Cardiff thump five past Rooney's 10-player Plymouth

Cardiff produced their best display of the season to thrash Plymouth 5-0 and heap further misery on Wayne Rooney.

Alex Robertson struck first his league goal since joining from Manchester City in the 16th minute, with Rubin Colwill doubling Cardiff’s lead eight minutes later.

Rooney – serving a one-match touchline ban – then saw Ibrahim Cissoko receive a straight red card before Anwar El Ghazi bagged his first goal for Cardiff in the 52nd minute.

Callum Robinson notched on 75 minutes before Chris Willock scored his first for the club five minutes later as Cardiff clinched a second win in three games under interim boss Omer Riza – leaving Plymouth winless on the road this term.

Cardiff appeared destined to go behind early on when two former Swansea attackers combined – with Morgan Whittaker threading through to Michael Obafemi who shot wide from close range. But it was all Cardiff after that early scare.

Colwill was a constant menace for the hosts, and the Wales international produced some quality in the final third before teeing up Robertson who fired beyond Daniel Grimshaw from 20 yards out to give the Bluebirds the lead.

Ollie Tanner then stung the palms of the Plymouth goalkeeper before Colwill drilled over as Cardiff showed confidence that desperately lacked under former boss Erol Bulut.

And Colwill made it 2-0 after Plymouth failed to clear from Callum O’Dowda’s teasing cross, giving Colwill time to slot home from 12 yards out.

The 3,000 fans in the away end must have continued to rue Obafemi’s early miss as they watched their side give up chances, with Dimitrios Goutas heading Calum Chambers’ cross over.

And Plymouth’s task became even harder before half-time as Cissoko was sent off for his reaction to an incident with Perry Ng.

Lewis Gibson blazed over shortly after half-time as Plymouth wasted a chance to get back into the contest.

And they were instantly made to pay as Colwill found space on the right before picking out El Ghazi who tapped home from two yards out.

With the contest effectively over, Bali Mumba was grateful to see his flicked header from David Turnbull’s shot hit the crossbar.

Cardiff scored a fourth as Robinson latched on to substitute Willock’s pass before slotting home – paying tribute to former Sheffield United team-mate George Baldock during his celebration.

And Willock rifled beyond Grimshaw from the edge of the box as the Bluebirds scored five goals in a league match for the first time since 2017 to compound Rooney’s frustrations.

The managers

Cardiff caretaker Omer Riza:

“We had Aaron Ramsey upstairs today casting an eye down to give us some information and it all came together well today.

“I said to Aaron yesterday that I’d like him to go up there, cast his eye over the game and if he had anything of importance to come down.

“To be fair, when he came down and mentioned a couple of things, it was what was in our minds anyway which is nice, so we’re all on the same page.

“It’s important when you’ve got players like Rallsy (Joe Ralls) and Aaron who are experienced and aren’t playing, you have to try and use them in a different way and we did that today.”

“I’m happy for the players and the fans. Today it came together, we went 2-0 up before the red card and we looked dominant.

“We had a mixed bag of who scored, players that came on were effective. I’m just really happy.”

Plymouth’s Wayne Rooney:

“It’s difficult to put into words. I thought we started the game OK, we had decent control and should be 1-0 up, Michael had a great chance.

“Beyond that we got really sloppy, we gave the ball away a lot, we didn’t win tackles or do the basics right.

“In this league, if you don’t do that right, you have difficult days like today.

“It’s difficult watching it from the stands, you want to be there at the side of the pitch trying to help the team.

“Today we have to give Cardiff a lot of credit, they deserved to win the game, they were the better team.”