The M Word

ARGYLE are going into Thursday Sky Bet League 2 play-off semi-final second leg a goal behind Wycombe Wanderers...

...but Saturday night scorers Zak Ansah and Jason Banton believe the tie’s momentum is firmly with the Pilgrims.

With five minutes of the first leg to play, Argyle trailed 3-0. Then substitutes Zak and Jason netted fine individual strikes to reduce the margin to just a single goal ahead of the return at Adams Park, where the Pilgrims won 2-0 during the league season.

“At 3-0 down, we were hoping we’d get a goal to give us belief, and luckily me and Bants got the goals,” said Zak. 

“Now we’ve got the belief that we can do what we did earlier in the season; if we do that, we’ll be at Wembley.”

Jason said: “As I was coming on, I saw the third goal going in and it was a bit disheartening but the gaffer’s message was: ‘Just go on, try to get a goal, and out them under pressure’.

“That’s what we did with Zak scoring. I got the goal in the last minute of normal time and I was happy to get that to put [Wycombe] on the back foot. 

“You could see, at the final whistle, they didn’t look too happy; they looked like they’d lost the game, even at 3-2 up.

“They looked like they were going into the second game 3-0 up, cruising. It now looks like we have put them on the back foot. Even though they are going into the game a goal up, I don’t think they are going to be looking forward to that game.”

The Chairboys might not be looking forward to the return, but they are in pole position after a magnificent campaign in which they only just missed out on automatic promotion.

“The table doesn’t lie,” said Jason. “They finished fourth for a reason; they’ve been up there all season. To come here and the performance they gave in the first half and the first 15 minutes of the second half – you can see why they are where they are.

“But the play-offs are a lottery. Everyone gets an equal opportunity over the two legs and we have given ourselves an opportunity going into the game.

“At 3-0 down, it was going to be a major task; now we have given ourselves a really good chance that we can go there and do something we have done earlier in the season and win 2-0.”