Brunt had one of his frustrating days where everything he hit went into row z and the crowd got onto his back during some parts of yesterday's South Yorkshire Derby clash.
But in typical form, he vollyed a scorching winner in stoppage time against the ten-man Tykes to get The Owls their first home win of the season, and made sure a few fickle Wednesdayites ate humble pie.
Glenn Whelan opened the scoring with a crisp free kick on four minutes but
And deep into added time, Brunt's right-foot screamer condemned plucky
Small told Footymad: “Barnsley were quite good, I will hand that to them because they kept their heads but we got the winner thanks to Brunty although it was quite fortunate that we won, we had to win so we can get up that table.
“You can always doubt someone but you have to have that belief at the back of your mind that someone is going to score, especially someone who is trying his luck all the time – he shoots for a reason, it's not like he means to put it over on purpose! But massive credit to him for not listening to fans who got on his back – he proved some people wrong.”
On the win though, Small thinks that having a man advantage for over 60 minutes can make life quite difficult.
He added: “It was not a great performance but three points is three points. It doesn't matter how we get the win, as long as we do win that's all that matters.
“It's not just us who struggle against ten men, it happens throughout football. Some teams find it more difficult to just sit back and play on the break when you have the one-man advantage so that's why it can be harder sometimes.”