Hull secured three important points in their quest to remain in the Sky Bet Championship play-off spots with a 3-1 defeat of relegated Sheffield Wednesday.

Sergej Jakirovic's men were far from foot-perfect against the beleaguered visitors, who triggered a potential shock result when Jamal Lowe opened the scoring after 23 minutes.

But after Hull equalised 60 seconds later through Matt Crooks, there was always a sense the hopelessly ill-equipped Owls would fade.

Dominic Iorfa headed into his own net just before the interval, before which Wednesday were the better side following Crooks' equaliser.

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But once Kyle Joseph coolly steered home a third on 58 minutes, a home win never looked in doubt against a side who have now claimed one point from their last 16 league games.

Not that Hull needed any further motivation, but the presence of four former Sheffield Utd players in their starting XI hardly diminished the pre-match expectancy of a home win.

And it was an ex-Blade, Oli McBurnie, who created the first chance as Hull bossed the opening quarter of the game.

Liam Millar's square-ball from the left found McBurnie, whose first touch freed up the space to charge at goalkeeper Pierce Charles, who did well to snuff out the danger.

McBurnie's one-on-one effort should have perhaps given Hull the inspiration to kick on.

If anything, it had the opposite effect as Wednesday opened the scoring on the back of a bright spell.

An innocuous ball was hoisted into Hull's penalty area, but neither McBurnie nor John Egan could take control of easy-to-clear opportunities.

Lowe must have struggled to believe his fortune as he wriggled through on goal before poking the ball past Ivor Pandur.

Hull fans demanded a response, and this time it arrived within a minute.

McBurnie found Joseph on the edge of the right-hand-side of the penalty box, from where he planted a low cross into the penalty area.

Crooks beautifully timed his run to before stabbing home from an unmissable position.

Hull's momentum stalled following an injury to Regan Slater, with Wednesday arguably a more potent attacking threat following the equaliser.

That was until Hull struck deep into first-half stoppage time.

Joseph's inswinging free-kick should have been comfortably dealt with by Wednesday's backline.

But Iorfa, caught on his heels in and facing his own goal, was so poorly placed that the ball struck his head and into the net.

For a side with one league win all season, that setback must have broken Wednesday's embattled players.

And so it proved.

Hull were sharper after the restart and put the game out of sight when McBurnie hared on to Joseph's through-ball after Tayo Adaramola lost possession on the left.

McBurnie returned the favour with a smart cut-back off which Joseph's guided the ball into the bottom-left corner.

Charles later thwarted McBurnie with another one-one-one block, but the game was over as a contest as Hull coasted to a victory that at first had to be achieved the hard way - but turned into a formality.

The managers

Hull's Sergej Jakirovic:

"Everyone was expecting three points (for Hull), but I knew it would be a tough game as they are aggressive, dangerous on the counter-attack and difficult to break down.

"I'm very pleased with the boys. We left everything on the pitch because it was not easy.

"We will us this break for mental and physical recovery. We have played so many games with our problems and our injuries so they deserve this rest.

"We hope the international players come back healthy and then we have seven games. We must be ready for every one of the them - and we will be."

Sheffield Wednesday's Henrik Pedersen:

"We were top in the first half - I think we competed at a very high level.

"One of the reasons they are in the top six as that they are so strong in transition and high on the press - I think we handled that in a good way.

"We want to play with risks, but at the same time we had to think about defending against Hull in transition.

"It was a big theme before the game, and in many of the situations we handled it really well, but we were not good enough in two of the situations and that led to two goals.

"After their equaliser we came back strong, but to concede an own goal like that was tough for the boys."

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