"We have to become men" - Wayne Rooney drops honest Plymouth Argyle message as pressure mounts | OneFootball

Plymouth Argyle manager Wayne Rooney had some tough words for his players after 2-1 home defeat to Swansea City

Wayne Rooney has demanded that his Plymouth Argyle side "become men really quickly" after they suffered their third consecutive loss.

The Pilgrims fell to a 2-1 home defeat to Swansea City, just their second home defeat of the campaign, but it leaves them in trouble in the Championship relegation zone.

Plymouth played well for large parts of their fixture with the Swans, but Rooney was clearly unhappy with the way his side gifted the Welsh club a 2-0 lead, and believes that his players need to show more resilience if they're to get out of this sticky situation and move up the Championship table.

Wayne Rooney makes demand of Plymouth Argyle players

It's been a tough start to life for Rooney at Home Park, and while their home form has been good, losing just twice, it's not been enough to prevent them from slipping into the relegation zone.

In the aftermath of his side's 2-1 defeat to Swansea, Rooney said to GOAL: "We have to do better. We have to show a bit more resilience. I know we have got a lot of young players in there as well but we have to become men very quickly because it doesn't get any easier.

"We have got a really tough game Saturday (away to Sheffield United) and then a really tough fixture list over Christmas. We need to find that resilience, and dig in and stay in games more than what we are doing.

"There's no denying, we know we are going through a difficult moment, and sometimes when you are going through a difficult moment, those small things become big things and seem to go against you, and certainly they have tonight."

Rooney felt that his side played well in the first half, but Jay Fulton's goal for Swansea on the stroke of half-time left his side with it all to do in the second half.

He said: "I felt first half we were the better team. After maybe 10 minutes, we played some really good stuff actually, had a few chances, a few half chances, and didn't take them.

"Then we get hit with a sucker punch by them scoring just before half-time, which was really disappointing because a lot of the stuff we have been working on over the last 10 days is getting to the ball, stopping crosses and blocking shots.

"We allow the cross to come into the box too easy, we don't deal with it well enough, a poor clearance and they score. That obviously makes it more difficult.

"The goals we conceded were naive to say the least so that was really disappointing from our point of view."

Things don't get easier for Plymouth Argyle in the coming weeks

Argyle face a trip to Sheffield United on the weekend, one of the toughest fixtures in the league, before welcoming Middlesbrough to Home Park the following weekend.

These are two tough fixtures which Rooney's side won't be expected to get much from, and it leaves them at risk of being cut adrift in the relegation zone, not an ideal situation.

In fairness to Rooney, he doesn't have the strongest of squads to choose from, so it's always going to be a tough ask getting results, but he'll be aware that his job is at risk if results don't improve in the very near future.

Plymouth would have earmarked the fixture against a mid-table Swansea side as the perfect chance to pick up points, especially when you consider their home form, so to come away empty-handed was a big blow, and Rooney knows he's got a tough job on his hands to turn things around now.