Praise for Darren Moore and Dejphon Chansiri as Derby Couty return places focus on recovery mission

They did so for one of its biggest matches in the modern era – a last-day shootout against the hosts Derby County that would save or kill their Championship status.

A dramatic 3-3 draw pressed button marked ‘kill’ and with Rotherham United losing late at Cardiff City, the troubled Rams stayed up. For one season at least.

Some 574 days will have passed by the time Wednesday players shuffle into the Pride Park changing room on Saturday and the scale of the change in that time goes far beyond the fact that of the 20 Owls players named in the matchday squad, only five remain.

The match arrived in a mire of piled-high off-field struggle; of a big, bold asterisk beside their points total, of a failure to pay players – some of whom had grown disillusioned – of injuries to key men and with their fourth manager of the season dragging himself from a Covid-enforced ICU bed and into the dugout.

The mood around Wednesday these days? Transformed and together. And though the summer that followed relegation took Wednesday further into the depths with players considering enacting a release notice, the work done that fourth man and those around him prevented catastrophe.

Those around Darren Moore and indeed above, with Dejphon Chansiri having overseen changes to how things are done as S6 and offering the financial clout to re-build a squad that was frankly unfit for purpose.

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“It was such a tough season on and off the pitch," remembered club captain Barry Bannan, who too deserves headline praise for his role in Wednesday’s continued recovery.

“But that was the gaffer’s first three or four months and that pre-season was when he got his say, his own people and he’s brought the club together.”

Touching on the difficulties and impact of players not having been paid and an explosive summer interview in which Bannan admitted Wednesday was ‘not a great place to be’, he reiterated the hard work done by Moore to rescue the situation and push the club back in the right direction.

“That’s the way the world was at that time,” Bannan said. “It wasn’t just Sheffield Wednesday that was going through it, it was the whole world and everybody felt it with Covid and so on.

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“It took clubs time to get back on their feet and with the gaffer coming in to bring the club closer together like a family, the club has just gone from strength to strength in the last couple of years.

“The gaffer has been brilliant. I’ve enjoyed my time here since he’s come in. He’s brought the club together, there’s a family feel to the club. Everyone, people down the stadium, we’re all more together and we’re all pulling for the exact same thing this season which is getting promoted.

“The gaffer has played a big part of pulling all that together with the chairman.”