From small acorns: Sheffield Wednesday come out of Southampton baptism of fire 90 minutes closer to the end goal

They’ve warned us time and time again; manager and players. That this will take time.

Kicking it all off against a recently-relegated Premier League side with millions of pounds worth of talent on display? Only the cruellest of on-lookers would have decried a spirited 2-1 defeat. And so it fell.

If Xisco and his players get their way, the performance will be nothing like what is to come as they get to grips with their new instructions. For sections of the first half in particular, they looked passive and confused, with regular looks across to the bench for positional advice. In moments, they bickered among themselves.

From small acorns.

The first hour of The Deer Hunter is a yawning trudge and explodes into one of the greatest pictures of all-time. The opening chapters of Cloud Atlas are more likely to close eyelids than flick pages. Have you seen the first slow-and-steady set-up exchanges in Les Miserables?

That’s not to say this Sheffield Wednesday side are guaranteed to grow into one of culture’s great masterpieces. The laws of football likelihood decree that’s unlikely. But for now, while the season is small and dinky, we can dream.

The fact is, that in trying to head in that direction, in trying to take such a sharp left-turn in playing styles on what looks to be a relatively modest budget and in such precious little time, not much could have been demanded.

A flurry of early chances saw Wednesday roar into ascendancy in the opening stages. They were slick and savvy and broke from deep nicely, so much so that when Nathan Tella opening the scoring via Adam Armstrong’s back in the 8th minute, it felt cruel.

From there, Southampton’s class on the ball was there for all to see.

The Saints were allowed time, in fairness, as the Owls sought to spring out and hit them on the break. Half-time arrived with the home team having had 23% of the ball. To their 251 touches, Southampton had had 602.

And for all those touches, all their incisive passing moves around the edge of the box, they’d not many clear-cut chances. Wednesday had been concise and compact and kept the Saints at bay.

In the second half, whether by performance of design, they seemed to be more aggressive in their movements in and out of possession. And on 54 minutes, they got a reward.

Xisco has made a point of saying the club needed to make huge strides in their threat from set pieces this season and it was from a corner that Wednesday levelled-up, Dominic Iorfa rising highest to push a header in the direction of Lee Gregory to belt home off-balance.

It always felt that the visitors had more quality, as if they had a gear to head to when required. But Wednesday were mixing it with them and traded blows. There were half-chances, half-breaks. For a good 20 minutes they shook the visitors up.

But that Saints quality crept in and knocked the Owls out with just three minutes to go when former Sheffield United man Che Adams finished off a slick move that found the Wednesday defence just slightly flat-footed.

There are vast technical aspects to this new Wednesday set-up that will take time to pick apart and understand in terms of analysis. And for that we apologise. For now, we continue to look for the green shoots of possibility in what they’re trying to build.

The Owls are pointless, but the evening was anything but. They emerge 90 minutes closer to what they’ll become.

Whether that proves to be something Deer Hunter or more Deary Me is one for several weeks down the line.