If there is one thing you are guaranteed from the opening weekend of the Championship season, it is a tidal wave of hyperbole that is easy to get swept away in. What we see in the early August sunshine almost always fails to translate into reality by the time we reach May and on the basis of what Wayne Rooney’s first game as Plymouth Argyle manager delivered here, he will certainly be hoping that is the case.
Results and performances on the opening weekend can often feel seismic one way or the other: after all, it’s the only sample size we’ve got to go on. So to suggest this was an inauspicious start for Rooney in the Argyle dugout would be putting it mildly.
These two sides finished 20th and 21st in the Championship last season but on first glimpse here there could be a slightly bigger gap between them this time. Sheffield Wednesday have ridden a wave of momentum since Danny Röhl’s arrival in S6 last October which continued here courtesy of a thoroughly deserved win against Argyle.
Strikes from Jamal Lowe, Josh Windass and Michael Smith along with a Brendan Galloway own goal gave the scoreline the kind of one‑sided feel it deserved. And while the swashbuckling Röhl, three years Rooney’s junior, kicked every ball and made every tackle with his players, Rooney spent most of the afternoon standing in his technical area with his arms folded, trying to take in what his players delivered; or didn’t, as it were.
Had it not been for some profligacy in front of goal from the Owls, the margin of this defeat could have been even more embarrassing. Rooney’s ill-fated spell at Birmingham last season yielded two wins in 15 games and his was a real humiliation to start his time with his new club – and the man himself did not hold back in his assessment.
“I’m disappointed, angry and surprised,” Rooney said. “We knew we were expecting a tough game in a good atmosphere … but the basics of the game weren’t there. Today’s performance can’t happen and the players know that and hopefully that’s the last time this season. Everything about the game, I didn’t like.”
While the post‑match tone of Rooney was understandably downbeat, there was a very different mood from the hosts. There is a genuine belief that Röhl, who Wednesday convinced to sign a new long-term deal in the summer, can orchestrate a return towards the good times at Hillsborough and one of English football’s grand old institutions was rocking all afternoon.
It took Wednesday until late October to win a football match last season; here, there was never any doubt that wait would end much earlier. “This is the dominant football I want to see,” Röhl said. “But we know it’s just the first step to the season. There are 45 more.”
The writing felt on the wall before a ball had even been kicked here with Plymouth spelling the names of Adam Forshaw and Ibrahim Cissoko incorrectly on their shirts. The onus and momentum were with Wednesday from the off and a goal you felt was inevitable duly arrived 10 minutes before half-time, when Lowe marked his Wednesday debut with a well-taken finish.
Bloody hell Plymouth. Can’t even spell their own players names correctly on their shirts. #PAFC pic.twitter.com/LRQmpSnWUP
— Austin (@LCAustin_) August 11, 2024
That came courtesy of a wonderful assist from the new signing Svante Ingelsson; he and the ageless Barry Bannan terrorised Plymouth all afternoon. They doubled their lead seven minutes after the break when Galloway inadvertently turned the ball into his own net from a Lowe header, and while Rooney reacted with a triple substitution it did little to stem the tide.
Windass then hit the third with a lovely finish and by the time Smith scored their fourth in the final seconds of injury time the chants for Röhl, the new hero of this particular part of Sheffield, were relentless. Rooney, in contrast, appeared humbled.
The final whistle brought with it a rendition of the Style Council’s Shout to the Top to celebrate Wednesday ending the opening weekend at the Championship’s summit. Rooney will hope there is an Ever Changing Mood to counter the sinking feeling he would have felt here.
