Plymouth Argyle will have Wayne Rooney on their minds as they aim for Sheffield Wednesday revenge | OneFootball

The Owls impacted a huge defeat on the Greens on the opening day of the season, in what was Rooney's first match in charge of the Pilgrims

Plymouth Argyle welcome Sheffield Wednesday to Home Park this weekend, with the Pilgrims looking to earn valuable points in the battle against Championship relegation.

The writing has been on the wall from the opening weekend of the season for the Greens, when they travelled to the home of Saturday’s visitors in Wayne Rooney’s first match in charge, and were promptly dispatched 4-0.

The warning signs were there right from the off under the former Manchester United man, with the Green Army experiencing the ultimate humbling as the Owl ran riot in front of the TV cameras.

The upcoming reunion gives the Greens a chance to put the record straight this weekend, with Miron Muslic now the man in the dugout after Rooney’s dismissal on New Year’s Eve.

Plymouth Argyle will still feel raw from Sheffield Wednesday demolition

The hopes and dreams of the 24/25 campaign were abruptly smashed to smithereens at Hillsborough on the opening weekend of the season, as a lacklustre Argyle side capitulated in dramatic fashion.

With five new signings forced into the starting lineup, the Greens looked like a bunch of strangers in their first competitive showing under their new boss, with the Owls rampaging forward time and time again.

It was only a matter of time before the Yorkshire side opened the scoring, and Jamal Lowe duly obliged ten minutes before the interval, with the only surprise being it had taken so long to break the deadlock.

A Brendan Galloway own goal quickly made it two after the restart, before Josh Windass and Michael Smith rubbed salt into the wounds late on, in what would turn out to be the first of many trouncings on the road during the current campaign.

Heading back to Devon with their tails between their legs, all the expectations from the summer had quickly vanished into thin air for the Green Army, with plenty of focus on their new man in the dugout given his struggles in previous roles.

Argyle were made out to be a laughing stock from then on, with an away record that still makes for grim reading not helping matters, while goals and wins were in short supply.

Plymouth Argyle would love Sheffield Wednesday revenge

With the mood around Home Park worsening by the week, it all came to a head around the festive period, with performances getting worse and worse, with no fight left in the side as they rolled over to the likes of Coventry City and Oxford United.

Rooney was gone, and Muslic was in, with the Austrian setting out his stall right from the off that he wanted intensity all over the pitch, with victories over West Bromwich Albion and Millwall showing promising signs of improvement.

While those early glimpses of hope have been extinguished by a run of form games without a win, there will be every hope that the Greens can put the record straight when Wednesday come to town, and get one over on a side that publicly humiliated them earlier in the campaign.

The Owls - like the Pilgrims - have their fair share of injuries right now, and have won just one of their last six, with their faint play-off hopes hanging by a thread as they make the journey to Devon.

With just home matches remaining this season, Muslic knows he needs to make each and every one count if the Greens have any chance of achieving survival, with Tuesday night’s 2-0 reverse at Hull City leaving them six points away from Cardiff City in 21st spot.

Saturday’s encounter will be a world of difference from that opening day showing, with Argyle’s physicality being ramped up since Muslic’s departure, while the Home Park backing will make them more up for the fight than ever.

Get a win under their belts and the Pilgrims will head into a week when they face Portsmouth and Derby County full of momentum, but if they can’t avenge the Rooney horror-show, the feeling of foreboding will be hitting fever pitch at Home Park.