What the mild-mannered Wednesday boss must feel like cursing is the penalty decision that cost his team dear.

The Owls should have received some further reward on the day that Irvine got his for four wins in his first five games.

For, all things considered, this was one of the team's best performances in weeks, even if the result was not right.

Against one of the division's top teams, who had won six in a row at home and lost only one in 20 all in, the Owls fought back from that unjust penalty blow to show all the qualities of their recent run, and more.

They were were sharper and more cohesive in their passing and far less scrappy than against Plymouth the previous week, just as defensively sound as usual, and, on the whole, the better side, one who had Forest
hanging on in the second half.

It is a huge compliment to Wednesday that the Championship's third-placed team were unable to create one clear-cut chance against them in open play.

The first goal was a penalty that should never have been given by ref Trevor Kettle, and the second was from a free-kick.

The downside for the Owls was that they allowed somebody a free header from a set-piece for the second week in succession, and it help to uphold the tradition of the Manager of the Month losing his next game.

Plymouth's Rory Fallon scored at Hillsborough from a corner; Dexter Blackstock jabbed home Forest's winner against the run of play, after his header from the free-kick - conceded by Tommy Spurr - had been well saved by Lee Grant.

Until that moment, there was a very realistic prospect of the Owls, lifted by Luke Varney's equaliser, pulling off a victory that would have been magnificent, in view of the fact that a team of Forest's calibre were handed a goal start.

When referees given penalties for handball after the ball has been blasted towards a defender and it happens to hit him, on the arm or somewhere else, I find it one of the most irritating aspects of the game.

Usually the defender has not intented to handle, and there should be an element of intent before a penalty can be given.

Not only, I'm sure, did Purse not intend to handle Blackstock's shot, but also the ball did not even hit him on the arm. He was twisting away from the ball, if anything trying to get his arms out of the way, and it struck him on the back of the shoulder.

Even Forest boss Billy Davies had to admit: "The penalty, it was a soft one and if I was their manager I would have been very disappointed by it."

Irvine is not one to rant and rave. He just talked calmly about the incident. That same levelled-headedness extended to the Owls manager's reaction to a question about an apparent improvement in the team's attacking play, since the Plymouth game.

Was it, I wondered, a reflection of some work done in training on this matter now he had had more time to work with the players?

He replied: "We won a game (against Plymouth) when we didn't play well at all. I wouldn't say we've got it cracked in the space of a week. I don't think that happens.

"I think it will take a lot more time than that to get where we want to go. But we have some good players at the club.

"So I would expect us to play at a certain level, at a good level."

To give Forest their due, they too defended very soundly, expecially in the second half when Wednesday pressure was at its height, and crosses and long throws were landing in the box.

The Owls had few chances in the game but there was some crisp, on-the-deck passing in some of their moves.

Darren Potter was a major figure in midfield, ditto Purse at the back, and there were further signs of a blossoming understanding between Varney and Marcus Tudgay.

It was Tudgay who, after sub Etienne Esajas drove the ball into the box, laid off a subtle pass for Varney to slam in his third goal in two games.

In only the second minute Tudgay teed up a chance that his strike partner struck at the keeper, and the same combination created an another opening for Varney which foundered on a great tackle by Wes Morgan.

Similar defending by midfield man Paul McKenna put the block on a Tudgay shot after Varney this time had been the architect, near the end of a first half in which Forest's only threat was a Rob Earnshaw free-kick, saved competently by Grant. Forest had another escape early in the second half when a deflected Potter free-kick hit the bar.

Irvine shares the credit for his Manager of the Month award with his staff and players, and he complimented the team again for their efforts.

"When you put it into context, it was a really good performance," he said. "I think Forest have a terrific chance of getting automatic promotion.

"Some of their performances have been as good as anything I have seen from anybody this season."

"We need to take that into consideration. Our lads did extremely well to put them on the back foot as much as we did.

"We can't go into games thinking we performed well against Forest so we'll perform well again. We have to apply ourselves in the right way.

"If we do perform like that in many of the games to come then we'll win more than we lose, because we won't be playing against a team as good as Forest."




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