Pregnant With Possibilities

...one of their toughest games of the season this weekend when Argyle make the 250-mile trip to Sixfields. 

The Pilgrims will be looking to snap a run of three games without a win when they face the Cobblers in Saturday's Sky Bet League 2 fixture, and to keep pace with the rest of the promotion-chasing pack. 

To do that, though, they will have to beat a club that, in Sheridan’s opinion, has a squad that warrants a much better league position than their current 15th-place slot.

“They have got a good manager in Chris Wilder – I know Chris well - and they are a strong team,” said the Argyle manager. 

“When I look at their squad, I think they are probably in a false position, so I am expecting a tough, tough game. But we will go there and, hopefully, we can start winning.

“We watched their last home game against Stevenage; they had a good result there and played well. They have had a couple of games behind closed doors, trying to get their injured players back fit, so I expect one or two of them to be back.”

Argyle have also been doing all they can to improve the fitness of their squad, as a number of players played in the midweek Edenvale Turf Ltd Devon St Luke's Challenge Cup victory over Buckland Athletic in midweek, including Jason Banton and Ben Purrington.

“They are just short of game-time,” said John, “and it was an opportunity to give them some game-time. They both played near enough 90 minutes, so it will not do them any harm at all, and it will stand them in good stead for the Christmas period, with plenty of games.

“It was just important that the ones who have not been getting a lot of football, got a bit of football. It is just about giving them games.”

Nathan Thomas, Carl McHugh and Marvin Morgan all missed the match and will not make the trip to Sixfields this weekend, but are close to returning from injury.

Wilder was in the stands at Bramall Lane for last week’s FA Cup tie as Argyle gave League 1 Sheffield United all they could handle for an hour before a penalty miss from Reuben Reid and two converted spot-kicks from the Blades in quick succession put the game beyond the Greens.

John said: “I think he knows we have got some good players and are a threat. We were well in the game for an hour, and we looked a decent team. 

“He knows how we will play: we will try and win the game. We will not sit back, and we have just got to be a bit more confident. He will be wary of us. He knows that we can cause any team problems on our day – we are as good as any team in the division, on our day.”