More away-day misery as Argyle well beaten at Cardiff

PLYMOUTH Argyle crashed to their third consecutive away defeat as they were convincingly beaten 4-0 by table-topping Cardiff City.

- CHRIS ERRINGTON

Tom Cleverley's Pilgrims have now lost five of their opening six games of the 2025/26 campaign, and the optimism which was generated by their 1-0 victory over Blackpool at Home Park last Saturday was replaced by more bitter disappointment on the road for them.

Argyle were competitive without causing too many attacking threats until they conceded twice late in the first half, with Ryan Wintle's tremendous strike soon followed by a Chris Willock effort which deflected off defender Brendan Wiredu.

Cardiff extended their lead in the 51st minute with a strike from Rubin Colwill which again hit the unfortunate Wiredu as he slid in to try to make a block and gave goalkeeper Luca Ashby-Hammond no hope of making a save.

The game was over as a contest then and the Pilgrims rarely looked like getting a consolation goal. Cardiff rubbed salt into their wounds with a fourth goal in added time from Isaak Davies.

Argyle desperately need to reinforce their squad before the transfer window closes this evening because the squad available to Tom Cleverley at the moment is nowhere near strong enough.

Malachi Boateng captained the Pilgrims for the first time as Cleverley made two changes to the starting lineup from the previous league game against Blackpool.

Matty Sorinola and Wiredu were the two changes to the team from the Blackpool win, with defender Brendan Galloway, who was substituted during the second half of the victory over Blackpool due to a calf issue and missed out on the Carabao Cup second round tie at Swansea City on Tuesday night as a result on the bench and Xavier Amaechi ruled out by injury.

Sorinola played at left-back, with Ayman Benarous moving to a new right-side attacking role, while Wiredu lined up in central defence alongside Alex Mitchell.