HALF-TIME: Sheffield Wednesday 1, Bristol City 1
City boss McInnes warned his players beforehand of the aerial threat posed by Wednesday, but it made no difference as his side fell behind to a set-piece routine after just two minutes.
Former Bristol Rovers midfielder Chris Lines directed a corner kick towards the edge of the six yard box and Owls centre-half Miguel Llera climbed high to head past Tom Heaton for his fourth goal of the season.
Given the number of red shirts inside the penalty area, the ease with which the Spaniard was allowed to rise unchallenged will have set alarm bells ringing on the away bench.
Encouraged by the early breakthrough, Wednesday continued to expose a shaky back four and the home side could easily have put the outcome beyond doubt in the opening 10 minutes.
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City full-backs Richard Foster and Liam Fontaine were being led a merry dance by Michael Antonio and Jermaine Johnson respectively and Wednesday's front two of Gary Madine and Chris O'Grady were being afforded far too much room by the former Middlesbrough centre-back pairing of Matthew Bates and Stephen McManus.
Madine should have done better with a shot on the turn that failed to seriously inconvenience Heaton, while O'Grady miss-cued horribly after being set-up by Johnson, who showed Fontaine a clean pair of heels.
Heaton then went down smartly to gather a Prutton free kick as City weathered the early storm.
When the visitors equalised on 17 minutes, it was against the run of play. Sam Baldock burst into the 18 yard box and was hauled down by Llera, Wednesday's earlier hero becoming the villain of the piece.
Referee Andre Marriner had no hesitation in awarding a penalty and Baldock picked himself up to beat Chris Kirkland from the spot to register his sixth and arguably most important goal of the season.
Baldock's pace was causing Wednesday's defence all kinds of problems and the striker earned a free kick when drawing a rash challenge from Prutton. Albert Adomah took responsibility for the set-piece, only for his effort to fly high into the crowd.
City's back four continued to struggle under the high ball and Heaton demonstrated safe hands when coming to claim a succession of crosses as the visitors just about held firm.
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