‘Buzzing for him’ - Sheffield Wednesday goal hero salutes teammate and praises ‘massive’ fans

The pair joined the Owls together as free agents from Rotherham United in 2022, and both played a huge role in last season’s promotion out of League One and into the Championship.

Since then they’ve experienced spells in and out of the side under both Xisco and Danny Röhl, but on Tuesday night they both came up trumps as they scored two vital goals to secure a 2-2 draw with Norwich City.

For Smith it was his first goal since October, a long wait for the marksman, but for ‘Icky’ it was a first goal in almost two years.

"It was a huge goal for us,” ‘Smudga’ told the media when asked about his long-term teammate’s contribution. “We had a bit of banter after, because it wasn’t just his first goal for Wednesday, it was his first since in about two years.

“For me it was my first at that end since the Peterborough game, so I was desperate to score and thankfully I managed to help us get a point in the end.

"We spoke on the pitch about when his last goal was, and different things, we had a little laugh about that. It’s seven or eight years I’ve been with him now, and he’s been getting closer - he’s always a threat on set pieces – so I’m buzzing for him that he’s managed to get one.”

It was appreciated, and Wednesday’s crowd really took things up a notch in the second half when the Owls started showing signs of life at 2-0 down – Smith believes that they could be big difference-makers in the final four fixtures.

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“We know what these fans are like,” he told The Star. “Obviously we experienced it in the Peterborough home leg, experienced it in the Newcastle game in the FA Cup - when they get behind you they really get behind you. All it takes is maybe a tackle, or somebody closing someone down, and they really do get behind you - we have to feed off that, and I thought we did that in the second half. They’re going to be massive for us in the coming weeks…

“They do help massively, when they’re screaming, when they’re singing, when they’re making noise - they get us over the line, and I thought they were fantastic for us tonight.”