Sheffield Wednesday held to a draw by Shrewsbury Town in an all-too-familiar headache

An early goal, a stadium in fine voice dreaming of the afternoon players have told us is coming; when Wednesday;s opposition ‘will take a hiding’. As it happened, Shrewsbury Town walked away with a point.

Six minutes is all it took for Saido Berahino to bet for Wednesday on his first start, a well-taken header arriving late for a corner that sent the S6 crowd into raptures.

He’ll hope the soundtrack to his celebration in front of the North Stand – to the tune of the conga song – is one that bounces around Hillsborough with regularity.

That the 28-year-old headed another excellent cross wide a couple of minutes later seemed at the time to be no major issue; Wednesday had started with a swagger.

And when Bannan’s deft through-ball allowed the lively Shodipo to run across his man and earn a penalty, that lead should have been doubled.

Alas. The Owls skipper connected well but dragged the penalty wide. According to online stats bible Transfermarkt, in senior football Bannan has scored four penalties and missed three. It’s a record he’ll want to improve.

The fact is, looking up at the scoreboard after half an hour, the feeling was that Wednesday could and probably should have been better than a goal to the good. They weren’t.

Did the penalty prove to be a turning point? It would be harsh to suggest so, though Wednesday looked just a little less showered in swagger from that point on.

And they were punished when the visitors’ only attack of note in the first half cut through Wednesday’s tatty left-hand side and found Peacock-Farrell flapping on the floor.

It’s fair to say the Northern Ireland stopper has tasted the highs and lows football has to offer in the past two or three weeks.

The second half arrived and for large periods Wednesday failed to play with the sort of joie de vivre that put them in the box set in the first half hour. Shrewsbury grew in confidence, playing awkwardly, taking their time over knocks here and there. In truth and though they had their moments, Wednesday shrank a touch.

The Bannan through-ball-Shodipo-run-behind played trumps again when the QPR loanee poked it past Mark Marosi in the Shrews net, only for it to be called offside.

It had to be said that the officials, seemingly just half a yard off the pace throughout the clash, earned little in the way of credit from the frustrated Owls support.

As the match wore on Wednesday huffed and puffed but couldn’t muster the quality to break Shrewsbury down. The Shropshire side probably won’t be the last unfancied side to come away from S6 with a valiant point this season.

The fact is Wednesday failed to turn their purple patch into points, made a mistake that cost them and walked away with two points less than they hould have. It’s a recurring theme that needs to stop.

Sheffield Wednesday: Peacock-Farrell; Hunt, Iorfa, Dunkley, Palmer; Hutchinson, Bannan, Adeniran (Wing, 74’); Berahino (Corbeanu, 60’), Gregory, Shodipo (Kamberi, 77’)

Subs unused: Wildsmith, Dele-Bashiru, Johnson, Sow

Shrewsbury Town: Marosi; Pierre, Pennington, Ebanks-Landell; Bennet, Vela, Leahy, Whalley (Nurse, 68’); Bowman, Davies; Cosgrove (Udoh, 68’)

Subs unused: Gregory, Ogbeta, Bloxham, Daniels, Leshabela

Attendance: 21,096