Wayne Rooney was left speechless after the pressure was piled on as Plymouth were thrashed 5-0 by Cardiff.

The Plymouth manager had to watch his side's capitulation from the stands as he served a one-match touchline ban after being sent off for misconduct in their previous match against Blackburn.

Cardiff, who were rock bottom of the Championship having scored just four goals in their opening nine fixtures before hosting Rooney's side, ran riot after racing into an early lead before Ibrahim Cissoko's red card compounded Plymouth's misery.

"It's difficult to put into words," said the former Manchester United player after the match.

"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."

Michael Obafemi spurned a glorious chance to put Plymouth ahead early on in the Welsh capital, and it was all downhill for the visitors after that point.

Alex Robertson fired home from the edge of the box in the 16th minute before the impressive Rubin Colwill calmly slotted home on 24 minutes. Cissoko was then sent off five minutes before the break after reacting to an incident with Perry Ng.

Cardiff were rampant in the second half as Anwar El Ghazi tapped home his first Cardiff goal in the 52nd minute, with Callum Robinson scoring a composed fourth in the 75th minute.

Chris Willock completed the rout in the 80th minute as Plymouth's away winless run was stretched to seven games.

Cardiff have now claimed seven points from their last three games under interim manager Omer Riza.

Victory over Plymouth was also the first time the club have scored five times in a league match since 2017.

And Riza revealed Wales midfielder Aaron Ramsey - currently sidelined with a hamstring injury - played a key role with Cardiff's analysis team for the bumper win over Plymouth.

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

"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."

On the emphatic victory, Riza added: "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."