Dave Challinor shook his head, looked down at the floor and sat back down in the dugout.

It was not the first time that the new Sheffield Wednesday manager cut a frustrated figure on the touchline as The Owls slumped to an extra-time defeat to League Two Oldham Athletic at a misty Boundary Park in the FA Cup on Sunday evening. When one of his assistants, Clint Hill, stepped into the technical area, he too looked exasperated at times.

Twenty-four hours earlier, thick fog had made Altrincham vs Notts County almost impossible to tell what was happening. Managers could not work out what the other team was doing tactically. Fans had no idea if penalties had been scored. A goalkeeper jokingly claimed he saved them all. It has been dubbed as the FA Cup tie that no one saw. For those in the away end at Boundary Park, particularly in the first-half, they too might have been wishing that they could not see what was unfolding. Passes went astray time and time again. Poor decision-making. Attacks broke down. Forward passes not taken. Errors. A lack of creativity. No pace. No target man to provide a foothold. Key players missing through injury. Others not able to complete 90 minutes. The list goes on.

He does, but if he didn’t, Challinor would certainly know now what a big job he has on his hands. Speaking pitchside last night, he said he did not learn anything knew that he did not already know. But maybe us on the outside did. Maybe this group of players is not as good as we initially thought. For the first game under a new manager, it was a lacklustre outing. Where was the energy? The desire to impress? Hands up. I thought Wednesday were nailed-on to win. New manager ‘bounce’ and all that. But they were second best for large periods and Oldham deserved their victory for their grit and determination. They played it like a proper cup tie. Wednesday approached it like a pre-season friendly. Ironically, they lost 4-0 against the same opponent at the same venue in the summer.

Challinor did not try and sugar-coat it afterwards. He was straight-talking. Change needs to happen, he explained, but it won’t happen overnight. Players need to get out of their comfort zones, he continued. The physical condition of the squad is more like pre-season rather than November. They need to be miles better and there is lots of work to be done, he added. Speaking pre-match, he said he was ‘intrigued’ to see if the information they had given the players had ‘landed.’ It was his first opportunity to get ‘eyes on’ in a competitive match. He will need a lot of notepads based on this performance. Challinor did not admit to being shocked by what he saw. But we were.