The Final Third

ARGYLE manager Derek Adams believes the Pilgrims could have been out of sight before Oldham made Saturday’s Sky Bet League One victory something of a tighter affair.

The Pilgrims raced into a 2-0 lead by the 20th minute, thanks to goals from Antoni Sarcevic and Ruben Lameiras, before Oldham reorganised, brought on substitute striker Duckens Nazon, and pulled a goal back when Yann Songo’o turned Craig Davies’ cross into his own net.

Derek said: “We could have gone 3-0 or 4-0 in the game with the amount of chances we created in the first period. We probably should have. 

“Oldham came into the game and the reason they came into the game was because we scored an own goal; they got a lift from that. Over the 90 minutes, we deserved to win.

“We had a number of shots that went past the post or across the penalty box but, at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is the ball going in the back of the net and collecting the three points. 

“When [Oldham] get the own goal to get themselves back in the game, it gives them a huge lift and we have gone from being in a very comfortable position to only leading by one goal.

“We had to weather a bit of a storm to get through that period, and we did that. It was about getting to the last period of the game. We dealt well with the corner-kicks that they put in and we could have scored on the counter.

“We needed to get the third goal but we weren’t able to do that so, in the end, we have had to dig deep, but we could have scored a couple more, as well.”

Derek waited until the last five minutes before changing things from the bench.

He said: “I thought, if we did make a couple of substitutions, it might change the flow of the game: it could have been a positive impact but it might have been a negative impact because somebody coming fresh on sometimes doesn’t get up to the speed of the game.”