‘He’s human’ – Sheffield Wednesday star praises Marvin Johnson after tough season

There was a point a few months ago when Johnson was off the radar at Hillsborough completely, left unregistered by Xisco and seemingly on the way out – that all changed when Danny Röhl took over.

The 33-year-old has missed just three Championship fixtures since being brought back into the fold, two of which came earlier this month, and it was his goal on Sunday afternoon that set Wednesday on course to the victory at Blackburn Rovers that saw them finally climb out of the bottom three.

Barry Bannan, who has formed an excellent partnership down Wednesday’s left side with Johnson, says that he’s a ‘top player’ who was able to stand up for the team at Ewood Park.

“With Marvin there is no doubting his ability,” Bannan said. “He’s a top player, and we’ve seen in the last couple of seasons here at Wednesday how good he is. He’s human, like us all, so we have off days, we play with injuries, there are loads of different things in people’s minds that might lead to them not performing.

"But when you get a fully fit and a fully focused Marvin Johnson there are not many better in this league. He assists, he scores, he’s great at one-on-one defending, he’s a top player. Like I say, he’s human, and there have been times when he’s tried to play through injuries in the last few weeks and maybe been a bit off it, but today - when it mattered - you’ve seen a man out there who stood up and put in a really top performance."

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Johnson’s goal on Sunday was his 10th for Wednesday since arriving at the club, and took him to 37 direct goal contributions in 123 matches… In the current crop of players only Bannan (95), Josh Windass (55) and Lee Gregory (41) have more, and his 27 assists is bettered only by his skipper (65).

He’s believed to be one of the many Owls players out of contract this summer in what is set to be another busy spell at Middlewood Road, and he’ll no doubt be desperate to make sure he puts in another strong showing in what could be his final game at Hillsborough on Saturday.