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Sheffield Wednesday inflicted a fourth straight defeat on Nottingham Forest to increase the pressure on Reds manager Stuart Pearce.

Kieran Lee bundled in the opener after Keiren Westwood had denied Forest's Robert Tesche with a reaction save.

Lee forced the ball home after on-loan Chelsea defender Todd Kane blocked Atdhe Nuhiu's header on the line.

Chris Maguire pounced to lash the Owls' second into the bottom corner to seal a third straight league win.

Victory lifted Stuart Gray's side to within four points of the Championship play-off places.

Defeat for Forest extended their winless run to eight matches and came after Pearce said he had the "skin of a rhino" as he tried to deflect reports that he could be sacked if results do not improve soon.

A large portion of the home crowd showed their support for Pearce on three minutes, standing to applaud the former Reds captain, who played more than 500 games for the club as a left-back.

The Owls fans gave a round of applause of their own on 17 minutes to pay respects to fellow supporter Josh Vaughan, who died after being hit by a train at Chapeltown railway station earlier in the week.

Tesche produced the home side's only first-half effort on goal, testing Westwood following a scramble from a corner.

While chances were rare at both ends, Wednesday made the most of their first real threat right at the end of the half.

Kane, starting on his Forest debut, denied Nuhiu's effort, only for Lee to throw himself at the rebound and squeeze in the opener.

Forest keeper Dorus De Vries, making his first league start of the season ahead of Karl Darlow, could do little five minutes after the break as Maguire nipped into the box after latching onto a poor Jack Hobbs clearance and smashed home his fourth goal of the season.

Michail Antonio went close to replying with a header soon after but Westwood was equal to the danger and Stuart Gray's Owls pressed for a third as Jaques Maghoma's shot deflected wide off Hobbs and Nuhiu volleyed narrowly off target.

Lars Veldwijk, who came on to replace the injured Britt Assombalonga, had a late chance to pull one back for Forest, but could not turn in Ben Osborn's low cross, while Jamie Paterson was foiled by Westwood.

Nottingham Forest manager Stuart Pearce:

"We are suffering a lack of confidence at the minute, but I told the players that we cannot feel sorry for ourselves. I certainly can't.

"We are going to have to work hard and work through this. Last week we thought things were tough then, all of a sudden, you feel even more depressed. But it is important that the group do not hide.

"I do have the confidence that we can turn this around. The nature of football is so volatile that things can change very quickly. We need a victory and we need one soon, to turn our fortunes around at this time. I am more disappointed for the fans than myself.

Sheffield Wednesday manager Stuart Gray:

"I am stood here thinking that we should have won 4-0 with the chances we created. The most important thing is that we did not want to give Forest a sniff. We wanted to turn their crowd against the team.

"They are low on confidence at the moment and we wanted to exploit that. We were at it from the off. The timing of the first goal gave us a lift and disappointed the home crowd, coming just before half time.

"I knew that Stuart would want to get a reaction from his players in the second half, but we got another goal and credit to our players because, as I said, we could have ended up with a bigger win."