They may have canceled the documentary a week early. It’s been a strange two weeks for Plymouth.

First they sacked Wayne Rooney. Then, despite not having a manager, they broke their transfer record and signed Ghanaian striker Michael Baidoo.

They then appointed 42-year-old Austrian Miron Muslic as their first foreign coach. And to top it all off, with the interim duo of first-team coach Kevin Nancekivell and club captain Joe Edwards, they continued to produce their most eye-catching result in years: Morgan Whittaker’s 82nd-minute goal secured their first away win since the win over Rotherham in April.

After the final whistle, the players led Nancekivell, who has worked with the club since 2005, to accept the applause of the 2,500 fans who had traveled from the southwest. “I’m extremely proud and really emotional,” he said, before praising his team’s “spirit and resilience.”

In the nine away games before Rooney’s dismissal, Plymouth’s record was: 0-2, 0-4, 0-2, 0-4, 1-6, 1-1, 0-3, 0-1, 0-5.” How shitty do you have to be? We’re moving away,” chanted the away fans within five seconds – a line of gallows humor that elicited noticeable laughter from the home team. But this really didn’t look like a team that has conceded 35 goals in 14 away league games this season.

Conor Hazard made early saves from Kevin Schade and Fábio Carvalho, but otherwise Brentford’s threat was limited to a series of corners. Plymouth, with Adam Randell and Caleb Roberts providing deep protection from the back three, was impressively solid.

Given that they also kept a clean sheet at Stoke last weekend, that doesn’t reflect particularly well on Rooney’s management. The key to the newfound solidity, said Nancekivell, is “the attitude of the players – they probably feel a bit of guilt, a bit of remorse for losing a manager his job”. Their aim at Brentford was “to be organised, to be in our shape, to make it as difficult as possible and to produce a bit of quality when we could”. That was pretty much how it went.

Muslic introduced himself to Nancekivell after signing a three-and-a-half-year contract on Friday and then left the caretaker manager to continue work.

There will be no superficial coverage of Muslic’s progress as he tries to push his team off the bottom of the table, but having led Cercle Brugge to Europe, he can at least boast a CV that isn’t just a list of doomed clubs , where he should never have taken a job. And there is certainly a basis to work from here.

It’s fair to say the FA Cup isn’t Brentford’s priority – but that’s not Plymouth’s concern. Thomas Frank made six changes from the team that beat Southampton last week, which meant at least a return for Rico Henry, making his first appearance since injuring the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in September 2023. “Plymouth deserved to win,” Frank said. “They defended brilliantly, ran hard, defended with their lives and scored a really good goal.”

Baidoo’s role before being withdrawn after an hour was a thankless one, as he was an isolated front-runner looking to apply enough pressure to at least occasionally ease the pressure on the Plymouth rearguard. But with Bali Mumba overlapping, there were occasional hints that Plymouth might exploit an opening on the left and Callum Wright, chopping inside from that cross, parried low from Hákon Valdimarsson after 18 minutes.

The longer the game went on, the more their fans began to believe, cheering at every challenge and celebrating every corner with wild abandon.

Their chance seemed to have come when a lovely break ended with a cross to the back post. Matthew Sorinola charged at it but went over.

However, another opportunity presented itself as Whittaker drifted across the penalty area before space finally opened up for him to fire a low left-footed shot towards goal. Mustapha Bundu was in an offside position and probably in Valdimarsson’s eyeline, but the linesman did not raise the flag and there is no VAR at this point.

The excited Plymouth fans ended as they began, with a small but crucial change to the text. “How shit do you have to be – we’re on the rise?”