Sheffield Wednesday were handed further misery on Tuesday evening as they were defeated in a Championship basement battle at the City Ground.

A victory for the Owls would've closed the gap to their nearest relegation rivals but now Tony Pulis' men remain rock-bottom, seven points off Nottingham Forest, who defeated them 2-0 last night.

Reds left-back Yuri Ribeiro handed the home side an early lead, scoring in the fourth minute before talismanic striker Lewis Grabban came off the bench to seal it three minutes from time.

It means the Yorkshiremen are yet to win under the 62-year-old and have now lost four straight matches.

However, despite all the doom and gloom, there was one shining light and that was the performance of Chey Dunkley, who looks every bit like being Garry Monk's finest signing.

In just his second appearance for the club, the 28-year-old looked like a leader without the armband. He was certainly demanding more and trying to encourage the team, unlike the real skipper, Barry Bannan.

Indeed, Dunkley was the only Owls player to record a rating above 6.7 with SofaScore grading his display a 7.4, which was only bettered by three Forest players.

He also won four of six aerial duels, made four clearances, four interceptions and two blocks, on top of managing 58 touches from central defence.

Following the match, YorkshireLive's Dom Howson waxed lyrical about his performance, he said:

"Dominated the majority of his duels and constantly barked out orders to his defence. Is understandably still a little rusty as he continues to build up his match sharpness."

It was the long-serving ex-captain Tom Lees that badly let the team down in defence on their way to leaking another two strikes, so there is certainly some encouragement to be had in the form of Dunkley.

You can thank Monk for nabbing him from Wigan this summer too.

Supporters on Twitter were also impressed with their £10k-per-week colossus - one said the centre-back was "the only leader at the club" whilst another claimed he "looked solid."

AND in other news, Forget Pulis: £24k-p/w passenger who lost possession 22x let Sheff Weds down abysmally...