Di’Shon Bernard said scoring his first goal since returning from long-term injury was an ‘emotional’ moment for him.

The popular defender, who earlier this season came back from 19 months out, scored a brilliant solo goal to round off a 3-0 home win for Sheffield Wednesday against Plymouth Argyle on Saturday. Bernard collected the ball inside his own half before unleashing a long-range drive which sent Hillsborough crazy.

He told The Star: “I picked it up, I saw a lot of space, and I thought, let me just keep driving. I didn't really look too much at anyone else. I just saw the defender dropping off, and I thought, let me give this a go and keep it on target. And luckily, it went in.”

It has been a long road back for the centre-half, with setbacks along the way, so there was probably not a more popular goalscorer than him. Having seen what he has been through, his team-mates rushed to celebrate with him and the fans chanted his name, which meant a lot to him.

“Just emotional, really,” he continued. “It's been tough for me of late, but no, I think it shows the reception from the fans, even from the players coming over to celebrate, the support system around me is just top. You can see they want me to really do well. So it's definitely an emotional feeling, but happy with it. Even the physios at the end were really happy for me. We've come a long way together, but no, I'm really happy. The reception from the fans, you can see everyone's genuinely happy for me.”

The Jamaican, who has now played 120 minutes and 90 minutes in his last two appearances, said his body was feeling ‘sore’ but he was happy to tick off another milestone.

He added: “I am happy with the three-nil win, happy with the clean sheet, and I thought all the boys did really well. I know a few lads had to play out of position, but I think it showed the character of everyone that's we're buying into what the gaffer was telling us, and we're competing no matter where we have to play.”

The other two goals came from Billy Mitchell and Davis Keillor-Dunn as Wednesday climbed to fifth in League One.