Plymouth Argyle head coach Wayne Rooney says the club's junior team could have done better than his first XI in the 6-1 loss at Norwich City.

The Pilgrims were second-best for much of the game and could have conceded more goals had Norwich not been as wasteful with their chances, especially in the first half.

It was the former England captain's heaviest loss since taking over at Home Park in the summer.

Argyle have still to win a game away from home this season and are two points outside the relegation places with three of the four sides below them having games in hand.

“We were nowhere near good enough – we are down to the bare bones with injuries but that is no excuse,” said Rooney - who was missing players including captain Joe Edwards, Northern Ireland goalkeeper Connor Hazard and forwards Ibrahim Cissoko, Morgan Whittaker and Muhamed Tijani.

"But if players want to come in the team and stay in the team then they need to perform better than that.

"I could probably put the under-18 team out there and they wouldn't concede six goals, so I'm very disappointed, angry, frustrated and the next 24-48 hours are not going to be very nice for the players, but we need to get to the bottom of why this is happening."

Rooney says he will try and understand why his team are so poor away from home - with just two draws from their nine matches outside Devon this season.

"Getting that win and better results away from home - we know it's difficult in this league for teams to win away from home - but we have to be a lot better than we were tonight," the 39-year-old added.

"I feel for the fans who came here because I know the distance they've travelled to get behind the players and I know for any fan when you see your team put in that performance and get that result you're not going to be pleased about it.

"I'm dealing with it, I'm trying to get to the bottom of why every now and again we're having these results and hopefully I can do that sooner rather than later."