Wayne Rooney secured his first victory as head coach of Plymouth Argyle, with his team defeating Cheltenham Town 3-0 in the Carabao Cup first round at Home Park.
Argyle dominated the first half, creating several chances. Ryan Hardie and Freddie Issaka came close to scoring, while Ethon Archer struck the Plymouth post with a low drive five minutes before halftime.
The deadlock was finally broken after an hour when Ben Waine tapped in from close range after Adam Randell’s free-kick was parried onto the crossbar.
Following their lead, Argyle continued to dominate. Substitutes Mustapha Bundu and Morgan Whittaker missed excellent chances before Hardie doubled the lead with a close-range finish from Ibrahim Cissoko’s cross from the left.
Bundu sealed the win with a well-controlled finish into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.
After a 4-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday in his debut match on Sunday, Wayne Rooney made significant changes to the Plymouth Argyle lineup. Only young midfielder Darko Gyabi and goalkeeper Conor Hazard remained in the starting eleven, with Michael Cooper set to join Sheffield United as their new stopper.
Argyle almost took an early lead within the first 10 minutes as Freddie Issaka came close, followed by Ryan Hardie’s powerful shot being saved by Joe Day after a long ball from Hungarian debutant Kornel Skucs. Although Ben Waine found the net shortly after, his 13th-minute effort was disallowed due to Callum Wright being offside in the build-up.
Despite holding only a third of the possession, Cheltenham had their opportunities. Harrison Sohna forced a great save from Hazard 10 minutes before halftime, and Ethon Archer’s low shot struck the post and bounced off Hazard’s back before going out for a corner.
Argyle should have been ahead at halftime. Impressive teenage winger Issaka posed a constant threat down the right, delivering a teasing cross nearly converted by Wright. Bali Mumba also blasted into the side netting from eight yards as the half concluded.
Cheltenham’s Jordan Thomas flashed an early second-half effort wide before Waine broke the deadlock, scoring into an empty net from a yard out after a superb swerving free-kick that Day did well to get a hand on.
Rooney introduced some of his first-choice attackers, including Morgan Whittaker, Mustapha Bundu, and Ibrahim Cissoko, and Cheltenham struggled to cope. All three substitutes had good chances, with Whittaker and Bundu missing at the far post.
However, they soon redeemed themselves. The excellent Cissoko first set up Hardie to score, then Mumba controlled Cissoko’s ball into the six-yard box and fed it back to Bundu, who coolly finished.
Cheltenham nearly scored a consolation goal when Joel Colwill’s effort from the edge of the box was tipped over by Hazard three minutes from the end of normal time.
After the heavy loss on Sunday, Rooney will be relieved with this morale-boosting first win in front of a supportive home crowd.
Plymouth Argyle head coach Wayne Rooney told BBC Sport:
“I thought we were good – I thought first half we had to be a little bit more patient with the ball in our positions because I thought we were rushing it a bit at times and a bit sloppy on occasions which could cost us if we don’t get it out of our game.
“But second half we came out with much more control, moved the ball a lot quicker, more of a threat going forward and obviously got the well-deserved win I felt.
“I’m really pleased with the performance, with the win, through to the next round and I saw a lot of things I wanted to see tonight which I didn’t see on Sunday.
“So I think it’s important that we try and put Sunday out of our minds and the best way to do that is to win and thankfully we got the victory.”
Cheltenham Town manager Michael Flynn told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:
“I thought for 65 minutes, we did really well until they scored – our heads seemed to drop a little bit.
“The frustrating thing about that is Joe has made one of the best saves I’ve seen in a long, long time and we switch off and allow them to have a tap in.
“We’re a team learning, we’ve got a lot of players who haven’t got any real experience, but there were some positive moments this evening.”