Closing Gaps

CONCEDING poor goals has been the common theme during Argyle’s recent games, and it was trend that manager Derek Adams was disappointed to see continue in their 3-0 defeat to Doncaster Rovers.

Much of the Green Army bore witness to a similar script to recent games at Home Park as Rovers came to town. The visitors were ahead inside of 20 minutes, as Andy Butler pounced in the box from an uncleared corner. The story repeated itself half an hour later, as John Marquis tapped in as goalmouth scramble after a dead-ball delivery was not dealt with. 

“We’ve obviously made it difficult for us,” said Derek. “We started the game brightly, as both sides did, and both teams created openings. We were in the game [but] we didn’t do enough to put pressure on their goal.

“We concede a goal from a corner kick where we don’t deal well with it at the front post. It ricochets off the bar and we don’t react quick enough to get there for the first goal. There’s players in that area that should’ve done better with that. It’s an easy ball into the box and not a great deal of pace on it. 

“The second goal: It comes off Luke [McCormick] and they’ve been able to poke it in. The first one and the second one should’ve been cleared at the first attempt.” 

A third goal came on 73 minutes through Alfie May, as Donny cruised to victory against an Argyle side who, for all their effort and attacking players on the field, were unable to carve out opportunities. 

“The third goal: we don’t deal well with the cross first of all,” said Adams, “and the runner gets ahead of us and gets the third goal. It becomes really difficult after that – and the red card doesn’t help. 

“Doncaster were always looking to play the ball in behind. They did that today. The goals that we’ve conceded were poor goals and we should’ve defended them better. 

“We haven’t created enough, I didn’t think, in the second half to put pressure on Doncaster. We didn’t create enough good openings. We didn’t find the space well enough, and the balls into the strikers weren’t good enough at times. 

“Sometimes you can have too many attacking players."

A disappointing afternoon all round, then – though Derek wanted to thank and praise for their support during their team’s difficult period. 

“I thought the fans were very good today,” said Adams. “They stuck with us and they could quite easily not have. 

“Their loyalty to the players and myself is paramount, because they’ve seen how well they’ve done last season and been able to get promotion to League One. Now they want to kick on and do well in League One, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”