Shot shy: Sheffield Wednesday need a greater goal threat, admits schemer Barry Bannan

Sixth-placed Wednesday looked a pale shadow of the team who turned on the style in a 2-0 victory at Molineux in late November, with the visitors much the better side in the Hillsborough return.

The result ensured that the Owls scrapped a fortuitous point for the second match running following the late weekend draw at Preston and while not too much damage was done to their play-off drive, Bannan gave short shrift to talk that the schedule was the root cause of the disappointing performance.

His own belief was that the draw was more down to Wednesday’s deficiencies in the creative and finishing department on the day, with it not lost on the Scot – or you suspect many Wednesdayites – that the Owls’ tally of 28 league goals is greater than just two rival teams in the top half of the Championship.

Bannan said: “It is what everybody does in the league, so it is nothing to do with playing two games in three days.

“We have got to be better going forward. We kept a clean sheet and if you keep a clean sheet, you should be winning games, especially at home.

“We have got to improve our forward play and creating and score more chances.

“We have got to create the chances and finish them and we have not really scored enough goals in games this season. But we are working on it and hopefully we will be better.

“We have not been beaten for a while, so that is a positive and you have to look at the positives.

“But it is hard as you go out there to win the game after getting a great draw against a good Preston side.

“On Saturday, you thought that if we came here and won, we would make everything look better – but we didn’t get the win, so it is disappointing.

“But we at least kept the unbeaten run going and teams below us who are trying to catch us lost and, in hindsight, it could be as good point as Saturday’s could be – but it is too early to tell yet.”

Bannan believes that the promising debut of Callum McManaman provided at least one substantive for the Owls, with the schemer confident that the return to action of Gary Hooper will also significantly boost the Owls’ firepower.

Bannan added: “We have people like Gary Hooper and Callum McManaman played 50 or 60 minutes, which will benefit him as he has not played football for a long time and he showed he is going to be a good player for us.

“So there’s positives with Hoops coming back and Callum and I think it will keep everyone on their toes and the team will strengthen over the coming weeks.

“Callum is more of an out-and-out winger than what we have got at the minute, which is good because we have a bit of everything at the club.

“I think he is going to be a great addition to the squad and we look forward to him being 100 per cent fit and bringing what we know he can bring.

“Hoops is a born goal-scorer and he could have made a difference in a game where it is nil-nil. He could have had one chance and one goal as that’s what Gary does and we look forward to getting him back.”