Kenwyne Jones' double-strike consigned Wednesday to their sixth game without a win as Southampton stretched their unbeaten home run to ten matches. The former Owls loan man struck early in either half to take his personal tally to five goals in four games against the club since his spell in Sheffield ended. Steven MacLean had briefly levelled matters before Jones headed the winning goal.
The Hillsborough meeting between these two sides just before Christmas had been an entertaining 3-3 draw, if a little too open for the respective managers, and this match started in exactly the same vein. Both sides had seen 'goals' ruled out - MacLean for a marginal offside and Rudi Skacel for a more obvious handball - even before the Saints took their seventh minute lead.
Inevitably it was Jones who scored against the club for whom he netted seven in seven appearances. Lee Bullen looked to be in control of the situation when the Trinidad & Tobago international tried to latch onto Grzegorz Rasiak's pass but the Scot slipped under pressure from Jones, who calmly slotted a low shot under Mark Crossley.
For a time it looked as though the Owls could be under siege but, although the hosts remained firmly in control, Glenn Whelan managed to grab a foothold in midfield and 17-year-old Mark Beevers was producing an assured display at centre-half. The academy youngster was one of three additions to the team that lost to Sunderland, with Frank Simek and Tommy Spurr returning from suspension in place of the injured Graham Coughlan and Burton O'Brien, and Kenny Lunt dropped to the bench. The greater defensive numbers told for the Owls and, despite Southampton's possession, the visitors made it through to half-time with few further alarms.
Wednesday immediately looked more lively going forward upon the resumption and they tested Kelvin Davis for the first time when the keeper saved Bullen's header on the line. But they could twice have fallen further behind when Rasiak shot over an open goal under pressure from Spurr, and was then foiled by Crossley from a narrow angle.
Instead the goal came at the other end, and in slightly controversial circumstances. Marcus Tudgay was sent clean through but took a heavy touch, allowing Davis to parry at his feet. However, as the keeper lay motionless from Tudgay's challenge, the ball fell to MacLean on the edge of the box, and he threaded his shot between the recovering defenders and into the net for his eighth goal of the season.
The Saints response was swift, and again it came from Jones. This time he rose unmarked at the far post to head Chris Baird's cross firmly into the net to abruptly end the Owls' best passage of the match.
Brian Laws sent on Leon Clarke and Deon Burton in an attempt to pursue a second equaliser but it was the hosts who came closest to a fourth goal. Crossley produced fine saves to deny Bradley Wright-Phillips and Skacel but this time there was to be no corner from which the keeper could produce any injury-time heroics as Wednesday continued to search for their first win in 2007.
Southampton (4-4-2): Davis; Baird, Lundekvam, Powell (Idiakez 57), Bale; Wright, Viafara, Pele, Skacel (McGoldrick 90+1); Jones (Wright-Phillips 73), Rasiak. Subs: Bialkowski, Ostlund.
Wednesday (4-4-2): Crossley; Simek, Bullen, Beevers, Spurr; Small (Clarke 70), Folly, Whelan, Brunt; Tudgay, MacLean (Burton 76). Subs: Adamson, Lunt, Graham.
Referee: Mike Russell
Booked: Tudgay (foul) 84 mins
