Sheffield Wednesday manager Brian Laws admitted the wind played a big part in his side's 0-0 draw at Barnsley in the Championship on Saturday.Laws' relegation battlers fought out a stalemate away to south Yorkshire rivals Barnsley, who finished the match with 10 men.

Wednesday are in the bottom three of the table after failing to find the net at Oakwell as Barnsley are only six points better off.

The draw meant that Barnsley had not beaten their local rivals for seven years.

Laws said: "The biggest element today was the wind. It did become a bit of a scrap, it's a local derby and a lot of pride was shown.

"Both sides showed a lot if endeavour, they had a real go against the conditions."

Laws claimed his side were at least doing something right after picking up three successive clean sheets.

He added: "We could have got a bit more out of the game but you've got to take your chances when you can, but we've now got three clean sheets on the bounce, that tells us we are going in the right direction.

"They were very solid; I can take a lot of positives out of the match.

"We have stifled Barnsley who have got a good home record. We have a difficult run in and whenever we are away, we have to pick up points. This could be an important point for us in the end. We've got a point, we would have liked three but we didn't get beat.

"I thought it would be a mistake that won the game. We came here with a game plan to keep it tight because we have been leaking goals.

"We've got to start pulling teams towards us.

Wednesday should have taken the lead in first half injury time when a Graham Kavanagh free-kick was glanced on to defender Richard Hinds who somehow headed it over from two yards.

Earlier a Kavanagh free-kick caused problems for Barnsley when the ball hit a defender's boot and bounced up and Luke Steele had to tip it over.

Barnsley went down to 10 men when defender Rob Kozluk was sent off for his second bookable offence when his sliding lunge caught Wednesday striker Marcus Tudgay.

Kozluk, who had been booked in the first half for another foul on the striker, is not expected to miss the FA Cup quarter-final against Chelsea.

Barnsley boss Simon Davey admitted: "It was a sending off. I don't think he misses the Chelsea game. It disappoints me that he got sent off. I am not going to have a go at Rob.

"For the last two games the wind has played a major factor. The ball gets caught in the air, drops and runs away. I felt for the first half hour we were the better team and should have scored and gone in at half-time in front.

"In the second half we were up against it and Steele made some fantastic saves. It's a point that keeps us six points in front of Wednesday. We wanted to win today; we have got to start picking up points on Tuesday against Blackpool."

More Football News from TEAMtalk