One thing is guaranteed on the opening weekend of the Championship season: a flood of hyperbole that is easy to get carried away with. What we see in the early August sunshine almost always doesn’t translate into reality in May and, based on what Wayne Rooney delivered here in his first game as Plymouth Argyle manager, he will surely hope that is the case.
Opening weekend results and performances can often feel seismic in one way or another: after all, it is the only sample we have to base our decision on, so to say this was an inauspicious start for Rooney in the Argyle dugout would be an understatement.
These two sides finished 20th and 21st in the Championship last season, but at first glance the gap could be a little wider this time around. Sheffield Wednesday have been riding a wave of momentum since Danny Röhl’s arrival in S6 last October, and that continued here thanks to a thoroughly deserved win over Argyle.
Goals from Jamal Lowe, Josh Windass and Michael Smith, as well as an own goal from Brendan Galloway, gave the scoreline the one-sidedness it deserved. And while Röhl, the swashbuckling Rooney, three years his junior, kicked every ball and made every tackle with his players, Rooney spent most of the afternoon standing in his coaching zone with his arms folded, trying to take in what his players were doing – or not doing.
Had it not been for the Owls’ goal drought, this defeat could have been even more embarrassing. Rooney’s unfortunate time at Birmingham last season ended with two wins in 15 games and his start at his new club was a real humiliation – and the man himself didn’t hold back in his assessment.
“I’m disappointed, angry and surprised,” Rooney said. “We knew it was going to be a tough game in a good atmosphere… but the fundamentals of the game weren’t there. Today’s performance is not possible and the players know that and hopefully it’s the last time this season. I didn’t like everything about the game.”
While Rooney was understandably downcast after the game, there was a very different mood among the hosts. There is a strong belief that Röhl, who was persuaded on Wednesday to sign a new long-term contract in the summer, can orchestrate a return to the good times at Hillsborough and one of the great old institutions of English football rocked all afternoon.
Last season, Wednesday had to wait until the end of October to win a football match; here there was never any doubt that the wait would end much sooner. “This is the dominant football I want to see,” said Röhl. “But we know that this is only the first step to the season. There are 45 more to come.”
The writing was on the wall before a ball was even kicked, as Plymouth had the names of Adam Forshaw and Ibrahim Cissoko misspelled on their shirts. The onus and momentum were on Wednesday from the start and a goal that felt inevitable came 10 minutes before half-time when Lowe crowned his Wednesday debut with a fine finish.
after newsletter campaign
That was thanks to a wonderful pass from 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 tipped the ball into his own net following a Lowe header. Rooney responded with a triple substitution, but that did little to stop the trend.
Windass then scored the third goal with a fine finish and when Smith scored the fourth in the dying seconds of stoppage time, the calls for Roehl to be the new hero of this part of Sheffield were relentless. Rooney, on the other hand, seemed humble.
The final whistle saw the Style Council’s ‘Shout to the Top’ sounded to celebrate Wednesday ending the opening weekend at the summit of the Championship. Rooney will be hoping there is an ever-changing mood to counteract the queasy feeling he must have felt here.
