Xisco Munoz looking for Sheffield Wednesday middle ground after performance of extremes against Middlesbrough

For a team with only point to their name beforehand, the Owls looked surprisingly confident in the first half of their game with Middlesbrough, and were rewarded with an Anthony Musaba goal.

But in the second half they looked a team without a Championship win this season, surrendering the initiative to an equally out-of-form Boro side, who equalised through Darragh Lenihan.

The result was a 1-1 draw which left both clubs rooted in the relegation zone.

It showed Munoz – not for the first time – what his team is capable of just not, it seems for a whole game.

"We need to find a balance," said the Spaniard. "The first-half performance was at a good level but we went from a top level to a low one.

"In the Championship you can't control the game for 90 minutes, I understand that, but our drop-off is too great. That's one of the things we need to improve.

"The second half was a totally different game.

"In other games it was the first half that was poor and the second half that was good.

"Our most difficult job in the future is to try and find this (first-half) level because we've shown we can doit. In the first half we controlled the game.

"We have to find more balance because when the two halves are so far apart it's very difficult to analayse the game. The first half and the second half were black and white.

"We need to do it with mentality, with personality, with tactics and physical conditioning. We have to improve these things.

"Last season we won a lot of games and this season it's more difficult.

"We need to improve in the last third. I'm looking at the positive side but I'm very frustrated about the other side."

The game was watched by former Sheffield United, Charlton Athletic and Nottingham Forest striker Lyle Taylor, who looks set to take the spot in the Owls squad set aside for a free agent signing.

"We spoke before about what we’re working on, that we were trying to find one striker for us - we’re looking for somebody who can give us something different, something to improve the last third," he said.

"We can improve at training every day and maybe in three months we are at the level, or we can find another one - so now he’s training with us, and after that we’ll decide if he’s going to continue with us or not.

"Right now he’s an option, and we’ll evaluate whether he can give something special for the team and help the squad. He’s the sort of player than can give something different."