Argyle left to rue a day of missed opportunities

For a second successive week, Plymouth Argyle locked horns with the Championship leaders and, once again, the Pilgrims created enough chances to win the game.

This time, however, profligacy and rotten luck combined to hand them a frustrating 1-0 loss at West Bromwich Albion, a very different outcome to the thrilling 3-2 defeat of Sunderland seven days previous.

The Baggies started brightly and asked some early questions, answered efficiently by Wayne Rooney’s men, who grew in belief and menace, Ryan Hardie flicking the ball inches wide from a cross by the increasingly impressive Ibrahim Cissoko.

West Brom twice hit the woodwork in a determined response but Argyle soon returned to the ascendancy, Morgan Whittaker and Darko Gyabi both denied by former Pilgrim ‘keeper Alex Palmer.

The chances kept coming for the Greens, but they also kept missing the target, and West Brom delivered a painful suckerpunch on the hour when Josh Maja converted from close range.

Despite the narrow loss, Rooney can understandably see positive signs in his team, as he told BBC Sport: "The pleasing thing is we're showing we can compete with the best teams in the league.

"We're more than capable of causing teams problems; we're getting more and more confident with the ball.”