“Apologies...” - Barry Bannan sends frank Sheffield Wednesday message following surprise defeat | OneFootball

Sheffield Wednesday’s Barry Bannan has apologised to the fans following the disappointing 1-0 defeat to Forest Green Rovers on Sunday.

The Owls went into the fixture against the bottom of the table hosts having failed to win in two, so they had seen their gap in the promotion race reduced. Nevertheless, they would have moved back to top if they had beaten Duncan Ferguson’s strugglers.

But, Wednesday were poor at The New Lawn, with a Jordan Garrick effort enough to condemn Darren Moore’s men to a second successive loss.

In truth, the Yorkshire side could have few complaints about the result, as they were second best for large parts, and they were perhaps fortunate the margin of defeat wasn’t bigger.

And, taking to Twitter, Bannan didn’t try to make excuses for the display, as he admitted it wasn’t acceptable, although he did urge for all to ‘stick together’ as they look to move back to top of the league with a win at Cheltenham in the week.

“Apologies to the travelling support today we were poor today. We need to stick together and starting on Wednesday, get back to winning ways.”

It promises to be a nervy end to the campaign for all connected to Wednesday, with four teams now in the mix to take the two automatic promotion spots. However, Moore’s men do have their destiny in their own hands, so they will take encouragement from that. Furthermore, they have a favourable fixture list on paper, with the majority of their games against sides in the bottom half.

The verdict

This was a hugely frustrating afternoon for all connected to Wednesday, as they simply lacked the intensity and quality that they’ve shown for much of the campaign. So, the fans will appreciate Bannan’s honesty here, with him offering an apology for the display.

The reality is that it wasn’t even a case of just a few individuals not turning up, as the whole side were below par, and they certainly deserved to lose the game.

From the fans' perspective, it’s baffling that the side would put in a performance like that with so much on the line, but it’s been and gone now. As Bannan says, it’s now about looking to Cheltenham and there needs to be a reaction, and if they do get the three points they will be back on top and things will look a lot better than they do right now.