Sheffield Wednesday manager Jos Luhukay heaped praise on the character of his side after they came from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Stoke City at Hillsborough, report the club's official Twitter account.

Goals from Marco Matias and Barry Bannan extended the Owl's unbeaten run to four games and bumped them up to ninth in the Championship table.

"We spoke last week how important it is to believe in each other," Luhukay said. "It looked like we lacked that for 20/25 minutes and we had to fight back, but fight back we did.

"We came back because this team has character. Character and mentality is so important in the Championship."

Luhukay's men started slowly, however, and found themselves 1-0 down after just two minutes when Peter Etebo and Mame Biram Diouf combined to set-up Benik Afobe to open the scoring.

And the striker grabbed a second 20 minutes later to put the Potters in firm control, slotting home when one-on-one.

But the Owls were not about to cave in and a brilliant long pass from Bannan found its way to Matias who finished smartly to claw one back before half-time.

It looked as though any chance of a comeback was fading as the second half progressed, but then Wednesday were awarded a free-kick on the edge of the Stoke box with eight minutes remaining.

The most popular man at the club, Bannan, stepped up to take it and curled a brilliant effort into the back of the net, via the post, and past a helpless Jack Butland.

The verdict 

They may not have played well for a lot of the match but Luhukay is right, character is so important in the Championship.

So this is a result that the Owls can take a lot of confidence from after showing that they have the ability to come back and get a result when they are up against it.