Coventry 4 Plymouth Argyle 0

Wayne Rooney insists he is the right man to turn Plymouth’s season around despite suffering a damaging defeat at the hands of former England team-mate Frank Lampard at Coventry.

Rooney watched on as his side shipped all four goals before half-time, before being reduced to 10 men when substitute Callum Wright received a straight red car for a reckless lunge on Joel Latibeaudiere with three minutes left to play, to leave Plymouth rooted to the bottom of the Championship table two points from safety.

Despite his side now winless in their last eight matches, Rooney insisted: “I believe I am [the right man to lead Plymouth forward], the biggest frustration for me all season is we look like two different teams at home and away.

“Psychologically, it’s something we’re looking at, we need players coming in, that’s clear.

“I’m sure the fans have questions and a lot of people from the outside will. I’ll do my best to answer them.

“I know how football works, you need to pick up results, I have to keep working and keep believing in what we’re doing to try and get out of the situation we’re in.

“It’s tough being the manager of any club, that’s the life of a manager, when you go into any job as a job you know the difficulties and pressures of it. When you have results like this, it becomes a lot more difficult.

“The game was done at half-time, I was really disappointed with the goals we conceded.

“It’s very disappointing, we prepared well for the game and the fans have paid a lot of money, they have every right to be disappointed.

“We need to pick up points and we need to find a way to do that. We’re going through a tough period and we need to try and get out of it.

“We need players coming in, that’s clear, we need bodies in and some out as well.”

Plymouth fell behind to Tatsuhiro Sakamoto’s fifth-minute header from Ben Sheaf’s cross before Josh Eccles blasted home from distance on 20 minutes to double City’s lead.

Things went from bad to worse in the 39th minute when Ephron Mason-Clark beat the offside trap and bounced a shot into the net before Eccles grabbed his second of the game from the edge of the penalty area on the stroke of half-time after Plymouth lost the ball deep inside their own half.

Opponents Coventry secured successive home wins in the league for the first time in more than a year with their biggest victory of the season.

In contrast to Rooney’s struggles at Plymouth, City boss Lampard has now won three of his six matches in charge of Coventry and wants to build on the positive momentum he has built up during his short time with the club.

Lampard said: “The longer you do this for, you understand at periods of time this can happen [Rooney’s difficult run of results].

“Everyone has got challenges in their job, it’s not for me to comment on Wayne’s job.

“We played well and I absolutely wish him the best.

“It’s important not to get too high or too low, we always want more, hopefully we can build confidence and consistency in the players.

“I’m not getting carried away, the performance is a step in the right direction.”