David's Day

David, 26, who joined the Pilgrims on Monday following a successful Home Park trial, scored Argyle’s second in their 2-0 victory at Truro City 24 hours later.

It was a goal largely of the midfielder’s own making, too. After chasing down a lost cause, he won the ball and flipped it out to skipper-for-the-day Jake Jervis on the right before running into the box to head home the captain’s return cross.

It capped a momentous couple of days for the Londoner, who has sloshed around non-league football for several years after failing to make the grade at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Derek said: “David’s a big, powerful lad who has come out of non-league football and I feel he can be a good presence in the midfield for us.

“He is not going to play 50 games this season – he is going to play less than that – but it gives him the opportunity. He’s made a great run from the edge of the box to win a tackle and then the ball gets played wide; a good cross and a good header from him.

“He came in at pre-season and trained with us. It was a very hard week and, at any point in that week, he could have dropped out because it was extremely difficult, but he stuck with it.

“We need people at the football club who have a winning attitude and he’s certainly got that.

“It’s going to take him a wee bit of time but, the quicker we can get him in and around the players, the better. We need to get him sharper and fitter and we will get that. As we can see tonight, he’s getting there.”

Centre-back Karleigh Osborne remains the only Pilgrim not to have featured in Argyle’s pre-season games after injuring his thigh on the eve of the opener at St Blazey on July 9.

“We would have hoped that he would have had some game-time by now,” said Derek. “He’s only missed 10 days training, but it feels like a lot longer than that because we have had a lot of games in a short space of time. We are hopeful of having him training by the end of this week.

“He will get there. If you look at Sonny Bradley, he had missed a great chunk of training but he has come in and it doesn’t look like he has missed much in the way of game-fitness.”