Why Sheffield Wednesday's Barry Bannan was left 'fuming' after Wigan Athletic draw
More post-match reaction from S6...
Barry Bannan was apparently left ‘fuming’ after Wigan Athletic felt they man-marked him out of the game.
They are not the first team and they certainly won’t be the last, but The Latics came up with a plan to stop Bannan in an attempt to prevent Wednesday controlling play and they will feel it worked after they came away from Hillsborough on Saturday with a point after a goalless draw.
Bannan was kept quiet on a frustrating afternoon for Wednesday despite the draw keeping them top of the table. A positive first-half was followed by a disappointing second 45 and they were perhaps fortunate to claim a point in the end.
“They're scoring left, right, and centre,” Caldwell said. “Their XG is incredible, and today we kept them down, but I think there was a clear identity of how we kept them out. We passed the ball, we controlled the game, and moments with the ball when we didn't have the ball, we were very well organised.
“My old mate Barry Bannan, he's fuming in there. But you have to do what you have to do to win a game of football, and he is the talisman for this team, this football club. He's an outstanding footballer, and when you restrict him to what we did today, then we felt like we could restrict the whole team in an easier way, and I thought we did that.”
Wigan, who arrived in South Yorkshire bottom of League One, were hammered 4-0 by Wednesday’s next opponents, Stockport County, last weekend so Caldwell was delighted with his team reacted. They hit the post in the second-half and were denied a last-gasp winner by a last-ditch challenge from Gabriel Otegbayo. Given those chances, Caldwell felt they did enough to claim all three points, although Henrik Pedersen said a draw was ‘fair.’
Caldwell added: “Seven days ago we were standing here after a heavy defeat, a really low moment. To play with the quality and personality we did today, I thought we were outstanding. I thought we should have won the game. I think anyone in the stadium thought we should have won the game, but we didn't. But that being said, from where we were last week, it's a huge step forward.
“We keep saying we're a young team. We look like men today. We played like men on on the ball and off the ball. I genuinely thought we were brilliant tactically. I thought the players were excellent in how we played through the thirds. We created chances, and on another day we should win the game. And they (Wednesday) are an excellent football team. They are top of the league. I don't think there'll be many more get clean sheets here with the attacking threat that they have.”