yards was easily held by Gabor Kiraly, in the Palace goal.

The home side's first chance came in the tenth minute when Jobi McAnuff crossed from the left only for James Scowcroft to head wide at the far post.

At the other end MacLean managed to get behind the Palace defence but Hungarian keeper, Kiraly, managed to save with his feet as the Scot tried to find the bottom corner of the goal.

Striker, Clinton Morrison, nearly sparked the Eagles into life with a couple of chances midway through the first period, firstly Watson made a fine block with Turner getting down to make a good save moments later.

In between those two opportunities Burton had a penalty appeal waved away by the referee after he went down under a challenge from Matt Lawrence on the edge of the box.

Iain Turner was returning to the club where he had played earlier in the season and continued to impress after his spell with the Scotland squad, making a fine save with his legs from Tom Soares in the 28th minute after Wednesday had struggled to clear from a free kick.

But clear-cut goal scoring opportunities were hard to come by for either side and a snap shot from MacLean, straight at Kiraly, was as close as anyone came to opening the scoring before the break.

Both managers would have wanted more from their players after the interval but it was a subdued restart until the Owls took the lead.

Brunt crossed from the left on 56 minutes and Burton flung himself at the ball to head home his tenth goal of the season. Kiraly managed to get a hand to the ball but he could not take the power out of it and agonisingly watched it bounce over the line.

Peter Taylor threw on Shefki Kuqi to boost the Eagles fire power but the home side started to leave gaps at the back. Tudgay raced in and forced Kiraly into one save before a flick on from Whelan saw the former Derby County forward skilfully turn his defender forcing Kiraly into action again.

Despite a reshuffle at the back Wednesday were looking strong in defence once more while also appearing more likely to score the next goal with some decent counter-attacking play on show.

Gilbert felt hard done by when Paul Ifil went down under his challenge, resulting in a free kick just outside the right-hand edge of the penalty area. Fellow substitute, Mark Kennedy, curled it in quickly with his left foot and Morrison rose to head home inside the six-yard box.

The Owls bounced back quickly though and if there was a bit of bad luck about giving away the free kick from which Palace scored, the visitors soon got it back.

Kenny Lunt's deep cross from the right was challenged for in the goalmouth by Steve MacLean. But with Kiraly back-pedalling the ball was headed into Tudgay's path by centre half Leon Cort. The Wednesday man volleyed home with a virtually empty goal to aim at.

The Eagles looked unlikely to reply for a second time and Brian Laws men held on for a deserved win.

Sheffield Wednesday (4-4-2): Turner; Bullen, Watson, Wood, Gilbert; Tudgay, Whelan, Lunt, Brunt (Folly 85); MacLean, Burton (Spurr 85).

Subs not used: Adamson, Hills, Lekaj.

Crystal Palace (4-4-2): Kiraly; Lawrence, Hudson, Cort, Borrowdale; Soares, Watson (Ifil 53), Fletcher, McAnuff (Kuqi 59); Morrison, Scowcroft (Kennedy 71).

Subs not used: Speroni, Butterfield.

Attendance: 21,523
Owls fans: 1,596

Referee: A Hall