The talismanic midfield man has been a huge part of Wednesday’s slog to climb out of the Championship relegation zone, and his relationship with the Owls fanbase is clear for everyone to see every time they chant his name from the stands.
On Sunday there were thousands of them that did just that at Ewood Park as Danny Röhl’s side ran out as 3-1 winners to move up to 21st, and ‘Baz’ spoke afterwards about how much it meant to claim all three points.
“It was a massive day for me personally,” he told The Star. “I was praying that we won so that I could celebrate it, because social media can be a difficult place when you lose games! It’d have to have been 400 games under the radar if we’d not won. Today I can celebrate it with my family though, and I’m honoured to have played for a massive club 400 times. It’s a club steeped in history, so to achieve that during my time is a huge honour and I’m delighted.”
The Owls skipper also said that, despite being many miles from Hillsborough, it felt like they were at a home game in Lancashire over the weekend, revealing that he told his teammates before kickoff that they needed to get a result for those in the away end.
Bannan said, “We’re back at home next week, and you’ve seen the fans today – seen what they can do. It felt like a home game at times, they were amazing. I’m sure next week at home they’ll be even better and behind us.
“I said in the huddle before the game that we needed to make sure the people behind us went home happy, because look what they’ve done. They came here with almost 7,500 on a Sunday afternoon when it’s on TV – they’ve spent their hard-earned money to come and watch us.
“I’m not surprised, but I also am – they keep surprising me with how good they are… And you want to give back to them, so to get two goals in front of them… The scenes were brilliant.”
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