Total Domination

ACCORDING to the tale of the Grand Old Duke of York, when you are down, you are down.

That is how it has felt just lately. Nothing feels like it has gone our way. The bounce of the ball has always been butter side down, so to speak.

York City, on the other hand, have been only halfway up the league for a while. They are grasping for consistency, losing dismally at home one week and claiming spectacular victories on the road. They seem to be either up or down.

Home Park may not attract 10,000 men any more, but all inside it on Saturday when the Minstermen visited will surely recognise that Argyle were not only the better of the two teams on display, but finally a spot of luck went our way.

A corner was swung into the penalty as the first half drew to a close. It made several detours, the most significant of which was off the thigh of York defender Jamal Fyfield. It ended up in the back of the net, and Argyle never surrendered their lead, indeed adding to it is second half stoppage time.

“It looked a bit of a melee, and it just went in,” said manager Carl Fletcher. “But that’s probably the luck we’ve not had lately. It’s the thing that hasn’t gone for us in recent games.

“To be picky we could have had more quality in the final third with balls in the box and things like that. That’s just about decision making at the end of the day. We looked solid. For a team with so many young players we looked mature and in control.

“We completely dominated the game, I don’t think they even had a shot on target.

“But it wasn’t anything majorly different to what we’ve been doing in the last couple of months really. Just today we got that rub of the green and got a couple of goals that the performance deserved.

“We’ve had it so often this season where we’re in control and something falls to them and it goes in the back of the net. You’re always worried about that, especially at 1-0, but thankfully we got that second goal that to ease all the nerves around the place. We fully deserved it.

“We saw the game out and did what we needed to do.”

Next Saturday Argyle travel to Exeter City; a major fixture no matter what the scenario, but it would have been all the more daunting had The Pilgrims not notched a victory in almost two months.

This win – a deserved a dominant one at that – must surely help morale ahead of the short trip East to St James Park.

“The way we won today, so convincingly, it wasn’t a lucky win,” said Carl. “We didn’t nick it at the death, we played really well. You hope to build a little bit of momentum.

“It’s only one game in a season, but we’ll take the positives from it.

“You can say to players how well they are doing, but for that final confidence you need results. This is a big boost for us.”