In Great Shape

...and enabled them to gel in double-quick time.

A mixture of new and established Pilgrims found the score-sheet at St James Park, as Graham Carey's sixth-minute opener was added to 20 minutes later by Bristol City loanee Paul-Arnold Garita. Argyle's defensive players then ensured the lead was never troubled, with new names like Sonny Bradley and Nauris Bulvitis working alongside Ben Purrington, Luke McCormick and others to record yet another clean sheet.

"I think that when you take good players to a football club, it's important," said Derek. "I've had one of the biggest rebuilding jobs that any manager has had in this league. I've had to do it quite quickly because we had the play-off final last year, and that's not easy.

"A month to do your business and try to get everybody in can be difficult, but we've done it well. We've done it under difficult circumstances, and we've dealt with it.

"We had to revamp our squad over the summer. We've taken in players that have got strength and power. Work ethic was important, and we've done that over the summer. The work ethic is the big thing; we've got a good mentality and work ethic in the squad."

Adams has not just built a winning Argyle side from nearly the ground up; the boss and the rest of the recruitment staff have done so in a sustainable fashion, moulding a team within the constraints of a budget and extracting superb performance levels from the assets available.

"The football club's in great shape," said Derek. "We're run prudently, we use a budget that we can afford, and I think that's always important.

"From a manager's point of view, I think that when you're working under these constraints, it makes you a better manager than somebody getting a number of million to spend. We've used the budget extremely well. To get the players we have under the budget we're working for is phenomenal."