Still Stinging

A solitary goal from Barnet skipper Andy Yiadom midway through the second half was enough for the Londoners to record their tenth home win of the season, and condemn the Pilgrims to just their third loss on the road. 

The Greens were forced to deal with major losses in the first half with the withdrawal of Jordon Forster and Ryan Brunt with serious injuries, but the boss believes his side still handled the changes comfortably.

"I thought we dealt well with that," said Derek. "We were in control of the game.

"We tried to get the ball in the box: we've had ones across the area, we've put one past the post. I think we've had plenty of opportunities to score tonight, but we haven't had the person on the end of it to score.

"I thought we were in total control of the first half. We just needed that goal, and when you don't get that goal, it gives the opposition a wee bit of confidence."

The hosts were able to use that confidence to net the only goal of the game 20 minutes from time, as impressive play from John Akinde led to Yiadom finding a way past Luke McCormick with a well taken effort.

"It was good play in the wide area from their point of view," said Adams. "He [Akinde] turned a couple of players and put it back into the penalty area.

"We should've dealt better with it, but they were always going to get an opportunity, that's football, but we didn't take enough of our opportunities in and around the 18-yard box.

"I didn't see that Barnet were going to cause us any trouble, but you'll always get an opportunity in the game. They were able to score with their opportunity."

Argyle created numerous chances to score before and after Barnet's goal, but ultimately drew a blank for the second away game in a row. With important fixtures coming up against Accrington Stanley and, most immediately, Oxford United, Adams knows exactly where his team need to improve before those games.

"We've got Jake Jervis, Graham Carey, Reuben Reid and Craig Tanner all on the pitch that have scored a good number of goals for us," said Derek. "From my point of view, we should've scored a number of goals tonight, and we haven't done that.

"Very frustrating, with the amount of chances we created throughout the 90 minutes. We should've scored more goals than Barnet. We haven't done that, and that's hugely disappointing.

"It's a hard night, because we had a lot of the play tonight and we weren't able to score. That's the deeply frustrating thing. We've put some very good balls into the box from crosses, but we haven't had the person to put the ball in the back of the net.

"From our point of view, we've just got to get going again for Saturday."