A Wee Jolt

A second successive double from Jake Jervis, either side of another Ryan Brunt goal, inside the first half-hour put Argyle in total control over their National League South hosts.

However, Bath pulled the plug on the Pilgrims’ dominance with a goal seven minutes before half-time and then made the most of what Derek labelled “sloppy” Argyle defending to level maters with 15 minutes to go.

Derek said: “We didn’t want half-time to come; half-time’s come and it’s set us back a wee bit. Bath obviously came back into the game in the second half – they played the ball forward quite quickly – but, in the first half we were outstanding at times, the way we moved the ball; the way we got crosses into the box; the three goals were outstanding.

“But we can’t allow the goals to come as they came in the second half.

“We could have got carried away with our first-half performance, and you want to get carried away. We’ve had a wee jolt tonight; a wee reminder – ‘Listen, we’re not as good as we think we are’. I think that’s a good thing at times.”

The pick of the goals was the first: a flowing move which ended with Jake heading in at the far post.

Derek said: “It was a good move; good play into the midfield and then out, and then down the side – a great cross by Gregg Wylde and fantastic finish by Jake. It was good for him to get another two goals, and Brunt’s got another goal as well.

“It is good going, but we have to look at the other side of the game; we have to defend better. I think we got a wee bit – I don’t like the word – sloppy at times. We didn’t finish the game off. We were in total command of the game.

“I made one change in the second half because I wanted to get 90 minutes out of them. I thought it was important at this time of the season. They were getting a wee bit tired but take nothing away from the goals [Bath] scored.

“There was a comedy of errors for a couple of the goals and it’s not like them; they have got a good defensive record. Tonight, we allowed that to slip negatively into our game, but we will get that sorted out; we will get that out of their systems.

“I did say we would probably concede a few goals because of the style of play we are going to play, but not the nature of goals we conceded tonight. They were errors and we could have done a lot better.”