BANNAN’S A TRUE MAGICIAN
Everyone in awe of Wednesday’s wizard – even Potters boss
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY boss Jos Luhukay hailed skipper Barry Bannan after the skipper inspired a sensational comeback.
Battered for half an hour and two goals down after a brace from Benik Afobe, the Owls were staring down the barrel of a heavy defeat.
But after teeing up Marco Matias with a magnificent 50-yard ball, Bannan then dispatched a devastating free kick to level at the death.
It was just reward for a virtuoso performance that even had opposition manager Gary Rowett praising Wednesday’s “little magician”.
“What can I say?” exhaled a relieved Luhukay, whose side extended their unbeaten run to four games. “Honestly, if we did not have Barry, it would have been very difficult today. A different result maybe.
“The first goal – what a pass that was. So, so good. The second goal, I will watch it back 10 times tonight. I don’t think any goalkeeper can save it.
“For 20 minutes, we weren’t on the field. That is how I felt. In that moment, we gave Stoke too much respect and did not believe in ourselves.
“But Barry, he is the player on the ball who the players trust, who gives us possibilities. In that difficult period, it feels to me that only Barry had the trust and belief in himself to play.”
Luhukay is right – Wednesday would have lost this game without their skipper. Even with him, they were second best and ultimately indebted to some dire finishing from Stoke in the second half.
Leaden, hesitant, guilty of watching ball and man – Luhukay’s side started like a team who didn’t realise the international break was over.
Punishment was swiftly administered. Just 77 seconds had elapsed when Peter Etebo’s ball split a static back four, Mame Biram Diouf found Afobe and the striker, unmarked, leathered home from close range.
It was the 25-year-old’s fourth goal of the season, and a fifth arrived in short order. Again, the Owls’ rearguard was all at sea, caught high and square as Tom Ince flicked a ball in behind.
Diouf, offside, left well alone, allowing Afobe to beat the onrushing Cameron Dawson with a deft toe-poke.
At that point, Stoke looked unstoppable. “That first 30 minutes is probably the best any team I’ve managed has ever played,” said Rowett.
Enter Bannan. The Scot had been comprehensively outperformed by counterpart Ryan Woods, whose composure and positivity on his Potters debut showed exactly why Stoke chucked £6.5m in Brentford’s direction.
But with one swing of that left foot, Bannan eliminated the entire Stoke defence, Marco Matias capitalised, and Wednesday were back in business.
Thereafter, the Owls skipper was the best player on the park. His team, shaken from their stupor, combative and positive. Matt Penney, especially, cut a swathe down the left-hand side and was unlucky not to score after neat one-two with sub Atdhe Nuhiu.
Nevertheless, Stoke only have themselves to blame. Twice in the second half Diouf blew glorious chances to score a killer third, at one stage blasting straight at Dawson whilst Ince waited for a tap-in. Set-pieces went high and wide.
And when Bannan clipped an unstoppable free kick in off Jack Butland’s left-hand post, the visitors’ faltering start to the campaign took another dispiriting turn.
“It’s frustrating,” admitted Rowett, who has now failed to register an away win in 14 Championship games.
“For 30 minutes we were in total control of the game and causing lots of problems. We should have been four, five-nil up.
“What you don’t want to do at that stage is give the opposition a lift. And what you can’t do at that stage is give a little magician like Barry Bannan space to play football. We did that, and we got punished.
“Sheffield Wednesday will feel like they got away with one, and they did. But we let them by not being clinical enough in our finishing. That said, if we keep playing like that, we’ll win a lot of matches.”