'Football can be cruel' - Wayne Rooney frustrated by having to give 'same message' to Plymouth players after suffering another defeat in woeful start in Championship

Plymouth lost 1-0 to Stoke on Saturday, in what was their fourth game of the season. Argyle are yet to win a game this season, losing 4-0 to Sheffield Wednesday on the opening day, before drawing with both Hull City and QPR.

Rooney believes that Plymouth simply have to be more clinical; they recorded 15 shots, of which seven were on target, against Stoke, but did not manage to find the back of the net. As a result, they now sit 22nd in the Championship.

Rooney told reporters: "Again, I'm sat here talking about being clinical and being ruthless. If we do that today, I think we win the game.

"We allowed Stoke to still be a threat, especially on transition, second half and they get a goal towards the end. Disappointed with the result but I think there was lots of good things in the game. The big thing for us at the minute is we need to be more clinical. It's the same message I have given the first four games really so that's frustrating."

He added: "They started the first half trying to play more football but after the first 15-20 minutes we pressed them with enough aggression to take that away from them, so I think the game plan was working. I felt if anyone was going to win it, it was probably us but football can be cruel.

"It's a good finish from their lad. It's something we identified, he does that a lot. He cuts in and tries to go near post. We worked with Bali [Mumba] on that and he does everything right really. For a forward, it's clever play, shooting through the defender's legs."

Plymouth will have to live with the defeat throughout the international break before taking on promotion hopefuls Sunderland on September 14.