Rooney rage at ‘unacceptable’ Argyle display on sorry return
An hour into what was a chastening reintroduction to Championship management for Wayne Rooney, there was an uncharitable chorus of “You’re getting sacked in the morning” from a section of the Sheffield Wednesday support.
Even by football’s hire-and-fire standards that would be crazy, but there were precious few positives from the first game of Rooney’s latest venture.
His Plymouth team were overpowered by Wednesday and beaten all ends up. The visitors managed only one shot on target – a 26th-minute free-kick from Adam Forshaw that was easily dealt with by James Beadle in the Wednesday goal.
As a signpost to what lies ahead for Rooney in his fourth job it was alarming and he read the riot act to his players afterwards.
“I think it’s a wake-up call to us all,” Rooney said. “Everything about the game today I didn’t like. You can lose football games, but you have to make sure you’re running and tackling and getting to the ball.
The basics of the game weren’t good enough and that’s not acceptable.
“I’m disappointed, angry and after everything I’ve seen from the players in pre-season, surprised.
“I don’t think it’s the time to panic. We have to stay calm and it doesn’t change our ambitions of what we want to achieve this season. The players know my thoughts. I told them after the game if I see a performance like that from any player, whether they have been at the club a long time or are new to the club, they won’t play.”
Rooney’s return to Championship management after his disastrous tenure at Birmingham City last season has a lot riding on it. He was dismissed in January after just 83 days in charge during which time he oversaw a slide from sixth to 15th, with Birmingham eventually going down.
After making a creditable start to management in near-impossible circumstances at Derby, Rooney failed to kick on at DC United in the MLS and departed after their failure to make the play-offs. Then came Birmingham. The England legend cannot afford another failure at Plymouth if he is to make a fist of his managerial career.
Rooney included five summer signings in his first starting XI, but it was Wednesday’s new arrivals who made much the more significant impact with a goal from Jamal Lowe and an outstanding debut from Yan Valery at right-back.
Although Wednesday narrowly escaped the drop themselves last season, they were one of the form sides in the Championship over the run-in and carried that on yesterday. They put Plymouth under sustained pressure, prompting Rooney into an animated interjection during the first-half water break on a roasting afternoon.
It fell on deaf ears. Wednesday took the lead in the 35th minute with a high-quality goal crafted down the right by Barry Bannan and Svante Ingelsson and converted by Lowe, sliding into the six-yard box to slam the Swede’s cross home. It was the perfect start to Lowe’s Wednesday career having
arrived from Bournemouth last month.
Wednesday doubled their lead seven minutes into the second half as Plymouth defender Brendan Galloway inadvertently diverted Lowe’s header back across the six-yard box into his own net.
With the visitors being pulled from pillar to post, Anthony Musaba missed a great chance to make it three moments later.
Rooney’s response was a triple substitution but it had little difference and Josh Windass made it 3-0 in the 82nd minute after some lovely approach work by Musaba.
Substitute Michael Smith completed the rout in added time
as Rooney looked on, hands on hips.
For Wednesday, there was much to savour. “This is the dominant football I want to see,” said manager Danny Rohl. “I like it but we know it’s just the first step this season. We showed why we are maybe sexy this season and we must keep going.”