Same Team Bouncing Back
THE Argyle players who had left Bedfordshire seven days earlier in a state of shellshock bounced back in style against Fleetwood as Argyle picked up three valuable home points from a 2-1 win.
Freddie Ladapo epitomised the Pilgrims’ bouncebackability. Substituted at half-time during the 5-1 defeat by Luton Town at Kenilworth Road, he scored two second-half goals to down Fleetwood as a team showing only one change from a week earlier – Ruben Lameiras for the suspended Graham Carey – tasted a sweet Sky Bet League One victory.
For manager Derek Adams, selecting effectively the same team was a no-brainer.
He said: “We made one change from the team from last week. It was an enforced change. So that tells you how I think this team can play. There were probably many people who would have written a lot of them off. That’s why I have got the full confidence of the squad.
“Everybody looks at it in a different way. We, unfortunately, last week didn’t deal with the threat of Luton. Saturday, we have dealt well with the threat of Fleetwood.
“I don’t think that last week’s performance was as bad as everybody says it was, but the scoreline was. That’s why everybody gets carried away.
“That’s why a football manager doesn’t get carried away and supporters do, from all over the world at all different football clubs; they will look at the scoreline. As a football manager and a football coach, we have got to look at the game and think: ‘What could we have done better?’
“We know what we could have done better at Luton: we conceded poor goals; we gave away a penalty-kick before half-time, but I only made one enforced change [against Fleetwood].
“We lost bad goals; the scoreline flattered Luton, there is no doubt about that. Over the 90 minutes, possession-wise, we had more possession than Luton, but they had more chances than us – they scored at the right time, and, in football, the most important thing is scoring goals and not conceding. Today, we have scored more goals than Fleetwood and conceded less.”
They might have scored even more had it not been for the intervention of the woodwork to deny Ladapo and Yann Songo’o, and a superb display by Fleetwood goalkeeper Alex Cairns, who made several saves including pawing away Niall Canavan’s deflected header.
Derek said: “The one he made when he was going the opposite way and he got out his right hand…he didn’t have the right to do that. It was an outstanding save. If we hadn’t have won Saturday, we would have been thoroughly disappointed.