Turning the Tables

THE league table and the form table are telling two very different tales right now.

Argyle travel to Rotherham with 13 places separating the sides in the table. However, the Pilgrims’ recent form would put them significantly higher in the table, whilst Rotherham’s recent form would have them nearer the foot of the table – if the season was decided over the last few games.

“We’ve taken 15 points from the last ten games,” said Derek, mental abacus working overtime. “We took five points from our first eleven games, so that tells you the progress that we have made.

“I did say, once we got over our injuries and suspensions that we would put a good run together because we have got a decent squad that have shown that they can beat the best teams in the league. We have gone to Bradford and won, we’ve beaten Charlton at home, we’ve drawn with Shrewsbury, away to Blackburn, we have shown that we can do it.”

Last Saturday’s win at Gillingham was the latest step in Argyle’s bid to escape the bottom four, and Derek was keen to share the positives of such a result.

He said: “It’s given us an opportunity now to try and get another victory on the road against Rotherham which would enable us to catch teams above us and we’ve certainly closed the gap. We’ve gone above teams last Saturday, we’ve put ourselves in a far better position. It’s always helps around the squad and it helps with the spirit.”

This Saturday’s opponents played in the Championship last season, and have had a generally solid campaign so far. Derek is aware of the difficulty they pose.

“They’ve come down from the Championship,” he said, “and they’ve performed well this season to start with. They’ve got a good victory away to Blackpool last week. They were 1-0 down, got it back to 2-1. They’ve got Championship players in their team but we have come off a very positive result against Gillingham.”