Dennis Adeniran’s 26th-minute goal has given Sheffield Wednesday a 1-0 lead over the Blues at half-time at Portman Road.
Idris El Mizouni was handed his first league start of the season as skipper Lee Evans missed out, manager Paul Cook having said a mystery member of last week’s team had picked up a knock at his pre-match press conference in addition to left-back Hayden Coulson.
Academy product El Mizouni joined Tom Carroll in the centre of midfield with Rekeem Harper on the bench.
In Evans’s absence, striker Macauley Bonne wore the captain’s armband for his hometown club for the first time.
Former Owl Matt Penney came in for the injured Coulson at left-back with Town otherwise unchanged from last week’s 1-0 win at Lincoln.
Vaclav Hladky continued in goal with Christian Walton, who has an adductor problem, again missing from the 18, along with winger Kyle Edwards.
For Wednesday, Marvin Johnson and Lewis Wing came into the side for Jack Hunt and Chey Dunkley, who dropped to the bench. Ex-Blues loanee Dominic Iorfa started at the centre of the Owls defence.
Ahead of kick-off, both teams took a knee, with the exception of Celina, to applause from the Portman Road crowd.
Bonne should have scored his sixth goal of his loan spell in only the third minute when he was played in behind the Wednesday backline by Carroll with the Owls appealing for offside but with no flag forthcoming. The stand-in Blues skipper had only keeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell to beat but having taken plenty of time over the opportunity, shot into the on-loan Burnley man’s midriff.
Town were on top in the early stages and in the ninth minute Scott Fraser sent Wes Burns away down the right and the Welshman sent a low cross-shot beyond Peacock-Farrell’s right post.
On 15, with Wednesday having given the ball away cheaply whenever venturing into the Town half, Burns headed a Fraser free-kick from the left into Peacock-Farrell’s arms at the far post.
The Blues thought they’d gone in front in the 19th minute when Burns found the net from close range but with the linesman’s flag raised. Fraser had crossed from the left after El Mizouni had found Bonne with a clever first-time pass out to the left.
Wednesday, who had seen a lot of the ball but without doing anything with it, began to come more into the game as an attacking threat and on 26 struck their first shot, a low Lee Gregory effort from the edge of the area, after Penney had slipped, which Hladky claimed with little fanfare.
The Owls kept the Blues pinned back in their half and a minute later they went in front. After Town had repeatedly failed to clear, Gregory knocked down to Adeniran, who looped a shot from the edge of the box into the top corner beyond Hladky.
The visitors continued to see most of the ball following the goal but in the 35th minute the Blues threatened through Bonne, who received a pass from Carroll and cut inside Sam Hutchinson just outside the area and was felled, however, referee Andy Davies inexplicably allowed play to continue.
Wednesday immediately broke up the other end and goalscorer Adeniran might have scored his second of the afternoon but shot over from just outside the box when he will feel he ought to at least have hit the target.
On 38, with a subsequent free-kick having gone against the Blues in the Wednesday half and with the crowd making no secret of their opinion of the officiating, referee Davies went over to the touchline to have words with Town manager Paul Cook, who had presumably said something untoward to the fourth official.
Two minutes later, Carroll headed wide from outside the area after a corner from the right - won after a Burns cross had been deflected behind - had been half-cleared.
As half-time approached, Town were very much on top again and on 43 El Mizouni curled over from just outside the box to the right after good work from Celina and Burns.
A handful of boos were drowned out by applause at the break with the Blues not deserving to go in behind.
Other than a short spell in the middle of the half in which Wednesday scored, Town had been on top and looking the most likely scorers.
Bonne will have rued his early miss and Town ought to have made their time on top tell before they were again made to pay for less than impressive defending.
Town: Hladky, Donacien, Edmundson, Burgess, Penney, Carroll, El Mizouni, Burns, Celina, Fraser, Bonne (c). Subs: Holy, Woolfenden, Vincent-Young, Harper, Aluko, Chaplin, Pigott.
Sheffield Wednesday: Peacock-Farrell, Palmer, Hutchinson, Iorfa, Shodipo, Adeniran, Gregory, Bannan (c), Johnson, Berahino, Wing. Subs: Wildsmith, Brown, Paterson, Dele-Bashiru, Dunkley, Hunt, Sow. Referee: Andy Davies (Hampshire).