Looking Up

ARGYLE travel to Wycombe on Tuesday night for the first of three successive matches against npower League 2 opponents that, between them, occupy the bottom three spaces in that division.

It makes a change, from late, for the Pilgrims not be counted among the troubled teams in League 2 such as Wycombe currently are.  

Demoted last season, and having collected one point from six matches, they recently sacked manager Gary Waddock and replaced him with caretaker Gareth Ainsworth.

Despite making a number of significant changes to the Chairboys’ starting 11, Ainsworth failed to turn their luck on Saturday, when they became Dagenham & Redbridge’s first victims of the new campaign.

All that is of little concern to Argyle manager Carl Fletcher.

“I’ve not taken too much notice, to be honest,” he said. “I am more worried about ourselves. It’ll be a tough game.

“Every game is a tough game. Every game is an opportunity for us to play well and try to get three points.

“A change of manger sometimes sparks a bit of life into a team, so we are going to have to be wary of that.”

With on-loan Watford midfielder – and High Wycombe resident – Ross Jenkins available again after missing Saturday’s 1-1 home draw against Southend through injury, Fletch’s own problems extend only to having Durrell Berry suspended.

His likely replacement is the young man who filled the role for the first four games of the season, when Durrell was injured, Curtis Nelson.  Not that Fletch was in a mood to confirm that before setting off for Buckinghamshire.

“It gives an opportunity to someone else,” was all he would say. “It could be any one of the rest of my players.



“Nelse is still young and still learning, and has a fair bit to learn, in terms of football. That comes with experience.

“He came back from pre-season and has done really well. He has got his head down and he keeps working hard and that goes a long way.

“Nelse has done that this season and has probably been a bit unfortunate that he’s not played more games.”

Neither is the manager inclined to rotate his squad to keep pace with a fairly hectic Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday round of fixtures.

He said: “We look at players and see how they are performing; if someone’s performing well, they keep playing.

“A player has got to be honest with us. Some days, if they are a little bit tired and just not there, maybe mentally or physically, it’s a squad game, there’s no harm in them coming to say to us ‘I’m not where I need to be; I’m not 100%’.

“Then it’s down to my decision then, whether we carry on playing them or maybe give them a little breather.

“We try to win every game; we try to play the team that is going to give us the best opportunity to win the game.”

Whoever plays, Fletch knows they have bought into the passing style which is slowly beginning to turn Argyle’s outlook, and  their results.

“We are getting there,” he said.

“It can always be better. In each game we play, we’re getting longer and longer periods in when we’re dominating.

“It’s still work in progress.  We’re always trying to get better and always try to evolve.”