Sheffield Wednesday now have the players to dig them out of trouble - Alan Biggs

And, with the digging out of a first day point after a defensive collapse in the 3-3 thriller with Portsmouth, not to be under-estimated.

Darren Moore has players who can and should be able to “sort it” on the field during those challenging times which recur during any campaign.

It’s surely no accident that six of Wednesday’s eight summer recruits have played in the Championship or higher.

Four of them joined directly from clubs at that level. The squad itself contains 19 players who have performed in the Championship or higher.

Oddly, that is down two on the 21 of last season - following departures - but a firm theme is ingrained in this overall strategy.

The one key difference is that seven of the eight incomings have been permanent signings.

Wednesday will not necessarily have to rip it up and start again should they fall short of promotion for a second season.

Not that this is being contemplated. Certainly not those who have left employment at, variously, Cardiff, Rotherham and Bristol City to join the Owls this window.

It’s fair to say the likes of Michael Smith, Michael Ihiekwe, Will Vaulks and Tyreeq Bakinson have gambled with their future careers to drop a level.

While finance and the pulling power of the Wednesday name will have played a part, these guys must be heavily invested in restoring a proper platform for themselves as well as their new club.

As will be skipper Barry Bannan with an early decision that provided as much magnetism to the place as anything - staying at Hillsborough for an eighth season.

So you have to believe that the sort of wobble that threatened a shock opening day defeat can be eliminated.

Although the post-match focus was on eliminating the conceding of three really soft goals, all resulting from allowing headers to crosses into the box, I thought the reason for the result was rooted in the first half.

Wednesday were in so much control but their tail-off from the 25 minute mark gave Portsmouth the breathing space to regroup at half-time with only a 1-0 deficit.

They have to be more ruthless when on top in a game. It was inevitable that Pompey would adopt a different approach in the second half.

That said, the whole tone of the performance was more positive and progressive than in the ponderous start to last season.

It was a mixture of good and bad but for me, as pointers go, there was more of the former.