Rooney spurred on by 'desire' to turn results around

Wayne Rooney saw his Plymouth Argyle side suffer a third successive loss when they were beaten 2-1 by Swansea City on Tuesday

Wayne Rooney says he is spurred on by the desire to turn Plymouth Argyle's fortunes around.

The injury-hit Pilgrims have won just one of their past 10 matches and are second-from-bottom of the table.

The Argyle head coach takes his side to Championship leaders Sheffield United on Saturday in one of their toughest tests since the former England captain took over at Home Park in the summer.

"It's not easy to enjoy when you're losing, that's simple," Rooney said.

"Whatever sport you're in you go through patches, and we're going through one which is tough, there's no denying that, but you want to show some fight and desire to get out of it.

"I think we can, and I've said this before, injuries don't help any team in this league, but it's not an excuse, I still expect us to be picking up results and expect us to get out of it.

"We're looking at arguably the best team in the world over the last few years in Man City going through exactly the same.

"So when you lose some players and confidence is a little bit down it can be tough, but we need to find ways to get out of it.

"We've got a difficult game on Saturday, but what a platform that gives us if we get a positive result moving forward going into the Christmas period."

Rooney says he is having "honest conversations" with the Argyle board around new additions when the transfer window opens next month.

Owner Simon Hallett recently gave Rooney his backing in a fans' forum and the club brought in Mike Phelan, Rooney's experienced former coach at Manchester United, earlier this week as his assistant after Pete Shuttleworth's departure.

"These are all conversations that are going on so come January we are in the best possible position we can be to get what we need," Rooney added.

"Getting the injured players back will be like new signings for us.

"We're under no illusions we need to improve the squad, that's there for everyone to see, and we're working extremely hard to put ourselves in the best position to do that as early as possible."