Pleasing the Gaffer

THE Green Army might be delighted with the Pilgrims’ progress in recent weeks, but their team’s gaffer is an altogether harder man to please.

Argyle go into Tuesday night’s Devon Derby at Torquay on the back of an eight-match unbeaten run which has seen them into the second round of the FA Cup with Budweiser and move up to mid-table in Sky Bet League 2. Time, you might think, for a few pats on the back.

“Take this whatever way you want,” said manager John Sheridan. “No-one’s done very well for me yet. I expect a lot more. I expect us to be a lot higher in the league.

“We’re all doing just okay at the moment. I know what can be around the corner. Everyone was doing very badly just three weeks ago.

“That’s just me. That’s just the way I am. I don’t get carried away. I don’t let my players get carried away. I’ll tell them in my own little way if they are doing well enough. The first thing they should do is want to stay in the side and do well.

“One or two have come in who weren’t figuring a few weeks ago – the likes of Maxi [Maxime Blanchard], Youngy [Luke Young] and Andres [Gurrieri]. They have just got on with heir training, worked hard, and when their time has come, they have come in the side and are doing well.

“I haven’t got any favourites – they’ll all tell you that. I like them all as a group but I pick whoever I feel is doing the job properly.”

Doing the job properly has seen Argyle ship just two goals in the last seven matches.

John said: “Defensively, we’re doing okay and the good thing is that, in the last couple of games, we’ve scored one or two goals. That’s what we’ve been missing of late.

“It’s a team effort. It’s not the ’keeper; not the back four; it’s a team. The strikers work very hard. Everyone works very hard for each other, helping each other, organising each other.

“If someone is not doing their job, people are getting on to each other, which I like and which we’ve missed. I don’t want them falling out with each other but I want them, for that that hour and a half, getting a grip and being switched on at all times.”