'Loyalty works both ways' - Barry Bannan hails Sheffield Wednesday after 'best moment of my life' in Wembley win

The Owls skipper was again a pivotal player in the heart of Wednesday as they came through a nervy encounter to beat near-neighbours Barnsley in dramatic fashion as Josh Windass headed in the winner with almost the final touch of the ball in extra time.

Bannan had to hobble off towards the end, having given his all in a fiercely competitive match which saw the Reds go down to ten men early in the second half after Adam Phillips was given a red card for a late challenge on Lee Gregory.

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Victory at Wembley marked the end of a rollercoaster of a season for Wednesday who had racked up a record points total but still didn’t manage to go up automatically and they then had to fight back from a 4-0 defeat to Peterborough in the semi-final first leg to even get to this point.

For Bannan it was a proof of the belief in the squad to overcome those immense hurdles.

"It's the best moment of my life,” he said. “You can see what these fans mean to us as players, what this club means to me since I've come here, they've been great to me and I've loved every minute. I've always said I have wanted to get them back where they belong and we've done that today.

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"Over the duration of the season, the best teams went up. Through the Play-Offs we deserved it, we had 96 points, missed out and then to go again shows the character of this squad.

"We always knew, after the last game, coming from 4-0 behind, we knew anything was achievable as long as we put ours minds to it and turned up and played our game. We always knew that going into the Play-Offs that if we turned up we were going to win it.

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"Today, we didn't play great but in finals it's all about finding a way to win it and we did that."Don't get me wrong it was hard to get people's feet back on the ground after a result like that but we knew we had a massive game today against Barnsley but it was just about sticking to our gameplan again, a whole week building up to the game. It was all about getting right, getting ready, doing our work and executing it.”

Much has been made of Bannan’s decision to stay at Hillsborough when offers came in from teams in higher divisions, but while he has been credited for staying to finish the job of returning the club to the Championship, he says Wednesday deserve plaudits for continually backing him.

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"They have been loyal to me as well,” he told Sky Sports. “They have given me contracts after contracts since I have been here. The chairman has been very good to me, the fans have taken to me and my family and it's a big part of my life now and always will be. It's not just one way, loyalty. They have shown loyalty to me and I've shown it back."