Challinor has had two cup defeats in his first week. Sunday's FA Cup exit at Oldham clearly annoyed him, while Tuesday's 4-0 loss to Accrington in the Jersey Mike's Trophy was a dead rubber played by a much-changed young side. Now the league starts again, and it gets tough straight away.
Wednesday's next ten games take them to New Year's Day. Challinor says nine of them are against teams expecting to be in the promotion race, and the other is next week's derby at Barnsley. So Saturday is a chance to start building momentum, in front of a crowd he's clearly excited about.
"I can't wait," the Owls boss said, recalling how loud the anthem was even at Tuesday's much smaller gathering.
Owls team news: problems on the left
Wednesday could be missing as many as 11 players, and the left side is the biggest worry. Max Lowe is injured, Reece James isn't expected back until mid-December and Kieran Morrison is away with Northern Ireland, so someone will probably have to play out of position. Liam Palmer, Sil Swinkels and Harry Gray have all been mentioned.
That could even affect Challinor's preferred back three. Asked whether he might switch to a flat four, he said "potentially." But Di'Shon Bernard, Ricardo Santos, Swinkels and Liam Cooper are all expected back in the squad, and with that many centre-backs available, sticking with three may be the simpler answer.
There's better news elsewhere. Billy Mitchell is back in full training. Barry Bannan and Callum Slattery will be fresh after sitting out Accrington. Louie Barry, who hasn't played since hurting his ankle at Wycombe on 1 September, could make his comeback. Challinor worked with him at Stockport and won't rule him in or out yet: "Maybe Saturday."
Argyle: "A bit of a siege mentality"
Tom Cleverley's side arrive with problems of their own. Argyle captain Joe Edwards and defender Julio Pleguezuelo will miss about a month. Striker Bim Pepple is set to miss one or two games. Michael Baidoo, who only returned from hamstring surgery last week and scored his first Argyle goal in the FA Cup win over Alvechurch, has hurt the same hamstring again and will be out for longer than a month.
Alex Mitchell (a new muscle problem) and Tyreeq Bakinson (managing his workload) are both late calls. Jared Rendle is following concussion protocol.
"We're a small squad heading up to Hillsborough, but we are not short of quality," Cleverley said. "It's a bit of a siege mentality. Roll your sleeves up, bite down on the gum shield."
There are some positives for the Pilgrims. Caleb Watts is back in training, Matty Sorinola is close, and Owen Oseni came through 45 minutes on Tuesday. Cleverley says Oseni's sprint numbers are "off the charts." He's exactly the kind of runner Challinor has warned about. The Owls boss expects Argyle to be direct and aggressive, to run in behind and to put crosses in, and he says Wednesday will have to defend their box well.
Cleverley also knows what the occasion means. It's a new manager's first home league game in front of a big crowd, and he said, "we want to dampen that." Around 1,000 Argyle fans are expected to make the trip.
Danger man: Ronan Curtis
After a brief dip, Curtis is back in form. He scored in both of Argyle's last two games and captained a young side in midweek. Cleverley's verdict: "Ronan's the kind of guy you want to take to Hillsborough."
Head to head
Wednesday have won four of the last five meetings, scoring nine and conceding three. Plymouth's only win in that run was 3-0 at Home Park in October 2023. The last League One meeting at Hillsborough, in February 2023, finished 1-0 to the Owls.
Form (last five): Wednesday WLLDD · Plymouth WLLWD
Getting there
Kick-off is 3pm on Saturday 14 November. Turnstiles open at 1:30pm, and the club is asking fans to arrive early because of the size of the crowd. The ticket office and Megastore open at 9am. Béres sausage rolls are now on sale all around the ground.
Full stats are in the Match Centre.
Sources: The Wednesday Word, swfc.co.uk, Plymouth Argyle pre-match press conference, BBC Sport.