String Theory

Off the back of a comfortable 3-0 victory over Mansfield Town, the Greens head to West Sussex to take on a side who have lost four of their last five games, and who will be without former Argyle player Simon Walton through injury.

 

Few games in Sky Bet League 2 this season have gone according to the script, though, and Adams is looking for his side to put in the sort of performance that saw them win the reverse fixture in October.

 

“Crawley are a team that have just come down from League 1 last year,” said Derek, “and are looking to try and push to get into the play-offs. We’re looking to push to open up the points gap between ourselves and the teams below us.

 

“I think that they’ve got a wee bit of experience in their team. They’ve got players that have played at different levels. They’re obviously going to miss Simon Walton from their team on Saturday. When we played them here earlier on this season, we played very well. I know we won 2-1 but it was a very accomplished performance.

 

“From our point of view we’ve got to go there and play as well as we’ve done home and away this season. We’ve got a very good away record, but we’ve also got a very good home record as well. I think that you’ve got to combine them both – you can’t just have one or the other. I think that we’ve been able to cope well on the road.”

 

Saturday’s fixture kicks off a run of five fixtures in 14 days, including trips to Yeovil Town and Barnet on Tuesday evenings. With Derek fully prepared for the high workload, the boss hopes to give the Green Army plenty to celebrate over the next fortnight.

 

“It’s a quick turnaround from Saturday to a Tuesday, Saturday to Tuesday” said Adams, “but we showed over the Christmas period we’re more than capable of doing that, because we won a good number of games in that time.

 

“The players have responded well to that. We’ll get them back in, get them in the swimming pool and prepare for the next game.

 

“I would rather be a supporter than a manager! I think that as a supporter you get the excitement of going to a home game, then going to an away game. As a supporter, you support the team through thick and thin, and enjoy the game on a Saturday or Tuesday night – before and after the game, hopefully. As a manager you’ve got to be thinking of the game before, and you’ve got to be thinking of the game after.”