Young Bucks

THE young Pilgrims who appeared in the first team during Argyle’s 5-1 pre-season victory against Buckland Athletic have received special recognition from team-mate Gary Sawyer.

Since returning for pre-season training at the beginning of the month, the first team and the Academy have been on a mission to put their hard work into action.

First-year professionals Alex Fletcher and Jordan Bentley, and apprentice Cameron Sangster showcased their talent at Buckland on Wednesday, while fellow Academy graduate Callum Rose has also featured in pre-season.

“I thought [Cameron] did really well,” said Gary. “For such a young lad, he seems in control of the game. Jordan’s doing well, Fletcher’s doing well, and Callum Rose is doing well; unfortunately he took a knock in the first game.

“It’s nice to see the kids come through – that was me many moons ago.” 

With pre-season training already underway, the team is in good spirit, as was demonstrated by a fourth successive pre-season win.

Gary said: “It’s just a good run out; getting everyone together as we’ve got quite a few new boys – it’s going well; training’s hard as always.

“The boys look fit and are still working really hard at training and in the games, and they all know it’s hard, so you can’t knock it.”

“From the first training session we had, I think you could tell that the boys that have come in are definitely going to be good additions to the team.”

After having two months off, Gary explained the importance of having a lot of pre-season games.

“It gets you back and used to playing,” he said. “We’d rather be out here playing the games than on the training field.”

This season at Argyle, manager Derek Adams has allocated two players per position.

“The goal is obviously that we want to put the shirt on in that first [League] game of the season and keep it from there,” Gary said.

“Everyone’s working hard, so it’s going to be a fight for every position in the first game.”