Alan Biggs: All change but some things remain – Sheffield Wednesday’s ‘own’ vital to the Moore revolution

We talk - rightly - about Darren Moore changing the culture at Sheffield Wednesday. There is no bigger clue to that than the identity of the notable survivors.

Right at the forefront for me would be two home-grown players, Liam Palmer and Cameron Dawson.

When fans chanted “he’s one of our own” after the goalkeeper’s stoppage time penalty save spared the Owls a home defeat to Oxford in mid-December you sensed in that moment that something big had changed.

And not just for Dawson, recalled to the team after a year’s loan to Exeter that rehabilitated him from a torrid start to his career.

A feeling of pride and identity was seeping back into the fabric of the place. This was a major extraction from an otherwise bleak afternoon when the performance would have been met by boos but for Dawson’s heroics.

Now to Palmer. When you consider the turmoil and upheaval of the last few years, combined with the club’s poor record for producing talent, it’s remarkable that even as many as two Hillsborough products have weathered the storm.

Palmer has been a constant through more downs than ups, enduring the buffeting to achieve, at 31, his highest ever popularity rating.

Well earned too; ultra-professional and a highly dependable figure in any position across the back line or on either side of wide midfield.

As with Dawson, appreciation has been hard won. Palmer is not an eye-catching player, having only recently, for instance discovered that he can also score goals!

But there’s more to it than hailing their individual success. That has never been paramount for either. They are a symbol of a club and team rediscovering a heart and soul.

I’ll never forget Dawson appearing on my Sheffield Live show with a heavily strapped finger. This was after he’d answered criticism of his selection above Keiren Westwood, by saving a penalty in a derby draw at Bramall Lane in November, 2018.

He made light of it, played on with it and we know that in time he lost his place, paying the price for inconsistency in a struggling side amid understandable calls for the return of a senior man with many admirers.

But it marked Dawson out in my mind as a man of big character. He’s of the right stuff for a keeper and now, at 27, he’s benefiting from all the trials and tribulations of a long apprenticeship.

It’s great for Wednesday to have some of their own at the heart of manager Moore’s culture transformation - and you’d have to include skipper Barry Bannan, who has adopted the Owls as much as the fans have adopted him across his near-eight years here.

Yet perhaps the greatest symbol of it, going back to that penalty drama against Oxford, was the sight of ousted senior keeper David Stockdale going on the pitch to embrace Dawson at the end.

That said so much about the spirit and togetherness Moore has instilled.