Hand in Glove

No-one, therefore, is better placed to appreciate a similar effort from Accrington Stanley goalkeeper Marek Rodak which helped his side dent the Pilgrims’ promotion push with a 1-0 Home Park win on Saturday.

The Slovakian Under-21 international, on loan from Championship side Fulham, returned from international duty to make a handful of world-class saves as Argyle sought to cancel out Jordan Clark’s eighth-minute goal.

“He’s won the match for them, without a doubt,” said Luke, of his custodian counterpart. 

“They got the early goal and they did what they needed to do to hang on to it. They’ve had to rely on their goalkeeper at times, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes. We’ve had games when we’ve done the same.

“I thought we weren’t good enough in our decisions, and we were wasteful at times.

“Having said that, we have created chances and I can appreciate their goalkeeper making some tremendous saves. Had he not been in that sort of form today, then we would be sat here with a completely different story. It one of those things; we have to, unfortunately, take it on the chin.”

The diminutive Clark, who trialled with Argyle in pre-season before signing for Accrington, nodded home Sean McConville’s right-wing cross for what turned out to be the winner. 

Luke said: “If you dissect the goal right the way back, it’s more than just the smallest player on the pitch heading the ball. 

“We set up to head the ball clear; we didn’t do that; and we paid the price.”