Character Assessment

...as the Pilgrims came from behind to win 2-1 and further strengthen their grip on Sky Bet League Two's top spot.

The Pilgrims needed all of their courage, shown time after time so far this season, to continue their record-breaking start to the 2016-17 campaign at the Alexandra Stadium. Argyle fell behind early on to an Alex Kiwomya goal, and narrowly avoided going 2-0 behind as Luke McCormick kept out George Cooper's penalty.

Then came the fightback, starting before the break as Craig Tanner curled an effort into the far corner to level things up. Argyle carried the greater threat in the second half, and Graham Carey's goal 16 minutes from time gave Derek's side a seventh straight league win.

"For us to come here, go a goal down and come back to win 2-1, shows the character of our players," said Adams.

"We've got a great winning mentality. We've got a very good group. We've got a group of players who are quite calm. We've got a mixture of youth and experience in the side, and I think that's important.

"We've got continuity as well; we obviously had to make a change at centre half today. We've had to make changes throughout the season and the players that've come in have done well.

"I've got a group of players that are very together. They've got that winning mentality; you don't come away from home and win seven games on the trot if you don't."

Defying a tricky run of three away games in a week across a trio of competitions, the Pilgrims have put themselves seven points clear of second-placed Carlisle. The Cumbrians lost to bottom side Newport County earlier in the day to give Argyle that chance, but Derek did not let that result play a part in his side's performance.

"We obviously knew the score before the start of the game with Carlisle," said Adams. "The players didn't know the score. We didn't tell them, and I think that was important that we put our foot to the pedal and kept on going.

"We've had a difficult week. We've been away from home to Mansfield in the FA Cup, we've been at Swansea on a wet Tuesday night, and we've had to come to Crewe on a Saturday. It's a lot of time on the road and it's not easy for the players to recover, but they've shown they're capable of doing that.

"This is a tough league - it is every year. We're on a very good run, but there's a lot of teams on good runs in the league. We're just trying to stay ahead of the pack."