Neil Thompson on ‘old guard’ Sheffield Wednesday selection and what next manager must do

Only one of Xisco’s summer signings was named in the side - Di’Shon Bernard at centre-half - with the likes of Reece James, Will Vaulks and Cam Dawson welcomed in from the relative cold since the Spaniard’s sacking this week.

Asked why the decision behind such a sweeping change to proceedings was made, Thompson responded with a shrug of the shoulders.

“I know them,” he said. “I’ve seen them play.

“I have seen the new players come in but I haven’t worked with them - I’ve got my 21s to do and I’m away from the first team environment.

“You’ve got to work with what you know and that’s what I decided to do.”

With chances from both sides at a premium throughout the match, Thompson admitted a performance low on quality but expressed his satisfaction at the sweat spilt in a committed 90 minutes.

“They’ve put a lot into the game today,” Thompson said. “It’s a clean sheet, we’d have loved to have won it, but it wasn’t to be today.

“Football is a challenge, every game is a challenge and every game is an opportunity to go and impress people. The attitude of the players was good, they’ve had a good go today.

“Quality? That can be better, of course it can. But in terms of them committing themselves to the task in hand, good. There are no easy games, there’s always another team out there trying to win the game as well.”

The likelihood is that the draw will be the first and last match of Thompson’s second stint as caretaker boss.

On pulling together the side that achieved promotion last season, he delivered a directive for whoever comes in to replace Xisco full time.

“You’ve got to rediscover what they felt on that night last season when they were 4-0 down,” he said.

“This place was rocking like a juggernaut. When you get this place going, it’s unstoppable and it was that night and we took that into Wembley.

“We have to rediscover that and what that felt like. Confidence is not high because of results and that’s human nature, that’s normal.

“We have got to get that back into them and for me as a coach, all you want is commitment. They’ve done that today.”