Darren Moore dismisses Barry Bannan over-reliance notion after surprise Sheffield Wednesday sub call

With the Owls drawing at home to Charlton Athletic, chasing the game and with the eyes of the club’s expectant fan base burning through, Darren Moore decided to make a sub. And as the fourth official’s board was lifted with Barry Bannan’s number on it, a few thousand eyebrows lifted with it.

Had Wednesday failed to grab the winner, which came courtesy of a Tyreeq Bakinson header from Josh Windass’ pinpoint cross, the decision would likely have dominated much of the post-match discourse and attracted more than a few questions from the club’s Bannan-adoring supporters.

Speaking to The Star post-match, Moore explained the decision to substitute his star man, who plundered 21 goal contributions in an awards-laden season last time out and has – and will continue to be – at the heart of much of Wednesday’s success going forward for several years.

“The heat was huge,” Moore said. “I was looking at players and some wilted in the heat. That’s not having a go at them, it’s just the heat. Some of them wilted.

“I was looking at them and they just couldn’t get going. Baz, bless him, as much as he tries, he’s only human. We wanted to make the change and Josh in the 10 gave us that little bit more of what we need.

“That’s nothing against Baz, we just needed to work it around with the subs and it gave us that impetus we needed.”

Moore accepted that had that winner not arrived, he would have been faced with questions over the decision to replace his skipper.

He was replaced by Sylla Sow, which allowed Moore to move Josh Windass into the number 10 position.

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With George Byers, Bakinson and Lee Gregory having come on some minutes earlier, it presented a formidable attacking unit even without star man Bannan, who it is felt has shouldered much of the burden of attacking intent at Wednesday for too long.