Millwall 1-0 Plymouth Argyle: Wayne Rooney's Pilgrims suffer their fourth away defeat after Romain Esse's goal | Football News

Wayne Rooney suffered from car sickness again as Plymouth suffered a 1-0 defeat at Millwall.

A first-half goal from 19-year-old Lions winger Romain Esse compounded the former England captain's away woes.

Rooney's Argyle side are now winless in all six away games this season, picking up just one point and scoring just one goal away from home.

But their form at Home Park – 10 points from five games – is still keeping them out of the relegation zone after another gap in south London.

Rooney thought his side had made a dream start after just 20 seconds when referee Sam Allison awarded Plymouth a penalty for a foul on Mustapha Bundu, but reversed the decision when he noticed an offside flag.

Millwall have had their own problems this season, not least in front of goal, having picked up just two wins from their first ten games.

But they took the lead in the 13th minute when Esse won the ball in midfield against Bali Mumba and shot towards the penalty area.

The England U19 wideman played a great one-two with George Honeyman before coolly slotting the ball past Argyle goalkeeper Daniel Grimshaw.

Plymouth should have equalized when skipper Joe Edwards fired an inviting cross from the right, but Ryan Hardie's header fell straight to Lukas Jensen in the Millwall goal.

Argyle's Callum Wright was also blocked as Morgan Whittaker fired the rebound wide.

But Millwall dominated and Honeyman was blocked by Edwards at the last moment, Esse fired a shot across goal and wide and Femi Azeez's header was parried by Grimshaw.

Shortly after half-time, Azeez had a good chance to double the lead when he ran onto Japhet Tanganga's pass and rounded Grimshaw, but Plymouth defender Kornel Szucs somehow got back and blocked the ball on the goal line.

Rooney, back on the sidelines after serving a suspension during Saturday's 5-0 defeat at Cardiff, made a triple substitution on the hour mark, bringing on Freddie Assaka, Rami Al Hajj and experienced striker Andre Gray.

But the changes had little effect and the sarcastic refrain of “We had a try” from the away end, when Darko Gyabi's free-kick was confidently saved by Jensen, summed up another dismal performance from Rooney.

The managers

Millwall's Neil Harris:

“I’m really happy for the players. We didn’t score the points we really deserved, we took those chances all season long.”

“It wasn’t one of our better performances tonight, but we still did enough to win the game.”

“In the final third, Romain showed his quality. We didn’t score the second goal, but we showed a good mentality to finish the game.”

Plymouth's Wayne Rooney:

“We should have gotten a penalty. Another decision that goes against us.”

“I asked the fourth official why the referee gave it and then changed his decision. He said Callum Wright gave it back to Mus.” [Mustapha Bundu]who was offside.

“But it’s pretty clear Callum didn’t play the ball back. A Millwall player played it back into Mus. So it's not offside. Here too, it’s these small decisions.”

“The referees are always honest with us and the feedback we get, and we've had it now in the last few weeks, is when they've made a mistake. I'm sure we'll get that feedback after this game.” .

“I told the guys that every attacking player who took the field tonight wasn’t good enough.”

“We didn’t play nearly enough today, we didn’t hold the ball, we didn’t go behind, that’s disappointing.”