Wayne Rooney admitted his Plymouth side got what they deserved after crashing to a humiliating 6-1 defeat at Norwich, saying that “it can’t carry on like this”.

Borja Sainz led the way for the hosts with his second hat-trick of the season, as Argyle slipped to their third heavy away defeat in the Championship this term following earlier big losses at Sheffield Wednesday and Cardiff.

“We were nowhere near good enough – we are down to the bare bones with injuries but that is no excuse,” said Rooney.

“We were fortunate to be only 2-1 down at half-time. You then hope for a reaction in the second half, but once they made it 3-1 I thought we went under, which is very disappointing. The players just didn’t look like they thought they could get back in it.

“We need to be a lot better than that – the next 24 to 48 hours are not going to be very nice for the players.