‘From Hull, Hell and Halifax..’ Two games in, Sheffield Wednesday must push on to encourage patience

These words form part of the so-called Thieves’ Litany, uttered in Medieval Yorkshire as a leave-taking ‘prayer’ between two petty criminals as they parted the scene of their swipe.

Sheffield Wednesday didn’t go to Halifax this weekend, but they paid a wee visit to the first two.

It makes for a nice line but it’s over the top. We’re two games into the season. This Owls side is one that has asked for patience in just about every press conference over the last couple of months and patience, in fairness, they seem to be getting. They’ll certainly get it from these pages. There are big changes in personnel, big changes in playing style et cetra and so on.

But they must help Owls fans along with that patience request by producing something more than they saw at Hull City on Saturday, a summation of which was made a little nervier by a lukewarm display by a much-changed team against Stockport County in midweek.

Holding 20% possession against a recently-relegated Southampton packed with multi-million pound internationals was a statistic that raised eyebrows but made sense - for all their dominance the Saints were held to relatively few chances, locked in periods of ‘pointless possession’ as Wednesday sought to stay compact.

The Tigers were always going to be a better yardstick on where things are at and how quickly things were moving forward. They too have players of a higher financial outlay - hat-trick match-winner Ozan Tufan was purchased for anywhere between £3m and £4m depending on the report.

But the fact is that for a set-up that was put together on the promise of attacking, front-foot football, a 27% possession stat that rose from a tick over 23% with 15 minutes to go is a thing of concern even at this embryonic stage. Fronting a portion of blame to himself, Xisco said as much post-match. He also said he needs more from his players.

Only three of Wednesday’s nine summer signings started at the MKM Stadium, but with four of the promotion-winning side’s five most prominent players in terms of minutes played - Liam Palmer, Marvin Johnson, Will Vaulks and Michael Smith - either on the bench or not selected at all, the side is taking on a different image. George Byers rode the bench, too.

When Barry Bannan went off injured at half-time, not one of that quintet were on the pitch. Whether this is by design or circumstance remains to be seen in the coming weeks given Palmer and Byers are returning from injury and Smith fell to illness midweek.

There was talk post-match of the Championship requiring different things from players. It’s going to be interesting.

Another perceived yardstick arrives on Saturday when Preston North End arrive at Hillsborough - they’ll arrive unbeaten in their two outings with four points. There is no sense in panic, not after two bleedin’ matches. Things can come together quickly, but Wednesday could do with showing tangible signs of on-field progress sooner rather than later.

May the Good Lord deliver it.