Morgan Whittaker 'outstanding candidate' to be Plymouth captain says boss

Morgan Whittaker moved permanently to Home Park last summer for a club record fee of more than £1m

Plymouth Argyle manager Ian Foster says Morgan Whittaker was "the outstanding candidate" to be captain in the 3-1 win over Cardiff City.

The highly-rated 23-year-old - who has been linked with a move to the Premier League - led the side for the first time in his career with skipper Joe Edwards on the bench.

Whittaker scored his eighth goal in as many games in the victory.

Argyle moved up to 15th place in the Championship after the win.

"Morgan is part of the leadership group and from the personnel that I picked for the game today he was the outstanding candidate," Foster told BBC Radio Devon.

"Players lead in different ways and Morgan this season has led by example in terms of of his performances.

"I had no qualms about giving him the captaincy today, I thought he performed well with it."

Ryan Hardie took his tally to 11 goals in 25 league and cup games this season

Whittaker also set up Ryan Hardie's second goal in the victory, which saw Argyle come from 1-0 down after conceding after 10 minutes.

Hardie has now scored five goals in his last five Pilgrims appearances as Foster registered his first victory since taking over as Argyle head coach earlier this month.

"He's a lovely finisher," Foster said of the Scottish striker.

"He's got great timing and he's got great natural talent.

"A lot of nines you'll see in the division and beyond just have a knack of arriving at the right time and he seems to have that.

"I thought he took his second goal particularly well, it was a terrific strike.

"But the challenge to the players is that I think we could have scored more.

"We're always looking to get better, we're always looking to improve and I think if we'd have been a little bit more ruthless today we could have scored four or five."