Plymouth Argyle: Norwich City, Bristol City capitulations could come back to haunt Wayne Rooney | OneFootball

The Greens have the worst away record in the Championship, with goals being shipped at an alarming rate

The sight of seeing their side collapse after conceding the first goal on the road will be a familiar one to the Plymouth Argyle fanbase this season, with the Greens falling to heavy defeats on a regular basis away from Home Park.

While Wayne Rooney currently has his side unbeaten in six matches on their own turf, any resemblance of a football team seems to disintegrate at the Devon border, with the away performances proving to be a major cause for concern as the season progresses.

With just two points and three goals from ten games on their travels, Argyle are proving to be the most Jekyll and Hyde side of all time, with heavy defeats outside of the confines of the Theatre of Greens something of a regularity.

While they continue to hover above the relegation zone at this moment in time, those embarrassments could rear their head again towards the end of the campaign, with things likely to go down to the wire at the bottom of the table.

Plymouth Argyle’s heavy defeats could prove costly in relegation battle

Argyle will know full well that a relegation battle in the Championship can come down to the slenderest of margins, and their dreadful gaol difference already looks to be a major disadvantage compared to the sides they are currently surrounded by.

6-1 at Norwich, 5-0 at Cardiff, 4-0 at Bristol City and Sheffield Wednesday… the goals have been shipped on a regular basis when Argyle play away, with no side in the division conceding more than the 38 they have from their 18 matches so far, with their -20 goal difference comfortably the worst in the division.

When you look at away games in particular, Argyle are among four sides yet to pick up a win on the road, alongside Oxford United, Preston North End and Cardiff City, although the goal tallies at either end are once again a major cause for concern.

Three goals scored and 27 goals conceded sees them rank bottom by quite a distance, with their goal difference of -24 on the road seeing them ten goals worse off than second-bottom Luton Town in that regard.

That goal difference can be as good as having an extra point on the board when teams are jostling for Championship survival at the end of the season, and even if they can’t pick up wins away from home, Argyle need to limit the damage caused with every road game as it stands.

Wayne Rooney needs to learn from Norwich City, Bristol City performances

Nobody will have begrudged Rooney and Argyle for losing at Norwich and Bristol City over the past ten days if they had been close-fought encounters, but the way heads dropped after going behind is the factor that needs to be addressed the most.

We have already seen it at Sheffield Wednesday and Cardiff, where the Greens simply don’t know when to shut up shop and accept defeat, with the concession of more and more goals as time ticks away just rubbing salt into the wounds, and worsening their plight.

That fighting spirit seems to work wonders when playing in front of their own fans, but away from Devon it just plays into their opposition’s hands, leading to plenty of soft goals being conceded as simple victories are being brought to a close.

That sort of mentality needs to be addressed, because it continues to harm them in the present, and could do so once again in the future, as the battle at the bottom continues to intensify.

WIth back-to-back home games on the horizon, Argyle will be hoping for a positive result or two to start addressing matters after a dismal time on the road, and regain some of the momentum that has been lost over recent weeks.