Sheffield Wednesday star gives honest Barnsley take – but issues Owls rallying cry

The Owls were beaten 4-2 on Tuesday night by the Reds in an action-packed clash at Oakwell, a defeat that saw Wednesday’s 23-game unbeaten run brought to an end after five and a half months.

Johnson was instrumental in helping Wednesday fightback from 2-0 down, grabbing his ninth assist of the season for Lee Gregory’s equaliser, but says that they weren’t happy with the manner in which they found themselves behind in the first place.

“It’s disappointing,” Johnson admitted to The Star. “We put ourselves in the position where we had to get back into the game because of the two goals that we conceded. We showed character to get back into it, and it looked like we were going to go and win the game - so to concede again hurts everybody. We have to do better… We gave them the two goals at the start if we’re honest with ourselves - we gave ourselves a mountain to climb.

“The goals were soft, very soft. But it wasn’t just their goals, we had chances to still win the game comfortably despite conceding those goals. We didn’t hit the target with clear cut chances, but we can’t dwell on this game - we’ve got two more coming up which give us a chance to gain an advantage on the teams around us.”

The turnaround is a fast one, with the Owls back in action against Forest Green Rovers on Sunday afternoon, and Johnson has called for the team to stick together and make sure that they return to winning ways in Gloucestershire.

“We’re not going to let it rock us now,” he added. “Or shake us off the course that we’re on. We’re still focused on getting the job done… We’ve put ourselves where we are now, and it’d be silly to throw that away. If you win the next two then this one is forgotten about.

“It’s about staying together - we’ve got another game coming up and we’re going to need every single player that we have.”

Wednesday face Rovers at 1pm.

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