Managing to Manage

The Greens rose to see off the side that ended their promotion aspirations this season at Adams Park with an excellent display, capped off by strikes from Reuben Reid and Jake Jervis, nullifying Jason Banton’s goal against his old side.

All of the goals game in a frenetic first half of a game in which the Pilgrims scrapped with the Chairboys, quashing the threat the hosts posed for long spells. 

“We did a lot of work on them this week,” said Peter. “We knew exactly what they were going to bring to the table. 

“I think in the second half you saw especially; I think we dropped a little deeper in the last ten minutes, but you saw what we were going to do.

“Carl McHugh was going in and challenging for the first ball, me and [Curtis] Nelson were sweeping up, and it worked down to a tee. 

“It’s not pretty, but it’s effective. If that’s the way their manager wants to play to try and get out the division, so be it. Our manager has a different philosophy, and that works for us. 

“We know what we’re going to get from Wycombe, and I thought we dealt with it fairly well. Credit to the gaffer for giving us a game plan, and we stuck to it and got a result.”

Argyle’s ability to outmuscle Wanderers was certainly not by chance, then, and Hartley was extremely pleased to see the whole team stick to that game plan and control play once they took the lead.

“One thing I can say about today is that I think we managed the game really well,” said Peter. 

“We’ve talked about it in the past, how we go about managing a game, slowing a game down and dictating the tempo in the game. It’s a breath of fresh air, to see a game out like that. 

“We seem to go into games and get stronger as we go on. We can overrun teams.”