Sheffield Wednesday 3 Plymouth 0: A win's a win as Owls get Dave Challinor up and running without sparkling
If Sheffield Wednesday's performances were what got Henrik Pedersen the sack, then perhaps it was not the best of starts to life back in League One for Dave Challinor, but the Owls were not in a position to be picky about how they won.
After six games without a win and back-to-back cup defeats to start Challinor's managerial reign, it did not matter how they beat Plymouth Argyle, just that they did.
A 3-0 win with goals from the excellent Billy Mitchell, Davis Keillor-Dunn and a brilliant individual goal from Di'Shon Bernard flattered Wednesday.
None of the home fans in the 29,228 will have cared.
With only a patchy schedule in international week, they are back in the League One play-off places and above Plymouth on goal difference.
Wednesday were very poor in the first half until taking the lead just as it came to the end. They matched the Pilgrims in the second half without blowing them away.
The atmosphere for Challinor's first home league game was pretty flat for the first hour, with the team failing to get the Hillsborough crowd excited.
The Owls' first-half football was as low-key as Challinor's introduction to the crowd, Plymouth's football not as bright as their luminous orange kit and certainly not on a par with the annoying pitchside advertising hoardings, but much better than Wednesday's in the opening 44 minutes.
Starting in a shape which flitted between 4-2-3-1 and 3-2-4-1 as Sil Swinkels tucked in and Yan Valery pushed on in possession, the Owls struggled to keep the ball and therefore pose any attacking threat to a team who, like them, have promotion ambitions and a long injury list.
Jaden Heskey being caught on the ball in the ninth minute summed up the hosts' slackness and he was fortunate Callum Slattery tracked back and made a penalty-area tackle which had to be perfectly timed.
Roman Curtis had a shot saved by the fit-again Joe Lumley in the tenth minute after Xavier Amaechi nutmegged Swinkels in the build up. The ball was bundled behind for a corner Lumley flapped at but Will Evans could only cushion his volley from it into the side netting.
A lovely ball from Malachi Boateng found Bradley Ibrahim, but Lumley came off his line to save. Evans shot at the goalkeeper when picked out.
Bernard was hassled into an error in the 37th minute but made up for it with some good defending when the ball came in, just as he made a good recovery tackle when Amaechi threatened to force his way through.
In between time, Ibrahim missed a woeful chance, thrashing at fresh air rather than the ball Amaechi laid on for him. The far-post header Amaechi put wide in the 63rd minute would equal it for wastefulness.
That said, Plymouth had a reprieve in the 17th minute when Curtis planted his studs into the chest of Jamal Lowe, but only received a yellow card.
As half-time approached, Wednesday had only had a couple of half-chances, Mitchell's first-time wall pass finding Keillor-Dunn on the counter-attack but his ball to Barry Bannan giving Wes Harding the chance to make a brilliant slide tackle.
Slattery's excellent pass found Mitchell in the 35th minute, but, forced wide, he could only win a corner.
But the Owls delivered right at the end of the half.
Bernard thought he had scored from a corner, only for Ibrahim to nod his goalbound effort over the bar and when former Owls loanee touched the next one to Mitchell, his shot took a big deflection on its way in.
The sides matched each other chance for chance at the start of the second half.
A quick throw-in set up Keillor-Dunn for a shot that was blocked, and when Plymouth counter-attacked, the same fate befell Ibrakim's effort.
With the crowd sensing the part they had to play, just after the hour Keillor-Dunn released Lowe to weave his way through and force a save. The ball came back to Keillor-Dunn, who really ought to have hit the target. So should Amaechi with his header a minute later.
Louie Barry had an early chance to mark his first appearance since September 1 with a goal, but leant back on his shot.
Two goals in as many minutes put the doubts out of minds, though.
The first came when Plymouth defended a Slattery free-kick awfully, and Keillor-Dunn popped up to poke hme a centre-forward's goal, his sixth of the season.
If he was an entirely predictable scorer, Bernard was not.
The centre-back loves to barrel forward from time to time but it rarely ends with a finish as good as the one he hit in off a post after what turned out to be a one-two in his own half with Boateng's sliding tackle and just carrying on.
It papered over a few cracks, but no matter.
A win is a win.
Sheffield Wednesday: Lumley; Valery, Bernard, Cooper, Swinkels; Mitchell, Heskey; Slattery, Bannan (Barry 72), J Lowe (Palmer 85); Keillor-Dunn (Gray 85).
Unused substitutes: Santos, Trueman, Weaver, Thornton.
Plymouth Argyle: Cooper; Harding, MacKenzie (Irow 63), Hartridge; Curtis, Boateng, White (Oseni 77), Ross; Amaechi, Ibrahim (Watts 63); Evans.
Unused substitutes: Storer, Campbell, Mwaro, Maund.
Referee: A Backhouse (Carlisle).