IT was always destined to take a moment of brilliance or a mistake to settle this game in the 90 minutes.

From the early forays of a forlorn first half it had extra time written all over it.

And there was little to change that perception after the break, despite a more end-to-end approach.

That was until Jason Shackell upended danger man Jeremy Helan in the box.

Five minutes after Atdhe Nuhiu stepped off the bench, the 6ft 6ins striker stepped up to bury the spot kick for his fourth goal in six games, and in doing so knock Burnley out of the Capital One Cup at the first attempt.

It made it all worthwhile for the noisy 1,052 following from across the Pennines, and almost justified the thousands of empty seats in the home ends.

The cup is not the greatest concern for the Clarets this season.

Premier League survival is the main aim.

But when you consider that two defeats have come from the first two games then progress into the third round of this competition would have been preferable.

And there was nothing to suggest they were not capable.

But as at Swansea the much changed line-up could not convert possession and chances into goals.

Take Nuhiu from 12 yards out of the equation Matt Gilks, on his debut, did not have a save to make.

There was some consolation from Milton Keynes, with MK Dons beating Manchester United, Burnley’s next opponents.

With Louis van Gaal’s side also searching for their first win this is either a good time to play them, or a bad one. Neither Wayne Rooney or Robin van Persie were in United’s 18-man squad at Stadium MK, while Angel di Maria will be keen to make an early justification for his British record £59.7m transfer fee from Real Madrid.

But the Clarets can only concentrate on themselves, and not all of those who were handed a chance by manager Sean Dyche, who made seven changes to the line-up in total, did enough to force him to change his hand when league action resumes in front of the world’s media on Saturday.

The front pair of Ashley Barnes and Marvin Sordell were more involved in the second half after a relatively quiet first half, but could not do enough to test Chris Kirkland, one of four changes made by Owls manager Stuart Gray, Burnley’s former first team coach.

Michael Kightly and Ross Wallace toiled out wide without too much in the way of end product.

Had it not been for the noise emanating from the away end the night would have felt more like a reserve game, given the lack of atmosphere otherwise.

The first half offered little to suggest there was anything at stake either.

Gilks was largely inactive, although that might have changed had Kevin Long not got a vital leg to stop Chris Maguire's right wing cross reaching Gary Madine in front of goal.

The defender, making his first start of the season, was at full stretch to prevent Madine getting what would have been a clear sight of goal, despite appearing to be in an offside position when the ball was played.

There was still a scare for Gilks though as the ball bounced off the angle and out of play.

Long was on hand to offer further protection to the debutant keeper, conceding another corner in similar circumstances 10 minutes before the break.

In between Wallace floated a free kick over the bar.

Scott Arfield playing centrally, drove through midfield with the ball, shifted it wide to Wallace who crossed left footed to pick out Barnes six yards out, but the striker's header was narrowly off target.

Long was shrugged off the ball by Jacques Maghoma but the defender recovered, backed up by Shackell, to block the shot and take the sting out of it.

Before the break Arfield sends the ball back to Kirkland, supposedly, after a break in play but it caused more trouble for the keeper than he might have anticipated, having to stop it from dipping under the bar.

It was the highlight of a rather drab opening 45 minutes.

Things livened up afterwards with chances for Barnes and Sordell.

Matt Taylor came on to try to affect things, but after the ball pin balled around the area he turned a half chance wide.

Wednesday threatened, but without major menace until Helan showed Shackell his heels and was clipped.

The referee pointed to the spot, and Nuhiu welcomed the chance to add to his impressive early season tally, driving down the middle as Gilks dived to his right.

Burnley brought on the big guns - Danny Ings and Lukas Jutkiewicz - but time was against them to take the game into extra time.