Sheffield Wednesday 1-1 Leicester City: Pierce Charles stands tall as Owls are denied late on

Wednesday were within touching distance of a first home win of the season before Jordan Ayew’s late strike dragged Leicester level, but a superb display from Pierce Charles ensured we still had a point to show for our efforts.

We came agonisingly close to finally getting that first home win on the board, only for Leicester City to snatch it away in the closing stages at Hillsborough.

For a long time, it looked like Jerry Yates’ early goal would be enough. In the end, Jordan Ayew’s excellent late finish denied us all three points, but even that only told part of the story. This was a night when Pierce Charles reminded everybody exactly why he is becoming such an important figure for us.

We could hardly have asked for a better start. Just two minutes were on the clock when Svante Ingelsson whipped in a corner that Leicester never really dealt with. Gabriel Otegbayo helped it on in the box, and Yates reacted quickest to stab home from close range.

It was not a goal carved open with flowing football or intricate passing, but no Owls fan would have cared one bit. It was scrappy, decisive and exactly what we needed.

Hillsborough responded straight away. There was noise, energy and, for a while at least, genuine belief that this might finally be the night.

Leicester, though, began to settle after that shock start and started to dominate possession. Given the pressure on them and the quality still in their squad, that was no great surprise. What followed was a long evening of resistance from us and a brilliant individual display from Charles.

The Foxes should probably have equalised when they got their first clear opening, only to waste it. But not long after that came the first moment of real brilliance from Charles. Oliver Skipp looked certain to score when the ball dropped for him around 10 yards out, but our stopper somehow reacted in time and turned the effort away.

It was a stunning save, and it was not the last.

As Leicester continued to build pressure, Charles was called upon again before the break, diving low to push a Mavididi strike beyond the post. We had the lead at half-time, but we had needed our goalkeeper in a big way to keep it.

The pattern did not really change after the restart. Leicester had the ball, we had to stay compact, and the game increasingly felt like one in which we would need either a second goal or a heroic defensive effort to get over the line.

To our credit, we were not just camped on the edge of our own area. We still carried a threat when we could break, and we came desperately close to giving ourselves some breathing room when Liam Palmer got in on goal. It was a huge chance, the kind that can settle a night like this, but his effort drifted the wrong side of the post.

That felt important at the time, and even more so later on.

Leicester kept pushing. Ayew glanced one against the post, and then came another extraordinary spell from Charles, who somehow kept the ball out during a frantic scramble in the box as the visitors threw everything at us.

And then, with six minutes left, came the moment that finally beat him.

Ayew picked the ball up well outside the area, drove forward and unleashed a fierce strike low into the corner. It was a top-class finish, the sort of effort that was probably always going to be required to get past a goalkeeper playing at that level.

Even then, Charles was not done. Deep into the closing stages, with Leicester sensing they could go on and win it, he produced one more superb stop to deny Ayew again and preserve the point.

When the dust settled, the stats only backed up what everybody inside the ground had already seen. Leicester had 70 per cent of the ball, 12 shots on target and the vast majority of the pressure. We, by contrast, had to scrap for everything.

And yet we were minutes away.

That is the frustrating part. We did so much right in terms of effort, commitment and resilience, and were still left with that familiar sense of what might have been. At the same time, there was also something encouraging in the way we dug in. We did not fold, we did not let the late equaliser turn into a collapse, and we still found a way to take something from the game.

The bigger picture has not changed. A point is a point, and it does not suddenly fix the problems around this team or the uncertainty hanging over the club. But performances like this do at least show that there is still fight there, and that is something supporters can hold onto when everything around the place feels so heavy.

Most of all, this was a night that belonged to Pierce Charles.

We were denied the win we wanted, and the one supporters have waited far too long to see at home, but without our 20-year-old goalkeeper we would have been beaten comfortably. Instead, we came away with a draw and another reminder that, whatever happens next, we have a seriously talented keeper on our hands.

At times this season, Wednesday supporters have had precious little to hold onto. Right now, Pierce Charles is one of them.