Regroup and Renew
AFTER Argyle’s 3-0 loss to Doncaster Rovers, Derek Adams is calling on the entirety of Argyle to regroup and pull together to end a poor run of form
The Greens recorded a fourth consecutive league loss at home, as goals from Andy Butler, John Marquis and Alfie May heaped more woes on the Green Army. Once again conceding first and early in the match, Derek’s side were fighting from underneath for the rest of the afternoon.
“When you go a goal down, it becomes difficult,” said Adams, “and that’s happening to us at this moment in time. We’re finding it difficult to get going after that. Looking at it from the bench, the players have got very good ability, but they’re just not getting the breaks at this moment in time.
“I think the players work ever so hard but we are conceding goals and poor goals at times at important times of the game. We’re not getting the first goal at this moment in time and that’s not helping.”
The poor form is not through lack of trying or refusal to shake things up, with the boss switching systems for the visit of Doncaster. The two-up-front line-up included full league debuts for Ruben Lameiras and Alex Fletcher.
“We went 4-3-1-2, with Fletcher and Ciftci up front and Lameiras in behind. We tried to match up to Doncaster and we started the game well with that,” said Derek.
“He [Fletcher] was given an opportunity today and he worked hard - and that’s all you can ask. He’s 18 years of age and Alex always gives his all. He had a chance in the first half but for his first league start it was very good for him.”
Adams will have to make at least one more change before the trip to Wigan Athletic, with Sonny Bradley being sent off towards the end of the Donny defeat. That makes it four red cards already for the season, leaving the boss working overtime to rearrange his depleted side.
“We’ll just have to sit down and look at it Sunday and Monday, and see where we go from there,” said Derek. “We’re struggling at this moment in time with injuries. We obviously have Graham Carey coming back from suspension, [but] we lose Sonny Bradley to suspension.
“It’s difficult when you’ve come into a new league and you’ve had four sendings off; it’s not helpful, but we’ve got to obviously regroup and move on. As management and staff, we’ve got to try and pull things together at a difficult time for everybody.
“I was always a realist when we came into the division. I’ve spoken about my thoughts and how we would compete in the division. That hasn’t changed and it’s going to be a difficult campaign because there are a lot of very good sides in the league.”