53 wins: How did Barry Bannan perform alongside Steven Fletcher at Sheffield Wednesday? | OneFootball

While it has been a season of struggle for Sheffield Wednesday in 2023/24, they have enjoyed success previously in the Championship, most recently during Carlos Carvalhal's reign, and two key players during that era were midfielder Barry Bannan and striker Steven Fletcher.

Bannan joined the Owls on a free transfer from Crystal Palace in August 2015, and he was joined a year later by Fletcher, who arrived after being released by Sunderland.

The pair had become good friends after playing together previously with the Scotland national team, and Fletcher revealed that Bannan had helped convince him to make the move to Hillsborough.

With Bannan and Fletcher in the team, Wednesday reached the play-offs in the 2016-17 season, but they were beaten on penalties by Huddersfield Town in the semi-finals.

That season would prove to be the highlight of Bannan and Fletcher's time in South Yorkshire, with the pair playing under a host of managers, including Jos Luhukay, Steve Bruce and Garry Monk, over the following years as the club failed to finish higher than mid-table.

Bannan remains at Wednesday to this day, and he will be keen to lead his side to safety this season, while Fletcher currently plies his trade for League Two promotion hopefuls Wrexham.

Barry Bannan and Steven Fletcher's performance at Sheffield Wednesday

In total, Bannan and Fletcher played 125 games together at Hillsborough, during which Wednesday won 50, drew 38 and lost 37, achieving an average of 1.5 points per game.

18 of those victories came in the 2016-17 season, compared to just 32 over the following three years, underlining the Owls' decline after the Huddersfield play-off defeat.

Between 2016 and 2020, Bannan scored six goals and provided 23 assists, while Fletcher netted 36 times and registered nine assists, with the pair combining for a goal on eight occasions.

Reflecting on his spell at Wednesday, Fletcher said that he "enjoyed every single minute" at the club, describing it as "one of my favourite times in football", but he admitted that he was frustrated by Carvalhal's decision to substitute him after giving the Owls the lead against Huddersfield in the play-offs.

"My first year we got to the play-off semi-finals. I was devastated that year because I thought that was our big chance to go up. We played Huddersfield in the semis and in the second leg I scored to put us 1-0 up but then the manager (Carvalhal) took me off," Fletcher said, quoted by Yorkshire Live.

"To this day, I don't know why really, it's his decision. They equalised and then we lost on pens. It was tough to take. There's nothing you can do, knowing you should be standing up and taking one of them. It was tough. After that we couldn't get going again.

"We had a great team and squad but we just couldn't reach the heights we had. But like I say, I loved it there."

Despite no longer playing together, Bannan and Fletcher have maintained a close relationship, and Bannan was full of praise for his former team-mate after his departure from Wednesday in 2020.

"Steven is one of the best strikers I’ve ever played with. He’s one of those players who, until you actually play alongside him, you don’t understand how good he is," Bannan told the Daily Record.

"I thought before that with all the headed goals he scores, he was just a big striker type, but you play alongside him and realise he’s nothing like that.