'Soul Destroying'

JOHN Sheridan called Argyle’s 1-0 defeat at Scunthorpe “soul destroying” after watching his side fail to score for the second successive match.

Despite a display which was much improved on the previous 3-0 home reversal at the hands of Wycombe Wanderers, the Pilgrims could not turn pressure into goals and lost the game to Etienne Esajas’ 62nd-minute opportunistic strike.

“You need to score goals to win football matches and we haven’t scored,” said John, “but we’ve had chances and to come away with nothing is soul destroying.

“I think we really deserved something out of the game. We should have won the game, in my eyes anyway.

“We played well enough to win the game. It was a big improvement and I felt the game was definitely there to take. I didn’t see us losing the game, but we have ended up losing it. We’re all down in the dumps.

“The performance was really good. We were the away team and we caused [Scunthorpe] lots of problems. We had good opportunities in and around the final third and, if we had used the final ball better and made decisions better, we could have won comfortably.

“We created lots of chances and balls into the box but just didn’t get that break; [Scunthorpe] got a break for their goal, but I think that was down to the lad [Ejasas]. He reacted well enough.

“The goal is disappointing. Again, people standing off people in our penalty box should never happen; people getting time and space to pass the ball when we could have got a bit tighter.

“When balls are going in and bouncing around in the opposition penalty box, I expect people to react. You have got to react quickly – it might be a little tap-in that wins you the game. We had some good opportunities to score goals, but we haven’t.

“Performance-wise, it was very good, but we’ve lost. I’ve got to accept that. It’s hard to take it.”

Argyle now return to Home Park looking to get back to winning ways against rock-bottom Accrington next week, and hopefully get on a roll to take them out of mid-table..

John said: “There was a big improvement in the performance and we have got to take that into the game next week.

“We passed and moved the ball, but it’s another defeat and we have got to win games if we want to be at the other end of the table.

“You can get on a run and get yourself in a healthy position. I don’t think there’s anything between the top and the bottom.

“We have just got to stick together. I can take some heart from the performance but the result is very hard to take.”