Sheffield Wednesday’s Barry Bannan insists there’s no extra motivation to beat Barnsley because they lost to the Tykes twice in the league.
Barnsley know they can beat the Owls
Even though Darren Moore’s side finished above their Yorkshire rivals in the league over 46 games, it was Michael Duff’s men who came out on top in the derby games.
They picked up the three points at Hillsborough after a 2-0 victory, whilst they won 4-2 at Oakwell in an entertaining clash.
Therefore, Barnsley head to Wembley knowing they can beat their rivals, and it could be claimed that it gives them a slight edge going into the fixture.
However, Bannan, speaking on the League Of 72 Championship play-off final Special, in partnership with Sky Bet, explained that the past games count for nothing ahead of the meeting at the national stadium.
“We’ve spoken about [Barnsley] – there’s no revenge or anything – it’s a cup final at the end of the day. It’s a one-off game and whoever wins gets promoted. If we’re silly enough to look at it as revenge, we’ll get carried away and lose sight in what we’re here to achieve.
“It’s going to be a tough game; we’ve played them twice and lost both games, but we’ve taken things out of them as well where we can work on and try to be better. It’s not a revenge mission or anything, it’s just about us wanting to get to the Championship and whoever is in the way, we have to try and get past them.
“They are a good team; they’ve done very well this season – their new manager [Michael Duff] done a great job there so we know it’s going to be a very tough game, but it’s one we’re ready for and looking forward to.”
This is the right message from Bannan
There’s so much riding on this game, so it would make little sense for Bannan to add to the pressure or hype by stating that it’s about getting revenge. As he says, that doesn’t matter one bit, as they’re only concentrating on going up.
With Wednesday having suffered defeats to Barnsley, it shows them that they can’t afford to be below their best, as they will be punished.
So, it’s all about the game now, and Bannan will be desperate to help the side back to the Championship, particularly after the remarkable semi-final that set up this game.
