What Rooney made of Argyle's victory over Cheltenham

WAYNE Rooney was pleased with his Plymouth Argyle players as they continued the build up to the start of their Championship campaign away to Sheffield Wednesday next month with an emphatic 5-1 pre-season win at Cheltenham Town on Saturday.

- CHRIS ERRINGTON

The Pilgrims’ boss admitted there were still things to improve on, such as their passing and pressing of the ball, but scoring five goals and creating plenty of other good chances was an encouraging sign.

Liam Dulson gave Cheltenham an early lead as Argyle were slow to get into the game. However, they were 3-1 up by half-time as Ibrahim Cissoko equalised in the 27th minute and further goals followed from Morgan Whittaker and Muhamed Tijani.

The Pilgrims, whose previous preseason match had been a 2-2 draw with top South African side in Spain, added two more goals against Cheltenham without reply in the second period, through Tijani and Ryan Hardie.

Argyle’s starting line-up played for the first 59 minutes, with the exception of Lewis Gibson replacing Brendan Galloway in a planned substitution at the interval, before there were 10 changes made at the same time, so a total of 22 players were used.

Rooney said: “I thought there was some really good phases of play. Of course, there are still things we can do better but I’m pleased with the performance from everyone, even the lads who came on for the last 30 minutes.

“I thought it was exciting. We have got some really good players in the top end of the pitch and we caused Cheltenham problems and scored five goals. It’s always pleasing when you win.

“It’s stuff we have been working on. There are some details which we can improve on , we were a little bit sloppy at times with a few passes which can cost you, but overall I was really pleased.”