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Substitute Leon Clarke struck a late winner against his former club Sheffield Wednesday as Wolves ended a run of five straight defeats.

The striker, 29, sneaked in at the back post to turn a Kevin McDonald delivery past a stranded Keiren Westwood.

Rajiv van La Parra missed a glaring first-half chance for Wolves, while Glenn Loovens headed Wednesday's best opening wide.

Clarke capitalised and lifted Wolves up to 12th, a place above Wednesday.

The Owls appeared to have turned a corner, with victory in their previous two matches offering a reprieve after 11 games without a win.

Wolves arrived at Hillsborough having conceded 11 goals in their last three away games - all defeats.

And Wednesday - whose manager Stuart Gray was once in caretaker charge at Molineux - went close early on when Stevie May rounded Wolves goalkeeper Carl Ikeme, only for Richard Stearman to clear his shot off the line.

Loovens then rose to meet Chris Maguire's corner but headed inches wide and Royston Drenthe went just as close with a sweet volley.

Danny Graham, the man later replaced by Clarke, missed a one-on-one chance late in the first half but it is Van La Parra who will breathe a sigh of relief as his glaring miss after Westwood parried an initial Wolves attempt did not cost the visitors dear.

May again went close and a game with several good chances looked set to end goalless when Clarke, who played for Wednesday between 2007 and 2010, buried the winner.

Maguire fizzed a free-kick narrowly wide as Wednesday pushed to level but their visitors held on for a first away win since 25 October.

Sheffield Wednesday head coach Stuart Gray: "Coming off back-to-back wins you couldn't have wished for a better start. We could have been maybe 3-0 up in the first 20 minutes.

"But one thing we do know is that a lapse of concentration might cost you, and it did.

"The second half was far too open, but when you are on top like we were, you cannot believe that we haven't got a goal."

Wolves head coach Kenny Jackett: "My back four did very well today, and so too my goalkeeper although he didn't have much to do.

"It was a great game which was end to end. We were able to work their goalkeeper particularly well in the second half, and we came through some tough periods in the game creating some good chances.

"We scored a good quality goal from Clarke, so there was some incisiveness there."