Ike Ugbo’s double saw 10-man Sheffield Wednesday continue their upturn in form as they beat Bristol City 2-1 in the Championship.

City levelled soon after as Jason Knight rose highest to head home a corner, but Ugbo scored the second header of the afternoon just before the break to give the Owls a lead their pressure deserved.

Ugbo and Pol Valentin had good second-half chances before Di’Shon Bernard was sent off with 12 minutes to go after a second booking, but Wednesday held on for victory.

The Owls’ third win in four games sees them stay second-from-bottom of the table. They kept the gap between themselves and safety to three points after fellow strugglers QPR, Millwall and Huddersfield also won.

Bristol City stay 12th in the table after their second successive defeat.

The visitors had dominated the early possession and Tommy Conway saw an early strike beaten away by James Beadle.

Bui it was the hosts who took the lead as Ugbo’s great recent form continued after good work in the build-up by Valentin and Liam Palmer.

The visitors levelled less than 10 minutes later as Knight got his fourth league goal of the campaign as he converted Taylor Gardner-Hickman’s corner.

But Wednesday upped the pressure and Will Vaulks went close before Ugbo lost his man and got on the end of Marvin Johnson’s cross as he scored for the fifth time in four games.

Zak Vyner glanced a Gardner-Hickman free-kick wide 12 minutes into the second half for City, three minutes before Ugbo should have had his hat-trick as the Canada forward made a mess of Ian Poveda’s pass.

Valentin’s wonderful strike with 17 minutes to go just went past the post before team-mate Bernard received his marching orders.

Despite being a man up, City failed to make a breakthrough and it was the Owls that could have got a third as Max O’Leary did well to save Michael Smith’s stoppage-time effort.

Sheffield Wednesday manager Danny Rohl told BBC Radio Sheffield:

“I think, it was a big, big win today for us.

“It wasn’t easy, we played against a strong side from Bristol, I think they have a good manager, they were well organised and had solutions with the ball.

“But we did well during the week, the focus was more to prepare my team to play our style of football and all in all we did well.

“Of course in the final minutes we had to fight with 10 men, but we did well again.”

Bristol City head coach Liam Manning told BBC Radio Bristol:

“Not good enough. We started the game OK in the first five or 10 minutes – I thought we got in behind them a few times.

“Unfortunately at the minute when we face a bit of adversity, a bit of pressure, we have to go the other way, we have to step up and be counted.

“In the second half we looked better, we engaged a bit higher. A lot more of the play – even before the red card – was in their half of the pitch.

“Then, for me, the second half was more about quality rather than the behaviour side which we lacked first half, so I’m hugely annoyed right now.”