Sheffield Wednesday: History repeats for under-fire Xisco - repeats apology and talks tactics at WBA

The Owls were more direct and lined up in a 4-4-2 formation, with several players handed opportunities to come into the side after periods out in recent weeks.

But an early John Swift goal proved too much to come back from as Wednesday completed the worst 10-match start to an EFL campaign in their history after failing to lay much of a glove on their hosts save for first half half-chances for Juan Delgado and Tyreeq Bakinson.

The statistics read of depression and familiarity for Owls fans, with 27.2% of possession taken by the strugglers, a 64% pass completion and only four shots across the entire match.

The outing heard more passionate chants from Wednesdayites calling for the exit of both owner Dejphon Chansiri and manager Xisco as they lost further ground on the safety zone - a win for Middlesbrough over Cardiff City stretched the Owls deficit to seven points after just 10 matches.

The Spaniard once again apologised to a hardy travelling support for his side’s performance amid increasing speculation over his future - but had no inclination to resign and reaffirmed his desire to keep battling on.

“I am disappointed,” he told The Star. “We tried to change the formation and we tried to change the players.

“The players gave 100 per cent and we had chances. Again, we conceded with the first shot they had and after we had chances but it is very, very difficult for us to score.

“The difference in the Championship is in these details. Sometimes when we have individual mistakes we have these problems.”

Xisco is yet to give any inch of criticism for his players, who he said gave everything in a match that saw West Brom dominate the ball and have periods of intense attacking pressure.

“The team gave 100 per cent,” he said. “The team did not go down. I understand the fans and everybody is upset at the situation. Today we had two close, we played differently and had some situations, played more direct with two strikers and tried to arrive differently.

“But we have the same end.”