Gaffer Thorough About Boro

ARGYLE boss Derek Adams has said it is important that his side bounce back from defeat once again as the Pilgrims meet Stevenage at Home Park on Saturday.

Argyle lost at home on Tuesday night to Northampton Town, but have the benefit of a home game, against Stevenage, just four days later, as they try to put the Cibblers defeat behind them. 

"I think it is always important that when you lose a game that you do bounce back," said Derek, whose side had won four in a row before Tuesday's defeat. "We have done that many times this season, where we have been on very good runs, then maybe lost - then gone on another very good run. That is just the nature of this league.

"We have to put pressure on [Stevenage], there is no doubt about that. It is important that we play with the fluidity that we can do. We have played in games this season where it has been tough, like on Tuesday night; it was not a football match, it was a hard division 2 old style football match, and sometimes that is what is going to happen."

Argyle have only lost six games out of 26, however one of those was against Stevenage at the Lamex Stadium. Derek expects that Saturday's fixture will be very different to the reverse fixture at the start of September, when Stevenage won 2-1.

Derek said: "That game was a hard game because we were away to Wimbledon on the Tuesday night in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy. It was a heavy night; the pitch had a lot of water on it and the players had to work hard, and then we had to go back to London on the Saturday so that probably took it's toll.

"This game is a wee bit different from that. Their team is probably different from the team that we played at the start of the season. They have got a number of loan players that have gone back to their parent clubs. Will they be part of the Stevenage team on Saturday? We will have to wait and see."

In terms of team news, Derek has a full squad to pick from, except for Graham Carey, who is still out through injury. Reuben Reid played just over an hour on Tuesday, in his first game back from a hip injury, and Derek was impressed with what he saw.

"We have kept him back a wee bit which has been good from our point of view," said Derek. "It has allowed him to get a few extra weeks training in. He has not played for a long time now and it is important that we manage him in that way. He played for 60 odd minutes the other night, it was good that he was back in. He looked fresh, he moved well, and hopefully we can see the benefits of that in the coming weeks.

"We have just got Graham Carey [out]. He is the only one that is out injured; everyone else is fit. It has been seven weeks on Saturday since he last played, we are hopeful of having him back into full training next week so as soon as the physio passes him on we can try and speed up his time to get him back in the team."