Rooney blasts Plymouth as ‘nowhere near good enough’ after 6-1 defeat by Norwich

Plymouth boss Wayne Rooney admitted his side got what they crashed after a humiliating 6-1 defeat at Norwich.

Borja Sainz led the way with his second hat-trick of the season as Argyle slipped to their third heavy away defeat in the Championship this season, following previous setbacks in Sheffield Wednesday and Cardiff.

'We weren't nearly good enough; we are down to the bone with injuries but that is no excuse,” Rooney said.

'We were lucky that we were only 2-1 behind at half time. You hope for a response in the second half, but once it became 3-1 I thought we were going down and that is very disappointing. The players just didn't look like they thought they could get back into it.

'We have to be much better than that, the next 24 to 48 hours won't be very fun for the players.

'I've praised them a lot this season for their performances at home, but away has to be much better than this and we need to get to the bottom of why this keeps happening. It can't go on like this any longer.

“I just feel sorry for the fans who came all the way here; they're not going to like what they saw tonight.”

Norwich were all over Plymouth in the opening stages and took the lead after just two minutes when Sainz fired home and the visitors applauded in vain for offside.

After relentless pressure, Sainz doubled his side's lead after 17 minutes with his latest cool finish and although Mustapha Bundu pulled back a lead just before half-time after a risky pass-out was intercepted, it was one-way traffic again in the second half. .

Shane Duffy quickly made it 3-1 by heading in a corner before Sainz completed his hat-trick just after the middle of the half by curling the ball past an exposed Daniel Grimshaw.

Substitute Anis Ben Slimane and Ante Crnac produced some clever finishes late on to make it a miserable evening for Rooney's men.

Norwich head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup was delighted to see his side return to victory after failing to win any of the previous seven in the Championship.

He said: “It was great to see the team scoring goals again, that's what pleased me most tonight. It's the reason we play the way we do: to create chances and score goals.

'I was very pleased with the way we started the match, it got the crowd moving and immediately improved the atmosphere.

“For twenty to twenty-five minutes I thought we were really good, but then we dropped off a bit and let them back in.”

“I reminded the players at half-time that they have to be clean and focused on the ball, even when they are on top, and we were better in the second half.”

As for Sainz, who now has 15 goals to his name this season, Thorup added: 'He finds himself in the same kind of positions over and over again and then shows his individual quality to score the goals.

'With the way he's playing at the moment, I'm not looking forward to January, that's for sure!'