City: Simonsen, Hoefkens, Higginbotham, Duberry, Hill (Dickinson, 56), Lawrence, Russell, Diao, Hendrie, Sidibe, Fuller. Subs Not Used: Brammer,Eustace.

Sheff Wed: Crossley, Bullen, Bougherra, Simek, Spurr, Lunt, Whelan, Andrews (Burton, 73), Brunt (O'Brien, 79)), Tudgay, MacLean. Subs Not Used: Adamson, Coughlan, Folly.

Sheffield Wednesday put a dampener on City's festive spirit by condemning the Potters to their first home defeat since September.

It was a result that few would have predicted before the match.

The home fans in the big holiday crowd, warmed up before kick-off by stirring performances of "Nessun Dorma" and "Delilah" by Lawrence Robinson, came expecting a party, but left having experienced a disappointing anti-climax, and ironically it was one of City's 2002 Cardiff heroes, Deon Burton, who scored the winner.

By the end of the match, another of City's loan icons of the past, 'keeper Mark Crossley, had not been made to work hard enough despite a period of fierce City pressure at the start of the second half.

The massed ranks of supporters encouraged the Potters to force a couple of early corners, but he home side soon found that their opponents were not going to be overawed by the atmosphere and were certainly not content to be forced onto the back foot.

They not only denied City space but also moved quickly to create space of their own, with Steve MacLean seeing a shot stopped by a brave block by Clint Hill.

For City, Ricardo Fuller looked strong and quick, and after being put through by Salif Diao, saw his drilled cross just evade the outstretched foot of Mamady Sidibe.

Otherwise, the high visitors' back line restricted City to long-range efforts, none of which troubled Crossley.

After thirty-three minutes, the City defence failed to deal with a right-wing raid from the Owls, allowing Wayne Andrews to switch the ball across goal and give MacLean the simple task of hammering the ball past Steve Simonsen.

Within a minute, Andrews appeared to push over Hendrie after being fouled, and had to thank what was presumably a display of Christmas generosity by the referee for being allowed to stay on the pitch.

A Carl Hoefkens' cross which caused problems at the far post was the nearest City came to pulling a goal back and they would have been grateful for the opportunity to take stock at the end of a half in which the Owls had created more chances.  The Potters were certainly below par.

They improved to start the second half brightly, winning four quick corners from one of which Hill headed just wide, but a quick counter-attack by the Owls in which Andrews fired the ball across the face of goal was a warning that City could not afford to lose their defensive shape against a side which could get the ball forward quickly and accurately.

But with Lawrence and Hendrie switching flanks , City continued to press, forcing two more corners before scoring a deserved equaliser just before the hour mark.

Salif Diao opened up the Wednesday defence with a superb cross-field pass to Hendrie on the right.  His immaculate cross was met perfectly by Sidibe, whose powerful running header almost broke the back of the net.

City were now building up a good head of steam, with Hendrie starting to thread some penetrating passes through to the strikers but the visitors were quick to break when City threw men forward, and, having fought back so well in their last game against Southampton, were clearly not in the mood to be negative.

With both sides straining every sinew, the tackles started to fly, forcing the referee to abandon his previous goodwill and give out more cards than the Christmas postman, with in the end seven being delivered to the Owls.

City continued to press, but nobody could say that they hadn't been warned about the threat of a swift counter-offensive when a quick break out of defence gave Sheffield the winner after seventy-eight minutes.

Simonsen made a superb save to keep out a Tudgay shot when he seemed certain to score after a quick attack down the left. The ball was beaten out, but bobbled around before being put back into the middle where substitute Burton had the space and time to take careful aim and slam the ball low past the keeper from the edge of the area.

Given their pressure, City could consider themselves to be unfortunate to be a goal down but they had not made it pay, and simply lacked the inspiration on the day to produce enough attempts on target against a well-organised team.

Patrik Berger and Vincent Pericard were introduced in a last throw of the dice, but it was to no avail as City missed the opportunity to consolidate their hard-won place in the top six.

This was a disappointing result, but at least the team have an early opportunity to get themselves back on track against Leeds on Saturday.  As has often been said, anybody can beat anybody in what is a very open Championship this season  City need to treat this an opportunity, but today showed that this state of affairs is also a threat to their ambitions.