Carl's Game

Centre-back turned central-midfielder Carl made a surprise return to the action as the Pilgrims beat Crawley, playing in the middle of the park with Argyle's late goalscorer Hiram Boateng. McHugh had been expected to miss out through a hamstring injury, but was named in manager Derek Adams' starting 11, and putting in his usual hard-working shift. 

"It's obviously nice," said Carl. "Its nice for the supporters and everyone around the club because they have been through hard times in the last few years and it's nice for everyone. We're just looking at it game by game, we're not really looking too much into that, there's a long long way to go, but three points is the most important thing at the moment." 

Despite Argyle's dominance, Crawley almost gained a point, as Roarie Deacon equalised with five minutes to play. However, Argyle fought back, with Hiram scoring a winner with one minute of normal time left to play. 

Carl said: "I thought we were really good in the first half. We really dominated and we probably should have been 2-0, 3-0 or 4-0 up really. The second-half we got a bit sloppy, but games usually change, you never get two halves of a game that are exactly the same." 

"You knew they were going to have their spell and it was a real kick in the teeth when they got the equaliser, but we showed great character to come back, to keep going, to push on and get the winner." 

Unfortunately, Carl will miss out on Tuesday night's game against Exeter due to suspension as he picked up his fifth booking of the season, but he has said he is confident that the Pilgrims will triumph. 

"We're always confident at the moment," he said. "We're on a good run of form and we will go in and attack that game like we have done recently and try and win it."