Sheffield Wednesday fail to win once again as trio of pivotal moments all go against them

Barry Bannan missed from the penalty spot as Sheffield Wednesday drew a game that they should have won at home to Shrewsbury Town. Pictures: Getty Images

A missed penalty, a goalkeeping howler and a goal wrongly disallowed for offside all featured in the Owls’ frustrating 1-1 draw with Shrewsbury Town.

And all three moments went against the hosts, to extend their winless run to three games, after back-to-back defeats against Morecambe and Plymouth.

The positive spin is that Wednesday remain unbeaten at Hillsborough this season, and a summer revamp of the squad has left Darren Moore’s team hardly marooned in mid-table.

“It’s a long season,” said Owls defender Chey Dunkley. “Today we are disappointed, it’s at home and we feel we have created enough to get the three points.

“There will be games in the season where we probably don’t deserve to win, but we will win the game. We have to take the rough with the smooth.

“We just need to be consistent. It was important for us to stop that rot.

“We lost against Morecambe, we lost against Plymouth. Today was a case of go out and win the game, but if we don’t win, get something from the game. It becomes a habit of you keep losing.

“We know there is pressure on us. We have openly come out, and said we want to win the league. But we have to take it game by game. Sometimes a point isn’t the worst thing, it’s how you respond.

“If you keep collecting one point, it isn’t enough, but if we go out and win the next game, this point then looks good. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

“It’s been an average start to the season, we want to be in the top two. But we do know success isn’t a straight line.”

Wednesday should have had victory wrapped up in the opening half hour.

Saido Berahino marked his full debut with a goal after just six minutes, heading in Barry Bannan’s corner at the far post.

The 28-year-old could have added a second three minutes later, but directed his header, from Olamide Shodipo’s cross, the wrong side of Marko Marosi’s right-hand upright.

The Owls won a penalty, when Shodipo was tripped inside the box, after a lovely through ball from Bannan.

But the Scotland international dragged his spot-kick wide.

Bannan later apologised on Twitter. He said: “Can only apologise today if I score the pen we go on and win probably. So apologies.”

But Dunkley was quick to defend his captain.

“Baz has been superb for us,” he said. “Of course he will be gutted, he has got standards and he probably thinks he should have scored the penalty.

“But we had more than enough chances to win the game.

“Of course we are upset, but it’s not just an individual thing, we are in this together.

“The skip has been brilliant for us this season.”

Lee Gregory also spurned a couple of chances, in the opening 45 minutes, while full-back Liam Palmer failed to test Marosi from distance.

But Shrewsbury were gifted a way back into the game, when Bailey Peacock-Farrell dropped Elliott Bennett’s tame cross and former York City striker Ryan Bowman scrambled the ball over the line.

It was the first goal Wednesday have conceded at Hillsborough this season, and a rare error from the on-loan Burnley goalkeeper – who started the campaign with five clean-sheets.

“It was a sloppy goal we conceded,” admitted Dunkley.

“Bailey has been excellent for us, and he will be excellent for us. You can’t expect him to be flawless every single game.

“But if he does make a mistake, can a team-mate pull him out of it? There’s been times when he has made great saves when other people have made mistakes,” he added.

“I don’t want to be too harsh on him, because when you start being harsh for one mistake, everyone is quick to forget the level he has set for himself. He has set that level, now he needs to just stay there and maintain it.”

Wednesday failed to reproduce the standard of football of the first half after the break, and Town’s Luke Leahy should have tested Peacock-Farrell when he burst through the Owls’ defence.

But the controversial moment in the match came when Bannan and Shodipo once again combined. The Owls captain played in Shodipo, who drilled the ball beyond Marosi, only to be wrongly flagged offside.

“We had a clear goal disallowed in the second half,” said Moore.

“I thought it was onside straight away because ‘Mide has come from behind his marker and then I got the message from the analysts that it’s onside.

“You can always tell with the reaction of the defenders and I think they knew it was onside. It’s a shame, it’s frustrating, but these things happen in football.”

Dunkley added: “We had a lot of chances, we got the ball in the back of the net - I have watched it back, it was onside - and it would have been 2-1.

“But we don’t like to use excuses, we still had more than enough chances to put the game to bed.”

Sheffield Wednesday: Peacock-Farrell, Hunt, Iorfa, Dunkley, Palmer, Adeniran (Wing 74), Hutchinson, Berahino (Corbeanu 61), Bannan, Shodipo (Kamberi 77), Gregory. Unused substitutes: Dele-Bashiru, Johnson, Wildsmith, Sow.

Shrewsbury: Marosi, Pierre, Pennington, Ebanks-Landell, Bennett, Vela, Leahy, Whalley (Nurse 68), Bowman, Davis, Cosgrove (Udoh 68). Unused substitutes: Ogbeta, Bloxham, Gregory, Daniels, Leshabela.

Referee: B Toner (Lancashire).