All Together Now

IT is not a matter of record if Rommy Boco has a theme song or not but Argyle’s Benin international could do a lot worse than opt for It’s Not Where You Start, It’s Where You Finish.

In the wake of Saturday’s 1-1 draw with his former club Accrington Stanley, Rommy engaged in a little compare and contrast exercise between Argyle’s early-season form and their current play-off chasing endeavours.

Manager John Sheridan’s summer rebuilding of the Pilgrims has resulted in a slow-burner of a season: seven League 2 defeats in their opening 12 games has given way to just six reversals in the subsequent 26.

“If you want to progress, you need a good group of lads,” said Rommy, “and that is exactly what we’ve got.

“It is a shame that we didn’t get it at the beginning of the season but, when you have got ten new players in the team coming from everywhere, to make them grow like each other is not easy.

“You have to build a team, and that is not easy to do.

“You can see the difference between the first ten games and the last ten games.

“When a team is confident, you can see the players’ faces are happy. It was different at the beginning – when you go in the changing room and you are losing, everyone is looking at each other, but now you can see everyone is happy.”

‘Everyone’ is an apt term. The unity in the Pilgrims’ squad means that, despite the disappointing result at Accrington which dropped them out of League 2’s top seven, Argyle’s hopes of making the play-offs remain live.

“In the last five games, there are maybe 17 or 18 players that have been starting,” said Rommy. “That tells you the mentality of the club. At training, everyone is happy. There are no bad eggs in training. That is most important.”

“It doesn’t matter which players play, if we keep winning and we keep getting points, we can only go one way and that is to the play-offs. I can’t see us not going there. Everyone is focused on it.

“This is not a club to be staying in this league, so the pressure is on the manager and the players. All we have got to do is keep believing.”