Rooney admits Pilgrims still have plenty to work on

WAYNE Rooney has admitted there is still plenty for Plymouth Argyle to work on going into the start of the 2024/25 Championship campaign.

- CHRIS ERRINGTON

The Pilgrims begin against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough next Sunday and are coming off a pre-season which has seen them win three and draw one of their five games, and lose the other one.

Their final warm-up match was the 1-0 victory at MK Dons on Saturday, which came courtesy of a 69th minute goal from substitute Ryan Hardie.

Rooney was pleased with some aspects of Argyle's performance, but they did not play with the intensity he would have liked in the first half or get the ball enough to the attacking players, such as 18-year-old Freddie Issaka.

Issaka started for the Pilgrims in the 'number 10' position, which Mustapha Bundu and Callum Wright have also been tried out during pre-season. Rooney said: "A lot of focus today was on how we defend, both in the opposition's half and obviously when you defend your box, and I thought we did it quite well.

"First half I would like to see a little bit more intensity with that, but second half we were a lot more aggressive, won the ball back high up the pitch and created chances from it.

We get the goal from pressing higher.