Dave Challinor's reign began with an FA Cup first-round exit at Boundary Park, beaten 2-1 after extra time by League Two Oldham Athletic. Wednesday had 71% of the ball and almost nothing to show for it.
This was not a weakened side. Injuries took out the strikers, but the XI that started had plenty of Championship experience. It should have been more than enough. Instead, the new manager spent much of Sunday on the touchline with his hands in the air, writing notes the cameras later caught. They were not kind to his players.
A testimonial in the first half
Challinor went with a 3-4-3. Ricardo Santos was recalled alongside Di'Shon Bernard and Liam Palmer at the back. Yan Valery, Jaden Heskey, Barry Bannan and Jordi Liongola made up the midfield four, with Callum Slattery and Davis Keillor-Dunn either side of Jamal Lowe. With Mason Burstow out for four to six weeks with a groin injury, and Harry Gray pulling out in the warm-up, Lowe had to lead the line. He is a winger, and it showed.
Oldham started on the front foot and Wednesday were soon chasing simple balls over the top, the same weakness Blackpool exposed a week earlier. Bernard was booked inside seven minutes for pulling back a runner. Not long after, Santos was caught on the wrong side, and Ashley Maynard-Brewer rushed out to clear and collided with Mike Fondop. He went off after 17 minutes, replaced by Connal Trueman.
With the ball, Wednesday were slow and safe. Passes went sideways and backwards. The wing-backs, who provide all the width in this system, stayed on their heels instead of overlapping. Wednesday managed one shot before the break, an early Slattery effort. Challinor's own verdict afterwards: it was "like a testimonial".
Twenty minutes of what could be
Wednesday were a little better after the break, but it was a low bar. Bannan had a decent early shot, and then Oldham scored on 66 minutes. Keillor-Dunn won the ball, but it was soon lost again. Palmer was turned far too easily out wide, Oldham worked it through Noah Chilvers and Fondop, and Calum Kavanagh finished. On the balance of play, nobody could argue.
Challinor had seen enough. On 71 minutes he made a triple change, sending on Max Lowe, Sean Fusire and Kieran Morrison for Palmer, Liongola and Santos. The difference was instant. Max Lowe whipped a cross round the back of Oldham's defence, Fusire kept the move alive and cut it back, and Keillor-Dunn, facing his old club, turned smartly to finish into the bottom corner. 1-1 on 76 minutes.
For about 20 minutes Wednesday looked like the side Challinor wants. They held the ball five or ten yards further up the pitch and pushed Oldham back. Max Lowe played a pass that split the defence and sent Keillor-Dunn through, only for him to be blocked. Then it faded. Why does it take going a goal down for this team to start playing?
Undone by a punt
Tempers boiled over five minutes from the end of normal time. Oldham manager Micky Mellon was sent off after a touchline clash with Slattery, and Challinor, Mellon's old team-mate, was among those who had to pull them apart. Slattery was booked for his part. Challinor said afterwards that the fire lifted his side, and he wants to see more of it.
By extra time Wednesday were cramping all over the pitch and seemed to be playing for penalties. Challinor contrasted them with Barry Bannan, 36 and still running everywhere.
The winner summed up the afternoon. Oldham launched a free kick from the halfway line. A cluster of Wednesday players at the front post all missed it. Oldham's big centre-half chested it down unchallenged, and the ball was worked back into the box. Max Lowe got a faint touch, Trueman came for a punch and missed, Bernard missed too, and Will Sutton headed home on 110 minutes. Bernard lashed narrowly wide and substitute Will Grainger had a shot blocked, but Oldham held on. It was Sunday-league defending.
The numbers
The numbers tell the story. Wednesday had 71% possession and completed 678 passes to Oldham's 197, but produced an expected goals figure of just 0.72. The defeat leaves Wednesday with one win in seven in all competitions.
Challinor has said he wants possession with a purpose. On Sunday Wednesday had the possession and none of the purpose. Too many players stood still waiting for the ball rather than running to make space for someone else. When the width comes only from the wing-backs, the wing-backs have to go. Liongola and Valery didn't.
The goals conceded follow a pattern too. Oldham were happy to let Wednesday have the ball and go direct, and two of their goals came from exactly that: a duel lost out wide and a long free kick nobody dealt with. Oldham rarely had to work hard to score.
Injuries and the week ahead
The injury list grew on Sunday. Max Lowe felt something after the final whistle, which is the biggest worry given how much he changed the game. Maynard-Brewer was feeling ill after his collision and will be assessed. Bernard pulled up late in extra time, though Challinor did not seem concerned. Harry Gray's hip knock from training is a soft-tissue injury that Challinor says is not serious, and Burstow faces four to six weeks out. Several defenders are back but can't yet manage 90 minutes, which forced Challinor to use subs at the back rather than change things up front.
There is little time to fix it. The Owls host Accrington Stanley on Wednesday, then face Plymouth on Saturday, at the start of a Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday run. Challinor was clear that fitness has to come from what happens on the training pitch every day.
Verdict: the players have nowhere to hide
Challinor had less than a week with this group, and nobody expected a finished side. But none of what went wrong at Boundary Park was new. The sideways passing, the wing-backs who don't run, and the soft goals were all there under the previous manager too. The blame can't keep landing on whoever is in the dugout.
The 20 minutes after Oldham scored showed what this squad can do. The question is why it lasts only 20 minutes. Challinor has a reputation for not minding whom he upsets, and his notebook suggests some players will soon find out. A target man in January would help. Real change will need the players to raise their own standards first.
Sources: The Wednesday Word, The Star, Owls Extra, Oldham Times.