It was only a small moment, so subtle most fans would have missed it. In the seconds before kick-off on Saturday, after giving high-fives and fist bumps to the mascots scurrying off the pitch, Darren Moore stood on the edge of his technical area and clapped along to Hi Ho Sheffield Wednesday as it rang out across Hillsborough. The manager’s preparation was done, his team-talk complete, and all that was left was to add one more booming clap to the noise.
Moore’s pre-match ritual is the sign of a manager who has embraced his club and brought the fanbase along for the ride. It has been 25 years of mostly decline since Wednesday’s Premier League peak, and two years since the most calamitous season of their history which featured four managers, a points deduction, a transfer embargo and a devastating final-day relegation. Now Moore has them top of League One, on a 21-game unbeaten streak, the best form of any league club in the country.
