Are we starting to see some of the Sheffield Wednesday pieces slotting into place?
Alan Biggs hopes Sheffield Wednesday’s win over AFC Wimbledon on Saturday will see Henrik Pedersen given more understanding and respect
Sheffield Wednesday by numbers - 5, 18 and 10.
You're five months on from your club almost going to the wall. You've signed 18 new players. You're 10 matches in. Or eight as it was before Wednesday dispatched AFC Wimbledon 5-0 last Saturday to quell a sacking campaign . How can you judge a manager on such a span in circumstances like that?!
And yet (writing ahead of the 10th at Notts County in midweek) that's the world we're living in.
How do you get so many new parts to magically mesh with perfection in a fifth of the season? Answer, without magic you don't.
Which is not to say the criticism leading up to Wimbledon, amplifying a recurring theme, was unjustified. I made some of it myself - crucially without reaching for an unwarranted sweeping conclusion on one individual.
The rush to judgment on Henrik Pedersen has been exactly that. A rush.
Had some of the "get him gone" brigade got their wish, there would have been condemnation and disbelief from the wider world that a high-riding manager losing only one game with a club in total rebuild mode had acted so hastily.
Hopefully last Saturday's result - and more importantly, an essentially much more positive performance - will see Pedersen given more understanding and respect. Though I'm not holding my breath.
But maybe, at still such a formative time, we're seeing some of the pieces slotting into place.
Among them, conclusive proof that Davis Keillor-Dunn is best deployed through the middle in a slightly withdrawn front role. Evidence also that the balance of the team isn't best served by starting with both wide men, Kieran Morrison and Harry Gray, who was outstanding last Saturday. Also that Barry Bannan and Jaden Heskey offers a better midfield balance than the skipper's pairing with Billy Mitchell.
But the biggest lesson of all - keep the attacking risk-reward mindset that Pedersen has preached without seeing his side put it into consistent action.
These are still early days. Whatever Tuesday's result, Wednesday have a platform to go forward without a crazy need to throw all the pieces back up in the air.
Imagine, had a new manager replicated exactly these results and performances, would anyone have been calling for his head?