Moment in Portsmouth draw showed reasons for Sheffield Wednesday fans to be excited for new season

And in the case of Sheffield Wednesday, there has been a focus on two things in the days after their rollercoaster thriller at home to fellow promotion chasers Portsmouth over the weekend; on Fisayo Dele-Bashiru’s sudden rise to goalscoring prominence and the rearing head of defensive frailties past.

Somewhere beyond the initial chatter is the fact that Wednesday scored three opening day goals for only the fourth time since the days of Trevor Francis and for periods they looked as fluent in building attacks as they did even by the high standards of the second half of the last campaign.

They took 16 shots in the clash – a tally beaten only eight times in the entirety of their League One promotion push last season.

After Portsmouth pulled ahead and settled into a deep-lying block, Moore made a switch that brought Michael Smith on for his competitive debut, hauling off the otherwise excellent George Byers and leaving Wednesday with a central attacking five of Dele-Bashiru, Barry Bannan, Josh Windass, Smith and Lee Gregory.

Battling a low block defence has often been a source of frustration for Darren Moore’s Owls but they breached the dam with seven minutes to go thanks to Dele-Bashiru and could have scored more.

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The last half-hour of the match saw Wednesday tally an xG of 0.8 and achieve three shots on target, numbers that can no doubt be improved but that they bettered only once in the last calendar year when the Owls have entered that period chasing the game.

That Wednesday’s goals came courtesy of players not regularly relied on for goals – Marvin Johnson scored twice in league football last season, while Dele-Bashiru scored only once – is further cause of attacking optimism.

“There was a good tempo to the game,” said Moore. “The passing and the movement and everything else started really well, we just couldn’t sustain it.

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“We got to the 30 minute mark and we couldn’t keep that power and precision on it. We’ll continue to work on that. We have to continue that.

“We know we can’t go about conceding basic, elementary goals like that. They were wrong decisions at the wrong times by individuals.”