Birmingham City starlet reveals hospital scare as Barry Bannan takes another Blues swipe

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Barry Bannan has always endured a love-hate relationship with Birmingham City fans - and the feeling has been entirely mutual, both parties love to hate the other. His Aston Villa roots counted against him from the off but his obvious glee at scoring against Blues over the years hasn’t helped matters.

And now, as the midfielder nears his 300th appearance for League One promotion-hopefuls Sheffield Wednesday against Cheltenham Town this weekend, he has been in reflective mood, looking back on the highlights of more than six years at Hillsborough. Wouldn’t you know it, the man who once said he could ‘die happy’ after scoring at St Andrew’s has picked a Blues -related moment as one of the highlights of his Owls career.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s match he said: “Three hundred games is a lot in a career never mind at one club. To reach it here with this fantastic club I am very proud.

“The love I was shown in my first season here, I stuck my head out of the hotel window and saw the fans on Wembley Way singing my song, it was amazing. There was also a day away at Birmingham when fans were wearing masks of me... Things like that I won’t forget.

“Hopefully I am here long enough to get another 100 appearances and move closer to the top ten in terms of appearances for this club. It has been the best six/seven years of my career and it comes from playing games. As long as I’m on the pitch, I’m happy.

“Fans like to see players giving their all, see passion, you get a feeling what a club is about, I knew if I gave my all the fans would take to me. We are in a good position to strike but we are not looking past this game on Saturday. We take each game as it comes,