Oxford United boosted their Championship survival hopes with a victory over Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough.

Sam Long scored the game's only goal, heading home in the 79th minute.

Gary Rowett's U's are now six points clear of the league's bottom three and move to 17th after the win.

The Owls drop one place to 14th after the defeat - their fifth consecutive home loss in the league - 11 points clear of the drop zone and nine off the top six with four games remaining.

The visiting U's ed the first significant effort of the game as a shot by Will Vaulks was well saved by Wednesday keeper Pierce Charles.

Rowett's side came went close again just before the half-hour mark when Cameron Brannagan sent a powerful strike just wide of the right-hand post.

Wednesday responded with an effort of their own as Anthony Musaba hit a shot on the volley narrowly over the Oxford crossbar.

Minutes later he followed it up with another attempt after a long, powerful run took him past a number of players before he pulled the trigger and sent a shot wide of the far post.

Wednesday started the second half on the front foot, and the most notable of the early chances fell to Svante Ingelsson inside the box, but his strike was off target.

Oxford responded well to gain some momentum, which resulted in a decent chance when Ben Nelson forced Charles into a great save.

The U's eventually took the lead in the 79th minute when a trademark Will Vaulks long throw was flicked on into the penalty area.

Sam Long made a run to the back post and nodded the ball into the net to send the travelling ers into jubilant celebrations.

The U's held on to claim all three points and move six clear of the relegation zone.

Sheffield Wednesday boss Danny Rohl told BBC Radio Sheffield:

"I think we wanted to win this game and we tried, but in the end we couldn't come to 100% to do it.

"In the final 20 minutes of the game they really tried and managed to do it, we had our moments but all in all we lost.

"I'm disappointed , I don't like that we conceded from set-pieces again, at the moment it is tough to take and a tough time.

"At this stage of the season it is all about results and our results in the second half of the season, especially at home, you can copy and paste results and it is hard."

Oxford United boss Gary Rowett told BBC Radio Oxford:

"There was lots of the performance I liked, we only had to hang on a little bit at the end.

"The game was reflective of our season, we seem to get a big win, then let ourselves down a bit, and then step up and show a bit of character.

"I thought we grew into the game in the second half and that platform allowed us to get the goal. It didn't feel comfortable on the side[line] but we managed to get there.

"We had a little bit of fortune that they didn't take one or two moments they had, and we rode that part of the game and came back into it, which I was really pleased about.

"This team is full of character and we just have to make the best of the tools we have, the players gave everything.

"Today we stepped up and it is a huge, huge three points."