Struggling Sheffield Wednesday had to settle for a point after Stoke substitute Luke Cundle cancelled out Liam Palmer’s opener to earn a 1-1 draw.

The result dealt Wednesday a real blow in their bid to avoid the drop due to results elsewhere.

Marvin Johnson, Ike Ugbo and Will Vaulks were all restored to Wednesday’s starting line-up.

Stoke boss Steven Schumacher made six changes, recalling Tyrese Campbell, Mehdi Leris, Sead Haksabanovic, Ben Wilmot, Jordan Thompson and Lewis Baker.

The visitors were put under pressure from the start with Palmer the first to threaten, firing in a drive which was deflected off-target.

Ugbo then saw his effort kept out by Daniel Iversen, and Michael Ihiekwe’s header was cleared off the line by Campbell.

Michael Smith went close to breaking Stoke’s resistance when his shot struck the bar in the eighth minute.

As Wednesday continued to dominate, Pol Valentin fired over later in the half, with Stoke failing to pose a serious attacking threat during the first half.

The closest they came to a chance was in the final minute of the half when Baker’s free-kick led to a scramble in the penalty area before Wilmot put the ball wide.

The Stoke line-up showed a change at the start of the second period with Bae Jun-ho coming on in place of Haksabanovic.

The visitors were forced to make a further change just four minutes after the restart when Wouter Burger had to go off after receiving treatment, with Enda Stevens coming on in his place.

Wednesday keeper James Beadle was called into action for the first time to save Jun-ho’s long-range effort.

Beadle then made a comfortable save from Campbell’s deflected shot soon afterwards.

As Stoke looked to capitalise on their impressive start to the second half, Baker sent a free-kick a fraction wide of Beadle’s left-hand post.

The home side responded with Ihiekwe heading just wide from Vaulks’ delivery.

Midway through the second period, Wednesday manager Danny Rohl made an attacking change, with Callum Paterson taking over from Josh Windass.

The opening goal finally came in the 68th minute when Barry Bannan’s cross was headed back by Ihiekwe to Palmer, who found the net with an emphatic finish.

Cundle, who had only been on the field for a few minutes, equalised in the 76th minute. Campbell found Cundle in space on the left-hand side and he advanced into the area before slotting past Beadle.

Stoke skipper Josh Laurent then had a shot which hit the side-netting.

Jun-ho threatened late on with a goal-bound shot which struck team-mate Cundle.