'We must be resilient' insists Argyle boss Rooney, who seeks a response to Norwich debacle

WAYNE Rooney has called on his Plymouth Argyle squad to be resilient and hard to play against when they take on Bristol City at Ashton Gate tomorrow.

- CHRIS ERRINGTON

The Pilgrims return to Championship action after their embarrassing 6-1 defeat by Norwich City at Carrow Road on Tuesday night, when they fell behind in only the second minute on their way to a seventh away league defeat out of nine this term. Rooney wants to see a 'positive reaction' from his players against Liam Manning's 12thplaced Bristol City, who have won two and lost three of their last five outings.

"It's important to stay in the game and make sure we don't concede early on," said Rooney. "Of course, the previous result has an affect on players, on players' confidence, but we have to go there and be resilient.

We have to be hard to play against.

"It was my final message to the players at Norwich before we went out: 'Don't concede early because if we concede early we know it will be a long night against a good team! We need to make it more difficult for teams to score." Argyle have conceded the first goal in seven of their last eight games, and in each of the three most recent matches away to Derby County and Norwich and at home to Watford - that has been inside the opening eight minutes.

Rooney said: "It's not easy when you see a performance like we saw in the Norwich game - for players, staff, fans. The most important thing now is the reaction to that result.