Another away-day upset was no compensation for foul weather, a 600-mile round trip and around 10 hours on the road.
Sympathy from Paul Sturrock will be cold comfort.
"They're a fantastic crowd, always have been; I know they will have a reasonable season," said the ex-Owls boss
One bright spot - present boss Brian Laws, equally appreciative of the way fans follow the team through thick and thin, recently set a target of a top-10 place after the first 10 games and his team have achieved
that.
In addition, six points from the three-match spell of Charlton and Plymouth away and Forest at home is a very respectable haul.
Wednesday can hold their heads high as they approach the Sheffield derby, and the real comfort is that this will be at Hillsborough.
The way the team are shipping goals away from home is alarming: 16 in five away games.
It is not safe to say that enforced changes on Saturday were directly responsible, with Richard Wood and Peter Gilbert ruled out, but having to change your back four substantially from one game to the next rarely helps.
The Owls had to switch Tommy Spurr to left-back and forge a new centre-back partnership between Steve Watson and Mark Beevers.
But defenders were just unlucky when the highly significant first goal was conceded, in only the 14th minute.
Firstly, Lee Grant could only push out a shot by Paul Gallagher, instead of thrusting it wide of the danger area. Maybe the wind affected the flight of the ball as the keeper tried to judge it.
Spurr attempted to clear from Jamie Mackie but the ball hit Beevers and
bounced into the net.
The first half was a crazy affair. The Owls let in three goals in a 15-minute spell as they battled against the wind but had never been under sustained pressure or outplayed in general football.
I doubt if the hardy Wednesday fans were serious when they chanted "we're going to win 4-3" just after half-time but there was plenty to hold their interest in the second half.
It could have been even more interesing if Francis Jeffers had put away a chance in the 49th minute.
"If we'd had score one, I'd have fancied us to get another," said Laws, who put Jeffers and Jermaine Johnson on as half-time subs and saw both make an impact.
Johnson, with one of several darting runs, paved the way for James O'Connor to put Jeffers through on the edge of the box. The striker looked composed and confident in he way he struck a right-foot shot and I thought it was going to be a goal, but he put it wide.
Would a goal then have made a vast difference to the outcome of the match, by ingniting a Wednesday fightback that made Plymouth crumble, or would the home side have been been sparked into going up a gear? It is hard to say.
The Owls did dominate the second half, in terms of possession, and they played a lot of cohesive football.
A second chance - a close-range shot by O'Connor, saved by Romain Larrieu - was engineered by a wonderful forward pass from Jeffers with the ouside of his right foot, threaded with perfect pace and precision along treacherous, slippery turf, to place the ball in the path of his teammate.
It was the sort of class that will surely hasten the striker's return to the starting line-up.
Laws thought hard about picking him on Saturday but felt that, with Wood out, the team were a bit short on aerial strength and Deon Burton might be needed to help defend against Plymouth set-pieces.
There was also doubt about whether Jeffers would last a 90-minute course but now he has has half a game the next step could well be a start in the Hillsborough derby.
Another player keen for a start, Jimmy Smith, had one of the second-half opportunities when he volleyed wide from a Johnson cross - a shot that also narrowly missed O'Connor as he threw himself forward in front of goal.
In view of the one-sidedness of second half, a three-goal deficit was cruel on Wednesday but they had left themselves with too much to do.
Plymouth could afford to protect their lead and take no risks, and they had another stroke of luck when Tommy Spurr's injury reduced the Owls to 10 men and they were exposed at a corner in the last minute - which created an even harsher scoreline.
Sturrock was pleased with the way his team coped.
"They showed a work ethic and fantastic attitude. The wind was a key factor when we had it in the first half," he said.
"There was a wee bit of luck about our first goal. I think you make that kind of luck; if players are able to run that extra yard and put pressure on the people with the ball, that kind of thing can go your way.
"We dropped too deep in the second half but I'm pleased with the discipline of the team."
Talking of luck, or bad luck if you are Nottingham Forest, Plymouth beat Forest 1-0 on the previous Saturday thanks a clearance hitting Rory Fallon and rebounding into the net. Forest were then undone at Hillsborough by Etienne Esajas's deflected shot last Tuesday.
Saturday's second one was more of an ordinary affair.
Maybe the Owls' defending could have been tighter in he build-up; ultimately Mackie ran on the outside of Spurr and crossed a good early ball that allowed Gallagher to get in front of Watson and score.
For the third one, Wednes-day's problems again came when the ball was in the air.
Whether or not again the wind was a factor, Beevers jumped for a corner at the far post but the ball cleared him and Fallon was behind him unmarked:. Grant blocked the striker's volley but Mackie pounced on the loose ball.
The scoreline mnay have been one-sided but events of the last week and last season confirm the narrowness of the line between success and failure in this division.
Many times in 2007-08 Wednesday did not get the points they deserved. The table was very tight.
At Charlton, 10 days ago, they could easily have lost instead of winning, and then Forest went near to getting some reward at Hillsborough.
Now, only three points cover an incredible number of 14 teams stretching from fifth to 18th positions in the table.
CLICK ON GREEN PLAY BUTTON ABOVE TO SEE MATCH PICTURESWhat do you think? Post your comments below. READ MORE Blades Watch 08-09 - The Season So FarOwls Watch 08-09 - The Season So FarWatch Premiership highlights, international football, golf, tennis, darts and much moreFootball headlinesMore BladesMore OwlsMore SpireitesMore RoversMore RedsMore MillersMore Ice HockeyMore rugby leagueMore rugby unionMore boxingSports columnistsAll sport categoriesThe full article contains 1219 words and appears in Sheffield Star newspaper.
