Gerken the hero of the hour for Bristol City
Apprehended by the police and cautioned for a late-night indiscretion in Bristol city centre the previous week, the young goalkeeper could have been excused for wanting the ground to open up and swallow him when the story broke in the press.
Caught in the media spotlight for all the wrong reasons, Gerken had to demonstrate strength of character when returning to the Championship stage to face his public.
Fortunately for City, the 24-year-old former Colchester United stopper proved big enough and brave enough to cast the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune to one side and produce a performance which saved his team from certain defeat.
On a day when victory could have taken the Robins up to second in the table, they contrived to fall woefully short of the high standards which cemented their position in the play-off zone in the first place.
Disjointed and strangely diffident, Bristol City were a mere shadow of the side which beat Barnsley last time out, and Wednesday must have wondered how on earth they failed to return north with more than a point.
Had it not been for Gerken, the virus-stricken Owls would certainly have claimed all three. Almost from the moment Nicky Maynard delivered his 10th goal of the campaign in the 59th minute, City's keeper took centre stage, pulling off startling saves to deny Luke Varney, Marcus Tudgay and substitute Leon Clarke as spirited Wednesday mounted a furious late assault.
When he was finally beaten 15 minutes from time, it was by a thunderous drive from Varney which he could not possibly have been expected to stop. Certainly, no City fan could question the manager's decision not to punish the player further by leaving him out.
Referring to his goalkeeper's late-night antics, Johnson said: "It wasn't enough for him to be left out. He took his punishment, which was financial, and got on with it.
"We wanted to keep the same team which did so well at Barnsley and carry that confidence into this game.
"I wouldn't say Dean owed us a performance. Sometimes, people commit misdemeanours along the way and others get to hear about it.
"If no one gets arrested or sent to prison, you can very often keep it in-house. But Dean made a mistake and it's been dealt with.
"He's moved on and put it behind him and I thought he kept us in it. He made some fantastic saves."
There was more than a hint of complacency about City's performance against opponents who were still feeling the effects of the viral infection which swept through Hillsborough last week.
Owls boss Brian Laws was without five first-team squad members and his options were further limited when Tommy Miller became ill at half-time and had to be replaced soon afterwards.
Although the sign stuck to the front of the away dressing room door, which cautioned the unwary to keep out, was not designed to lull City into a false sense of security, it did exactly that.
The home side began slowly, became bogged down in an over-manned midfield quagmire, failed to improve significantly following a double substitution and change of formation at the start of the second half and ultimately succumbed to utter frustration. Given the first-half chances which fell invitingly for hard-working Wednesday forwards Tudgay and Varney, the Owls should have been in front before the predatory Maynard made his presence felt.
Marvin Elliott's fifth-minute header aside, the Robins had created precious little in the way of clear-cut chances when Maynard forged a goal out of nothing.
Benefiting from a penalty-box melee, the striker dug the ball out from beneath his feet, wriggled free of the attentions of two blue and white-shirted defenders and beat Owls keeper Lee Grant with the kind of toe-poked finish which is the hallmark of the master poacher.
If Bristol City fans expected their team to take charge and achieve victory with a flourish thereafter, they were sadly mistaken.
Owls boss Laws withdrew the unfortunate Miller, introduced Leon Clarke and encouraged his team to go on the offensive for the final 25 minutes.
At sixes and sevens, City were powerless to stem the flow and there was a degree of inevitability about Wednesday's equaliser, Tudgay presenting Varney with the opportunity to restore parity with a rasping drive from 25 yards.
Members of the same striker's union, there is mutual respect between Maynard and Varney, who struck up a deadly partnership as youngsters at Crewe to earn big-money moves to the Championship.
"Dario Gradi threw us in together and there was this amazing chemistry straight away," recalled Maynard.
"Luke and I may have gone our own separate ways since then, but we have always been close and we stay in touch.
"It was good to see him again and to play against him, but not so good to see him score. He's a good striker and I was a bit surprised he didn't take a couple of earlier chances."
He added: "I'm not sure why we were so poor.
"Perhaps because we knew they had a few problems, we were a bit complacent in our passing, the runs we made and in our closing down. That shouldn't happen, though, and it's no excuse for a performance like that.
"We know we can play a lot better and we'll work hard to put things right before we play Nottingham Forest next Saturday.
"Saying that, it's not all doom and gloom, because we still got a point, we're still unbeaten at home and we're still in the play-off positions."
Bristol City (3-5-2): Gerken; Carey (Saborio 46), McCombe, Nyatanga; Skuse, Elliott, Johnson (Hartley 46), Sno, McAllister; Haynes (Sproule 80), Maynard.
Sheffield Wednesday (4-5-1): Grant; Spurr, Hinds, Simek, Buxton; Johnson, O'Connor, Potter, Miller (Clarke 65), Varney; Tudgay.
Referee: Fred Graham (Essex)
Attendance: 15,005
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