Derek Rues Chances Missed

DEREK Adams believes his Argyle had plenty of chances to sweep aside Mansfield Town, but were forced to settle for 0-0 draw.

Sure enough, a week after recording their first draw of the season against Bristol Rovers, the Greens were in another stalemate at the One Call Stadium – though the outcome could have been made very different in the first half.

The likes of Ryan Brunt, Graham Carey and Reuben Reid all came close to opening the scoring in the game’s opening half-hour, and those chances alone make Adams believe the draw was a missed opportunity for his side. 

“It’s two points lost, obviously,” said Derek. “We’ve hit the bar a couple of times and probably should’ve been out of sight in the first half. 

“We did very well for 30 minutes in the first half – we could’ve had four or five goals in the first period. We dominated for half an hour, and I’m delighted with the play we’ve had.

“We’ve played better than that at times, but we’ve opened up Mansfield on numerous occasions in the first half.” 

Brunt and Josh Simpson came into the side for the game, and the boss had high praise for the way that both of them slotted in to an altered setup against the Stags.

“Josh is an experienced player,” said Adams, “and he played that position well today. 

“It’s not easy coming into your first game, but he stopped play, he made passes forward, and he gave us a good influence in the middle of the pitch today.”

As for Brunt, Derek said: “He did well in the first half, when he took the ball on, won some headers. We played off of him, we played off of [Reuben] Reid and [Jake] Jervis as well.

“Sometimes you don’t get the goal, and then you’ve got to take a point at some point in the game. Mansfield are going to come back into it. We didn’t really get in behind them in the second half.  They’re a good side – they’ve done well this season.

“You always want to win games, but sometimes you have to come away from home, take a point and move on to the next game."