Barry Bannan’s seeming farewell game for Wednesday ended in a 2-0 defeat at Bristol City this afternoon.
Bannan was subbed shortly before the end of the match, receiving congratulations from all his Wednesday team-mates and a huge salute from the Owls fans as he left the field, before the biggest of touchline hugs with Henrik Pedersen.
After 477 appearances for the club he was also applauded by City players and fans to mark his remarkable achievement, with a move to Millwall now looking to be a certainty.
The game itself was typical of so many for Wednesday this season, brave resistance for more than an hour but then conceding twice and without having an effort on target in the 90 minutes.
The home side dominated the first half but were wasteful in front of goal and their only dangerous moment came just after the half-hour when Murphy Cooper did well to save from Scott Twine, Wednesday then managing to scramble the loose ball away.
For our part, we forced five corners in the first half, one inswinger from Barry Bannan being clawed away by home keeper Radek Vitek on the line in a rare threat.
We began the second half with Bailey Cadamarteri breaking down the right but his low angled effort was turned away for a corner by Vitek at the foot of the near post.
Almost immediately, Bristol City were close to breaking the deadlock when sub Sinclair Armstrong’s low ball into the box deflected off a defender but Cooper managed to divert the ball wide with his leg.
However, the home side did go ahead on 64 minutes, Ross McCrorie given space to cross in from the right and and Twine getting between two defenders to head home from six yards.
City were close to a second goal four minutes later when Cooper saved from Twine and Cameron Pring headed the rebound over the top.
However, the game was all but over 12 minutes from time when Armstrong broke from halfway, Cooper managed to block the striker’s effort but it broke back to Sam Bell and he netted comfortably.
Bannan was then subbed in the 90th minute, sparking off those congratulatory scenes all around the ground, before Cadamarteri failed to connect properly with Devlan Moses’ low centre six yards out to leave goalless once again.
The final whistle brought more emotional scenes as Bannan, shedding tears, deservedly took centre stage in front of the travelling Wednesdayites, joined by the rest of the squad and along with Pedersen and his backroom team.
M Cooper, Palmer, Otegbayo, McGhee, Johnson (Emery 86), Heskey, Bannan (Thornton 90), Ingelsson (Moses 86), McNeill (L Cooper 71), J Lowe (Redmond 71), Cadamarteri. Unused subs: Stretch, Shipston, Kobacki, Onukwuli.
