Pilgrims trounced by Cardiff City

PLYMOUTH Argyle were totally outclassed and outfought as they slumped to an embarrassing 5-0 Championship defeat away to bottom-of-the-table Cardiff City.

- CHRIS ERRINGTON

After recent deserved plaudits for Wayne Rooney’s Pilgrims, this was a simply unacceptable performance from them, even allowing for the fact that Ibrahim Cissoko was sent-off late in the first half when they were already 2-0 behind.

It was no wonder that many of the 3,200-strong travelling Green Army had left the Cardiff City Stadium long before the final whistle, so dreadful was what they had to witness.

Cardiff led through goals from Alex Robertson and the outstanding Ruben Colwill before Cissoko received a straight red card from referee Andrew Kitchen in the 41st minute.

Cissoko was tripped from behind when on a break and as he landed on the ground the ball was hit against him by Perry Ng. The Dutch under-21 international winger reacted by pushing over the Cardiff right-back and a red card was the only possible outcome.

Anwar El Ghazi made it 3-0 to the Bluebirds early in the second period and further goals followed from Callum Robinson and substitute Chris Willock. In truth, there could have been more.

Argyle’s starting line-up against Cardiff was the same as from their 2-1 win against Blackburn Rovers at Home Park last time out.

On-loan Burnley striker Michael Obafemi continued to lead the attack after scoring his first goal for the Pilgrims in the victory over Blackburn, with Ryan Hardie and recent free agent signing Andre Gray both on the bench.

The quartet behind Obafemi were former Swansea City player Morgan Whittaker, Darko Gyabi, Rami Al Hajj and Cissoko, with Adam Randell in the deep midfield role.

Captain Joe Edwards and Bali Mumba were the two full-backs with Lewis Gibson and Kornel Szucs, fresh from making his senior international debut for Hungary in a UEFA Nations League tie away to Bosnia-Herzegovina at the start of the week, in the centre of defence.