"When you're a father" Owls star Barry Bannan takes last laugh after grim Peterborough United chants
Barry Bannan enjoyed Sheffield Wednesday’s win at Peterborough United as much as anyone.
Grim chants aimed at Sheffield Wednesday vice-captain Barry Bannan only pushed him on to help the Owls earn a win that took them to the top of the early days table, according to the man himself.
Wednesday took a third 2-1 win in as many League One away matches at Peterborough United in a battling clash that saw Bannan play an important role from midfield. The Scot had been subjected to bizarre and abusive chanting from a section of the home support from midway through the first half - with more direct verbal abuse arriving as he prepared to take a corner through an extended stoppage of play just minutes before the Owls’ equalising goal.
Bannan took pleasure in racing towards that corner of the stadium to celebrate the goal - and did similar at the final whistle as he revelled in taking the last laugh.
“It spurs me on and I was praying we held out so I could get my own back at the end of the game,” Bannan said post-match. “I’m not the most popular player away from home and I always tend to get some stick. I like it (’normal’ chants), that’s the stuff that keeps me going and thriving really.”
On the nature of one increasingly common modern football chant, which called Bannan a ‘sex offender’ and was on half a dozen occasions elevated by the playing of a supporter drum at London Road, the 37-year-old took a dim view. Another chant was similar in theme and saw the midfielder react angrily towards the crowd.
“It’s not nice obviously,” he told The Star. “If they’re singing about you with normal songs you don’t mind, but when they start going with songs they were singing today it’s not nice. It is what it is, it’s football I guess. I got the last laugh because we won and I gave them a bit back in the end.
“If it was normal songs I wouldn’t have reacted, but when you’re a father with two kids and you have to hear all that stuff it’s obviously quite offensive. There’s not much that can be done I don’t think so as long as we won and I got to have my bit at the end, I’m happy.”
Bannan is a player who tends to attract the ire of home supporters when Wednesday are on the road - and takes no issue responding when he feels appropriate. London Road is a ground at which he has a history having played through the 4-0 drubbing that set up the Owls’ iconic League One play-off semi-final comeback at Hillsborough in 2023.
He said: “I’d forgotten about that because all I remember is the second leg! Everybody speaks about it the last time we came here. We lost the game before that that season and got a red card.
“Things like that come up when you play games like this but it’s a completely different group. I think I was the only one today who started who played the first leg of the play-off game so the group didn’t really know about it. It’s a completely different group and we didn’t really think about previous games. We came here to win the game.”