One Word, One Meaning

BELIEF

The word is writ large on the wall of the home dressing-room at Home Park.

It also loomed large at Morecambe last weekend, when the Pilgrims came back from 2-0 down with less than 20 minutes to play and won 3-2.

“It shows you the team spirit that we’ve got in the club,” said Argyle captain Darren Purse this week, “and we have to believe that we can win games.”

Keeping the ball, passing it, and staying patient were paramount to last Saturday’s success and has been a hallmark of the Pilgrims’ play this campaign.

“I don’t think there is a side that we’ve played so far this year that’s had more possession than us,” said Darren.

“It’s new to a lot of the lads this year.

“I think that’s what we’ve come up against when we are apart from the ball - we’ve kept ourselves a little bit open, but I think we are slowly getting around to nullifying that.

“The more we keep possession, the more chances we will create.

“The only game we have lost in the last five is Port Vale and, for the first 65-70 minutes of that one, we played really well.

“If you are an Argyle fan and you are watching us play at the minute, you must be really happy because we are passing the ball about.

“We probably haven’t got the results we have deserved from the way we have played, and that’s mainly down to individual errors and not being as solid as we have been.

“But, when you are playing as good a football as we are, you have got to believe that, if we can carry on doing that, we will go close this season.”

It is not only the players that are finding the new way slightly alien, with the sounds of impatience occasionally joining the cheers from the stands.

“The fans pay their money and they have got the right to vent their opinions,” said Darren, “but when we have got the ball, we have been playing some great stuff.

“It’s probably the best football the fans have seen over the last few years. It’s all about keeping patient and keeping believing, the same as the lads are doing, and pulling together in the right direction.

“If we do that, I still believe we will be up there or thereabouts at the end of the season.

 “There are only two groups of people we need to keep happy. That’s the management and ourselves.

“We can’t affect what a fan says or what he wants to do. If he wants to boo because we are keeping the ball, then we have to deal with that.

“If you are going to make a career out of playing football, you need to rise above whatever the fans are saying.”