Darren Moore explains Gary Megson's indirect influence on Sheffield Wednesday's promotion bid

The Owls icon played nearly 250 league matches for the club over two spells in the 1980s and returned to manage the club before a sacking many believe was harsh midway through the 2011/12 promotion season.

The role remains his last full-time managerial position but his influence remains, with current Owls boss Darren Moore telling The Star he sometimes thinks ‘What would Gary do?’ when considering the wisdom of a manager with whom he played under in the early 2000s.

“As much as you are your own man, there’s no doubt I’ve taken bits and pieces from Gary as I have with other managers,” Moore said.

“Subconsciously there’s no doubt I’m applying that to my style and where I’m at today. Without a doubt, there are things from my time working under Gary as a player that I’m applying now in the day-to-day management.

“It’s served me well and I believe it’s serving me well now.

“We’ve shared a coffee and in the next couple of weeks we’ll do that again because he’s not far from here.

“I’m constantly in touch with him and it will be great to sit and have a chat with him again.”

Moore was promoted five times as a player and is seeking to achieve that feat for the first time as a manager this time out.

Asked whether he sees any similarities with some of the more successful teams he has been a part of, he said: “I see similarities, but the fact is I’m still working with this group of players to get more consistency.

“There is still a lot of work for this group of players. What we have been doing is showing signs of the potential of the group, but we need to get to a level of consistency whereby it becomes second nature and also building that culture and mindset and mentality.

“I’m happy in terms of the progression we’ve made, but I’m not satisfied. We’re not the finished article, we’re not there yet.

“We’re hungry here to keep working hard and to keep succeeding. We have to keep applying ourselves and getting better all the time.”