Stubborn Streak

The Pilgrims remain second in the league despite falling to back- to-back Tuesday evening defeats against Notts County 1-0 and Blackpool 3-0 at Home Park, either side of a fantastic 2-0 victory against then third-placed Carlisle United on Saturday, March 4. 

The inconsistency of results in recent weeks has been a concern of the Green Army and this is something that Derek is addressing as the challenge for an automatic promotion spot hots up.

“It’s the same with every team in this league,” said Derek. “If any team in this league was consistent then they would have won the league by now because of the inconsistency of so many teams in and around the top half of the table. You see people changing places all the time. We have to be more consistent in picking up points and picking up wins. 

“I think at times this season where we have been at home we have opened up too much. We had the onus on us to go out and score goals but sometimes that is not right and we have to tighten up a bit.

“We’re up there with the top goals in the league and up there with the least goals against in the league so even though we have conceded a number of goals the other night, we need to get back to being stubborn and take our chances when they come.”

Of Argyle's remaining 11 fixtures, seven of them are away from Home Park. Having already accomplished 10 victories on the road, the Pilgrims will be aiming to add to that tally to not only ensure that they earn a promotion place at the end of the season, but also to break the record for the most away wins in one season by an Argyle side. On three occasions, including last season, an Argyle side has been victorious 12 times away from home. 

“The target is to do that because we’ll need to do that to get in the automatic promotion places,” said Derek. “We need to go away from home and win games.

“Between now and the end of the season, we have seven away games. We are on 10 victories away from home and we’ll need to win a good number of them to get ourselves into that automatic spot and if we do that, we’ll beat the record. There’s no two ways about it, we will have to win on the road.

 

“Our away record is the best in the league. From that point of view, we’ve been able to win a lot of games and that’s given us a good points total. We’re away for the next few games - to Mansfield and Wycombe - two very difficult venues that we have to go to, but ones that we are more than capable of picking up points at.

“We probably are underdogs going to Mansfield. We’re the away team and usually the away teams are the underdogs but you have to look at our results away from home and we’ve had some impressive ones.”