Keepmoat and Carry On
IN many ways, the Pilgrims’ 1-1 draw at Doncaster was an echo of their Sky Bet League One season.
A first half in which saw a not-quite-there Argyle trail their hosts despite some promising moveswas followed by a bravura display after the interval that deserved more than Ryan Edwards’ 74th-minute leveller.
“Over the 90 minutes, we were the better side,” said manager Derek Adams.
“In the first half, [Doncaster] probably shaded it; in the second half, we had by far the most possession, and the amount of chances we created was probably double the ones they had in the game. We probably should have won with the chances that we had. We had a lot of chances.
“Over the 90 minutes, we should have had the three points.”
“We had to get up against them in the second half, put pressure on them. We certainly did that over the second half – we ran right over the top of them – and should have won the game.
“[Doncaster] changed their formation a wee bit in the second half and it allowed us to go down the sides of them and put more pressure on. When we did that, we dominated the play. I just felt that we had the better of the play on the day.
“It became end-to-end, it became man-to-man, and the way we opened them up a good number of times was pleasing for us because we have come here in the past and found it difficult, But today was a different story.”
“The amount of chances we had in the second half was unbelievable. [Antoni] Sarcveic could have had a hat-trick but, in the end, Eddy comes up with a great goal to get the equaliser and we probably didn’t want the game to finish because we were right on top of the match.”
Antoni was equally a victim of some fine goalkeeping by Ian Lawlor as he was of his own profligacy and Derek took heart from his willingness to keep putting himself forward, in both senses of the expression.
“The positive side is that he’s getting in the box,” said Derek. “Antoni’s a really good player; his energy is fantastic; he gets up and down the pitch; he blocks play; he picks up the ball and gets goalscoring opportunities. He’s shown that he can score goals.”
The draw took Argyle to 35 points for the season, all but five of which have come from thelast 16 of their 28 matches, and Derek feels that is on the low side for recent efforts which have seen them undefeated since the end of November.
“We probably should have had into the 40s by now, if you look at it,” he said. “But we’re happy with the eight-game unbeaten run.
“We’ll take a point – we were away from home against opposition who have been in a good vein of form.”