Pilgrims fall short in their fightback as Swans pile pressure on Rooney

PLYMOUTH Argyle saw a run of six unbeaten home home Championship matches come to an end as they lost 2-1 to Swansea City.

- CHRIS ERRINGTON

It is now 12 goals conceded in three successive defeats for Wayne Rooney's struggling Pilgrims' side and they were guilty of some very poor defending against their visitors from Wales.

Argyle did not deal with crosses into their penalty area as they should have done and it led to Swansea taking a 2-0 lead through Jay Fulton on the stroke of half-time and Liam Cullen in the 60th minute.

Mustapha Bundu did reply for the Pilgrims with just over 10 minutes remaining but they could not get back on level terms and are now just one position off the bottom of the table.

Brendan Galloway returned from an ankle injury as one of six changes to Argyle's starting line-up against Swansea from the 4-0 defeat at Bristol City last time out.

Galloway had not played for the Pilgrims since the 3-1 home Championship victory over Luton Town on September 27 and lined up as the left centre-back next to captain Lewis Gibson in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

Kornel Szucs also returned from a hip problem which ruled him out against Bristol City, and coming back into the Pilgrims' side were Callum Wright, Bundu, Darko Gyabi and Andre Gray.

Dropping down to the bench were Jordan Houghton, Julio Pleguezuelo, Ryan Hardie, Adam Forshaw and Victor Palsson, while Freddie Issaka was absent from the squad.

There was a change of substitute goalkeeper for Argyle with Conor Hazard instead of Marko Marosi after the Northern Ireland international recovered from an ankle injury which he suffered at the end of August.

Szucs played a new role for him at right-back rather than in central defence, with Bundu providing the attacking width for the Pilgrims ahead of the Hungarian.