Stoke City drew 2-2 at Sheffield Wednesday.
Stoke City boss Gary Rowett was full of praise for Sheffield Wednesday’s Barry Bannan following the Owls midfielder’s contribution during the enthralling 2-2 draw at Hillsborough, the Sheffield Star report.
“Barry Bannan has shown what a little magician he can be at times. There is probably only him on the pitch who can score that,” the Potters manager admitted to reporters.
“What you don’t want to do at the point, when you’re so dominant away from home, is give the opposition and the crowd a lift and a lifeline. That’s exactly what we did. Barry Bannan on the ball … you can’t allow him to play a ball over the top.”
Stoke looked on course to take all three points from their trip to Yorkshire as two goals from Benif Afoke inside the opening 22 minutes gave the visitors a deserved 2-0 lead.
But Bannan soon put his influence on the game, first by finding Steven Fetcher with a wonderful accurate long ball before the striker chested down for Marco Matias to halve the deficit.
The former Aston Villa man then pulled the strings for Wednesday as they searched for an equaliser, and it was the dubbed little magician who found it with a sumptuous late second half free-kick.
Rowett spoke of Bannan’s ability prior to the game as he felt the midfielder was the one who made Wednesday tick, and he would have been disappointed his side couldn’t get closer to him when it really mattered.
The 28-year-old recorded as many as 95 touches throughout the game, including two key passes which was the joint-highest of any player from either side over the course of the 90 minutes (Whoscored).
A draw extends the Owls’ unbeaten run to four games while Stoke are still looking for their first away win of the Championship campaign following their relegation from the Premier League last season.
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