Sheffield Wednesday 1-3 Derby County: Tom Lawrence scores twice in Rams win
- Published
Jason Knight's strike put Derby 3-0 up at Sheffield Wednesday inside 30 minutes as the Rams secured back-to-back away league wins at Hillsborough for the first time since 2009
Derby made light of their poor away form to beat Sheffield Wednesday and pile the pressure back on Owls boss Garry Monk.
The Rams arrived at Hillsborough having lost nine of their previous 12 Championship away games but were 3-0 up inside 30 minutes.
Tom Lawrence fired Derby in front from the edge of the box with the help of a deflection and doubled the lead with a first-time curling finish into the bottom corner from Chris Martin's pass.
Martin was the provider once again as Jason Knight drilled the ball in off the post from a tight angle for Derby's third, prompting some home fans to walk out.
Wednesday brought on striker Connor Wickham in place of Kadeem Harris before half-time and then used their other substitutes at the break to introduce Dominic Iorfa and Josh Windass.
The Owls improved after the break and pulled one back when Windass diverted Josh Murphy's cross past Rams keeper Ben Hamer.
But they were left to rue not taking earlier chances to get back into the game as Murphy twice fired wide when well placed while Kieran Lee forced a good save from Hamer.
Instead Wednesday, who next face Manchester City in the FA Cup next week, slipped further out of the play-off picture as they suffered an eighth defeat in 13 league games since beating Bristol City to sit third in the table at Christmas.
Victory for Derby ended a run of four games without a win and sees them climb to 13th in the table, one place below the Owls who have a superior goal difference.
Sheffield Wednesday manager Garry Monk told BBC Radio Sheffield:
"Consistency before this period was very good and then we've hit a period where it's one extreme to another.
"There was a very lucky deflection for their first goal but to compound that with some really poor mistakes individually and give away the next two goals is a mountain to climb.
"We were much better in the second-half but it was too little too late."
Derby manager Philip Cocu told BBC Radio Derby:
"We started very well and took control of the game to put early pressure on their centre backs.
"We forced them to make mistakes and they did and we punished the mistakes they made.
"That gave us the confidence to continue playing, being dominate from the back and taking control of the game."