THINGS must have been bad if Barry Bannan has deleted his Twitter account. The chirpy little Sheffield Wednesday midfielder has been getting it in the neck on social media from supporters of city rivals United in the wake of their 4-2 victory in the first Steel City derby for five years. He then took more of the same from gloating followers of Birmingham City, who remember the Scot, not particularly fondly, from his time at Aston Villa.
But you can't keep a good man down for long, and thankfully Bannan was back at his effervescent, creative best during a 3-0 dismantling of table topping EFL Championship outfit Leeds United at the weekend. While the likes of Darren Fletcher and Callum McGregor may get the nod to deputise for injured Celtic duo Scott Brown and Stuart Armstrong in tomorrow night's match against Slovakia, it was the kind of display which drew plaudits from opposition manager Thomas Christiansen and must have planted a seed in the Scotland manager's head.
Gordon Strachan, another impish midfielder during his playing days, has long been a proponent of Bannan's cause, even if the form of his Scotland-based first team rivals has meant he hasn't started a competitive match for his country since the 3-0 defeat to these same opponent in Trnava 12 months ago.
“The Sheffield derby is bigger than I actually thought," said Bannan. "I’ve played in the Villa-Birmingham derby, but it felt bigger than that. It’s hard to take losing any game, but those ones are more important for the fans. So that felt worse than usual.
“I deleted my Twitter account after the game," he added. "I’ve not gone back on it yet, because we also lost to Birmingham and their fans hate me as well!
"So I’m just going to leave it a week or two - either that, or I’ll get myself in trouble replying to them. I did the grown-up thing and deleted it. Although I will definitely put it back on if we win on Thursday night."
By footballing standards Bannan, who stands 5ft 6in, is a little man. He can hardly be said to be a like-for-like replacement for either of Scotland's Celtic fulcrum. But he is also a big-game player, a man who tends to exhibit no fear when it comes to the major occasions. Pre-conceived ideas or not, Gordon Strachan's usual modus operandi is to let his players battle it out in training, with the one who appears to be in the best form getting the nod.
"It’s a game which has that added bit on it, because we want to get into the play-offs, but these are the games you want to be involved in when you are growing up as a kid," said the 27-year-old. “You look forward to these games. People always ask me if I get nervous before big games, but I’ve never felt nervous going into any game. I just look forward to going out, enjoying it. This is why you are in the game.
“Whenever you come away with Scotland, if you train well every day you can get into the team," he added. "The gaffer wants you to be training well all the time and if you do that, you’ve got a chance. With those two [Brown and Armstrong] dropping out, everyone else is looking to get into the starting eleven and I’m one of them. If people are ahead of you and playing well, you just have to hold your hands up and accept it. You just have to keep going until it’s your chance. That’s what’s happened. It’s unfortunate for them but it gives other players, who have not been involved for a while, a chance."
One of the matches Bannan missed, of course, was the 2-2 draw against England at Wembley in June. Not that he missed an opportunity to make a point to some of the English lads in the Wednesday squad on a Thursday.
“When you go back to your club and you have lost the English boys are on it right away but they kept quiet this time," said Bannan. "Obviously there was a long break after it and so it kind of went under the radar but I brought it up and made them know how lucky they were, so there was a bit of banter about it.
“You can look on it both ways but when it was that late on, we should have been two-points better off. But we’ve put ourselves in a great position after starting off slowly in the group. It’s in our hands and if we can win both games we’ll be in the play-offs and that’s all we’re focusing on. We’re not focusing on the past, we’re focusing on the next two games."
The 3-0 setback in Trnava is one such match which must be consigned to the dustbin, even if Bannan feels the scoreline was deceptive and Scotland owe them one at Hampden tomorrow night. “Were they three goals better than us? I don’t think so," said Bannan. "That was another game where it felt, when I was playing in it, we were playing well and then all of a sudden we were three down and it was like 'where has this come from?'
"But they are a strong team, they did well against England in the last game. We know their threats but we’re a good team as well. It’s at our place, the fans are going to be right behind us and it’ll be daunting for them to come over here to beat us at Hampden. So we’re looking forward to it and we know we’re capable and we’ve got enough in the changing room to win the game.
"We’ve got loads of players here capable of producing things in big games. So it’s about trying to bring that to the game on Thursday and it’s about trying to win the game, I don’t care who the hero is. It can be anyone as long as we win the game. That’s all that matters.”
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