Fit and Firing

ARGYLE scarcely felt like they had been back at home following Saturday’s 0-0 Sky Bet League 2 draw at Oxford before they were back on the road again...

...traveling to the other side of London for Tuesday’s game at Dagenham & Redbridge.

Even though they have been dealt a tough hand, and even though the weekend encounter was played out largely on mud, rather than grass, captain Curtis Nelson is adamant there are no excuses for the Pilgrims not performing to the topmost of their ability.

He said: “We can’t start making excuses about heavy pitches and whatnot; it is what it is and we have got to deal with it and we will definitely do that. 

“We’re a fit team; we’ve had a good season; we had a good pre-season – that helps throughout the whole season, having a good base fitness; we always train hard and do the right things. We’ve shown, in games before, that we score late on – so that’s not going to be a problem to us.

“It’s part and parcel of playing Saturday-Tuesday games: you have got to be able to look after yourself and then, come Sunday or Monday, you have got to start to think about the next game. Once the final whistle has gone, you have got to look towards the next fixture.”

Curtis’s confidence is borne out by the fact that the same squad travelled to Essex for Tuesday’s game that had been on duty three days earlier, apart obviously, from Drew Talbot, who has been recalled from his Home Park loan spell by parent club Chesterfield. 

The skipper is also certain that Saturday’s goal-less stalemate does not signal the beginning of a barren spell for the Pilgrims.

“We have got to take the positives from it – we kept a clean sheet and it was a good away point” he said. “We didn’t go into the game to come out of it with a 0-0 draw – we would have liked to have picked up three points as we do every game – but that’s what happened.

“We have got ten players on the pitch who can score. Just because we’ve drawn 0-0, it doesn’t mean the goals are now going to start to dry up.”