Garry Monk determined to see his long job through at fundamentally-flawed Sheffield Wednesday

For too long they have been wandering down the wrong path and they realise it now.

Drained though he looked as he sat down for his post-match Zoom conference after Wednesday's demoralising 3-1 defeat to Preston North End, Garry Monk outlined his determination to lead the Owls back to a better place but warned it will need patience. That is always hard to come by in the Championship.

The debate about how big a share of the blame belongs to him is in full flow amongst concerned Wednesdayites.

“It's a heck of a job, isn't it?” he was asked.

“It is,” he replied. “But it's one I am determined to do, that I can promise.

“It needs a lot of work, a huge amount of work. It needs patience but that side of it is out of your control.”

If he mentioned “fundamentals” once, he must have said it a thousand times. Winning 1-0 with 12 minutes to go, his players lost concentration and conceded three sloppy goals to consign themselves to a third consecutive defeat. In the previous one, at Swansea City, poor finishing had been the focus.

This is a squad that has been constructed at great cost to win promotion, and failed to do so. The club has paid more in wages than it can afford to achieve a 15th-place finish in 2018, 12th last year. They are 16th this season with four matches to play. That overspending necessitated the sort of financial gymnastics over the sale and lease-back of Hillsborough which has come under investigation. The result of the independent commission's deliberations and/or an appeal will go a long way to deciding if the club does get out of the Championship after all, by dropping into League One.

The squad has been put together by so many different managers it is a mish-mash.

Before June's departures it was the second oldest in this season's Championship, yet Monk put the lack of defensive concentration down to inexperience.

“I don't think they're particularly experienced players, apart from maybe Julian (Borner),” he said of his back three. “Dom (Iorfa)'s never played centre-back before (this season).”

The killer equalising goal from Scott Sinclair was more about what was between the defenders' ears than in their boots.

“Structurally we are good but it is concentration in the critical moments and the fundamentals of solid decisions, competing, winning your headers, winning those battles and covering,” complained Monk. “Definitely defensively in that last bit we didn't do that (against Preston). The goal was typical of that. We had two players go for the same ball, one playing offside and it is basic fundamentals.”

In Steven Fletcher and Fernando Forestieri, they lost 78 goals for the club at the end of the month too.

The expiring contracts have left a skeletal squad at what – depending on the independent commission – could be a critical moment in the club's history. Connor Wickham and Kieran Lee were missing through “fatigue”, goalscorer Jacob Murphy came off because of it. Captain Tom Lees did not feel right to play despite a clear scan result.

Tired bodies cause the tired minds which were to blame for the late goals, but late goals were a big problem in the old world before five substitutes and nine games in 32 days.

The extra substitutes are of little help to the Owls. On Wednesday they had three who had never played for the first team, another who had never started a Championship game. Preston had three who scored goals.

One of Monk's former clubs, Middlesbrough, have been through the process of restructuring their finances this season and have found it tough. They are in a relegation battle with Hull City, another club who have had to cut back after losing Premier League parachute payments.

It needs someone to be given the time and patience to see the Hillsborough rebuild through, not leave part-way through for someone else to start again. Monk has been given that job and it is not an enviable one but it is very necessary.

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