Home Goals

The Argyle centre-back, two months into his stint in England – the sixth country he has played in professionally, including his native land – is looking forward to making his second appearance at the latest stadium he calls home. 

Nauris has played four times for Argyle: in away games at Carlisle, Notts County and Blackpool, and a home fixture against Mansfield. The Pilgrims have won the last three of those, with road wins at County and Blackpool coming by virtue of goals from Bulvitis himself. 

Argyle have clocked up a huge number of miles – and hours – on the road already this season, which has come as a little bit of a shock to the system for Nauris.

If the travelling is taking its toll, it is not showing. Argyle won 1-0 at Blackpool via Nauris’ second goal in as many away games, but the man known to all at Home Park as Bully is excited to run out at the Theatre of Greens once again. 

“Home games, for me, are nice,” said Bully. “I feel at home already. The fans support us. Travelling to away games is far...I’ve never travelled so far! It will be nice to be back at Home Park.

Bulvitis’ two goals in four games haul will clearly be pleasing to him, but as a defender, the fact that Argyle have conceded just two in those same four games will be of more interest. 

The clean sheet at Blackpool followed one at home to Mansfield, and the sense of pride that defenders feel at keeping the goals out was obvious in Bully. 

However, in a week where Derek Adams spoke openly about wanting to see his team get goals from all over the field, seeing his defender power home a header from a corner routine will have pleased the manager immensely. 

“It’s very nice,” said Nauris, of his goal. “First, the most important thing is that we win the away game. To score, for me, is not the biggest target. 

“I always try on the set pieces, and work hard on that. And now, in two games, two goals! “In Scotland, I scored quite a lot of goals – so I hope I can do it again. 

“They took it short, and Graham [Carey] always makes good crosses in training. I know I just had to go in the box. I went there, and the ball just came to my head. 

“The same happened at Notts County. Connor [Smith] made it perfect. 

“We have good delivery; G and Connor make good deliveries. I just have to put the ball in the net. 

“The clean sheet is the most important thing for a defender. We still made a couple of mistakes, so we need to work hard as a team, work together to be more comfortable with the ball – at the back and the front.”