Plymouth remain behind 'driven' Rooney - Dewsnip

Neil Dewsnip (right) coached Wayne Rooney when he was a teenager at Everton

Director of football Neil Dewsnip says everyone at Plymouth Argyle "is behind" head coach Wayne Rooney.

The former England captain's side have conceded 10 goals in their past two Championship matches - a 6-1 thrashing at Norwich City last Tuesday and a 4-0 defeat at Bristol City on Saturday.

Rooney described last week as "the hardest" of his managerial career and his injury depleted side sit one place and two points above the relegation zone.

"He's driven to turn the ship around," Dewsnip told BBC Radio Devon.

"We're all behind him, we're all fighting alongside him and hopefully we can turn that into a good performance and a winning performance on Saturday."

Argyle, with just one win from their past nine games, host newly promoted Oxford United - who are one point above them - in a key match at the bottom of the Championship.

Plymouth Argyle are still to win a game away from home under Wayne Rooney

But Dewsnip says the club have to be realistic about where they are in the Championship pecking order.

With a capacity of just under 17,500, the Pilgrims have the third-smallest ground in the division and do not benefit from Premier League parachute payments that a number of other sides receive.

"We compete in the Championship, which I think is the fifth-biggest league in the world," Dewsnip added.

"Over the last few years we've come from League Two to where we are, we've earned the right to be in the Championship, we want to stay in the Championship.

"We managed to do that last year and this year our aim is still the same - we'd like to do a little bit better than that."

Argyle survived by one point last season - their first campaign in the second tier since 2010 - thanks to a final-day win over Hull City.

"Wayne talks about how he'd love to be safe with at least four games to go, so that's kind of where the target will remain until we've achieved it," Dewsnip said.

"But we mustn't forget we're in a league that has some really big football clubs, Premier League clubs if we're really honest.

"We're competing in the bottom half of that league - you might even argue the bottom half of the bottom half of that league.

"So we have sensible expectations, we know it is a massive challenge, but one that we relish, one that we understand and one that we succeeded in last year and we're going to succeed again this year."