Merit and Distinction

...Derek Adams has reinforced his belief that, while Argyle’s lofty position may not have been expected in all quarters, it is fully deserved. 

 

The Pilgrims have been inside the promotion places following all but four of their league matches this season, topping the table after 15 of them. Those statistics alone, as well as Argyle’s points tally, seem to justify their place amongst the teams battling for promotion with 17 matches to go, and Adams knows that his side’s current position is certainly no fluke.

 

“We’re on 56 points,” said Derek, “and we want to continue picking up points along the way. 

 

“We’re on a very good points total, and you could see the other night, with Portsmouth drawing away to Morecambe, that you can have games in hand, but they can be difficult ones. 

 

“We’re trying to win every game we possibly can. It’s a tight league, and it’s going to be tight until the end of the season. We can see we’ve got the second-best win record in the league at this moment in time, so we’re doing very well.

 

“We’re there on merit, and we’re there because we’ve played particularly well. Yes, we wouldn’t have been the ones people thought at the start of the season, but we’ve shown that we’re capable of matching any of the teams.”

 

The Greens’ chances of success this season may well be influenced by their returning playmaker, Graham Carey, who continued his road to full recovery from injury by playing in a Final Third League Development Cup game this week – following a half of first-team football last weekend.

 

“He’s getting there,” said Adams. “He’s obviously been out for eight to nine weeks but he’s getting there, training-wise and game-wise. He’s played 45 and 60 minutes, the other day.” 

 

Whilst Argyle’s options going forward are strengthening, Derek is not looking away from niggling defensive issues that have seen the Greens concede early, often soft, goals on a few occasions recently. 

 

“There’s goals that we could’ve prevented,” said Adams. “Most of them have been by individual errors, rather than a team scoring a well-worked goal against us. It’s important that we don’t give goals away like that.”