Uphill Battle

ARGYLE boss Derek Adams showed his disappointment over the 5-1 Sky Bet League One defeat against Peterborough United.

However, despite the result, the manager thinks his side showed encouraging signs in certain parts.

Derek said: “We gave ourselves a tough afternoon to start with. We gave away two goals early in the game and against a Peterborough side it’s always going to be difficult to get back up to speed. 

“In the first half, we played well at times. I didn’t think there was too much in the game – we created plenty of opportunities – but the way we lost the two goals was very poor. [For the first goal], we had the ball on the halfway line; we passed it back and then back again to the goalkeeper, who miskicked it and they get a goal from there. 

“The second goal, [Niall] Canavan plays a short one into midfield, it gets picked up and they get the second goal. So they didn’t pick us off or do anything - we gave the ball away and allowed them to get the two goals.” 

After the early double-shock, Argyle recovered to put their visitors under sustained pressure going into the half-time interval, when they brought on a second forward to try to up the ante. Peterborough, though, repeated their first-half double dose. 

Derek said: “We had a lot of good opportunities in the first half and we thought, ‘Right, we’ll change things’. [We] put [Ryan] Taylor on, took Canavan off, and three minutes in, we’re another goal down, and another goal down quickly after that. 

“The first one, we try to play offside, which we never do, but we did today – we ran out, allowed them to be 2 v 1. Then, we gave away a penalty kick. 

“After that, we get ourselves back in with a good headed goal [from Ryan Edwards], we allow them to play between us again.” 

Even though his Pilgrims side created double the amount of chances of their guests, Derek knows that the result is the all-important stat after the 90 minutes. 

He said: “To lose 5-1 when we’ve created 22 chances in the game, and they’ve created 11 chances…we all know, at the end of the day, the scoreline is the one that everybody looks for.” 

Argyle shot themselves in the foot, gifting the Posh chances and that is something any team can ill-afford, especially when Jason Cummings, who scored two and assisted one of the five goals is around. 

Derek said:” “We work on a different level than Peterborough. They have been able to go out and get [Jason Cummings] from Nottingham Forest. They paid x amount for him and he’s a top striker.

“But our strikers have to do better when that chance comes along, as our midfield do, because we did have opportunities. 

“We have to do better in the forward area, taking the goals. You can see that [Peterborough] were very clinical when they had their opportunities – the stats will tell you that – but, when we had our opportunities, we weren’t clinical enough.” 

Despite a four-goal margin Derek was pleased to see his team keep trying. Theyy were eventually rewarded with a consolation goal and Derek believes the scoreline was not a true reflection of how the game panned out. 

“Over the spell in the games, there’s four goals between us on the day – I don’t think it was a four-goals-between-us game”, he said. 

“We thought we could get a goal before half-ime which we didn’t and we’ve allowed them quickly to get two goals in the second half. The game is finished, it’s over and done with, but the players still kept on going and tried to get a goal, and we got it late on in the game.”