Three Little Words

“YOU never know.”

With three words, John Sheridan encapsulated the thoughts of delighted Argyle fans following the Pilgrims’ 1-0 Sky Bet League 2 win at Wycombe Wanderers.

More than 600 of the self-styled Green and White Barmy Army – including a couple of Olympic gold medallists (Greg and Jonny Searle) and an England Rugby World Cup winner (Richard Hill) – witnessed Conor Hourihane’s sumptuous 48th-minute volley take Argyle to level on points with the last of the four play-off positioned teams, Southend United, and wipe out the misery of defeat at Bristol four days earlier.

With three of the top seven teams (Scunthorpe, on Saturday; Chesterfield, next Tuesday; and Oxford) still to visit Home Park, and the Pilgrims taking on another away (Burton), there is still much to play for in the final 11 games of the season.

While fans may – indeed, are obliged to – dream, manager John Sheridan remains a pragmatist, albeit a slightly happy one.

“All we have to do is keep ourselves in and around the teams in the play-off area, and that’s what we’ve done,” he said, after the match. “One or two results have gone our way so we’re in there, and have caught up on one or two teams, so we’re in with a shout.

“We have got two great games coming up now. Scunthorpe and Chesterfield are both flying, but we are in decent form ourselves and will believe we can win both games. I expect a big crowd. Hopefully, we can get a couple of good results. You never know.

“The most important thing is trying to get three points from each game we play. It was a great response after the disappointment on Saturday.

“I think we deserved to win. It’s a great three points.”

Argyle enjoyed vast amounts of possession in the first 45 minutes without ever really troubling opposition goalkeeper Matt Ingram, a situation which was addressed at half-time.

John said: “I wanted us to have bit more belief, be brave and try and pass the ball a little bit better.

“I think the game was there, the way [Wycombe] played and the way we wanted to play. I just think we didn’t move the ball around quickly enough and get our wing-backs in the game. I think we did it a bit more in the second half.

“In the second half, I thought we were the better team. We got more in the game and created more problems for them.

“You rely on your strikers and, if they can keep possession of the ball in the opposition half, it gives you a better chance of creating problems. I thought we did that in the second half and were unfortunate not to score one or two more.”