Sheffield Wednesday pride and Owls fan call-to-action as Peterborough United come to town

If Palmer features in all of Wednesday’s games this month he will leapfrog both Tom McAnearney (382) and Ron Springett (384) in terms of club appearances, an incredible achievement for a lifelong Owl like himself.

The 31-year-old has been almost ever-present for Wednesday in 2022/23, and has won two SWFC Player of the Month awards and one EFL Player of the Month award for his efforts – the next prize would be to secure promotion with his boyhood club.

‘Palms’ admits that he’s not been overly concerned with personal accolades in the past, but says that now he’s closing in on such a big milestone it is something that he’d love to do.

He’s expected to take one step closer this weekend when Peterborough United come to town.

“There are some really good names on the list,” he said. “Hopefully I can get in there between now and the end of the season. I just have to keep knocking them off their perch, really.

“But no, you don’t really look at those things until you’re 12 years down the line. We broke some team records this last month, so to break a personal one as well would be absolutely fantastic.

“It just shows where you need to be in terms of consistency, not just to play but to get to that sort of number. It’s not just one or two seasons, it’s over a long period of time.

“It’s something I’ve been able to do, something I really pride myself on. Putting in 100% effort every day and being versatile in my position is something that’s definitely helped.”

Meanwhile, Palmer went on to discuss this weekend’s clash with the Posh – one of only three teams to beat them in League One this season – insisting that Wednesdayites can play their part in getting another three points on the board.

“That was early on in the season and we went down to 10 men,” he recalled about the 2-0 defeat in August. “It’s something that we’ll definitely be looking to put right. They came down from the Championship last year, so they’ve got a good quality of player - but so have we.

“We’re completely different now, we’ve overcome a lot of hurdles, and we’re more set in how we want to play. It’ll be a good game, but we’re at Hillsborough and the fans have been brilliant all season - especially in the last three or four months - and we’ve got a proud record that we want to keep going.”

Peterborough have won four of their last five meetings against Wednesday stretching back to 2011, however the one defeat in that period was at Hillsborough in 2012 when Ross Barkley and Miguel Llera scored for the hosts in a 2-1 win.

Three other former Owls featured for the visitors that day – a young Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, a teenage Saido Berahino, and goalscorer, George Boyd.

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