Sawyer Pre Charlton A

ARGYLE skipper Gary Sawyer expects his team-mates to join him in standing up to the challenge of turning around the Pilgrims’ fortunes.

Charlton Athletic will attempt to become the ninth Sky Bet League One side to deny Argyle a first victory of the season when the Pilgrims visit the Valley on Saturday.

Gary this week called for his side to stay more competitive in games more often in order to give themselves a better opportunity to secure maximum points on a match-day.

He said: “We’ve had too many games where we’re not giving ourselves a chance to win games through losing goals early, and that has to stop. 

“It feels a little bit better at the minute. We just need to give ourselves a chance to be able to win games; with the start we’ve had, we didn’t do that.

“It’s important at the minute [to start well] in any game, not just the Charlton game, but going forward from here. We’ve had games where we let goals in early and it’s an uphill battle, unfortunately.”

The Pilgrims’ start has drawn comparisons with last season, when from being bottom going into December, they raced into contention for the play-offs with 14 wins from 20 games.

Gaz said: “Obviously that happened last year but we have a different group of players here now. What we did at the start of last season is very similar to this season, unfortunately, but how we finished it was very strong, probably one of the best runs of form I’ve had in my career from Christmas onwards.

“We’re looking to do it again but we’re looking to do it from earlier. You don’t want to rely on things you did previously, because that’s done, there is a line under that now – it’s finished.”

The captain is of the opinion that it is his duty to look after his team-mates on and off the field but believes everyone knows what is expected of them as they look to gain momentum.

He said: “It is my role to look after everyone. I try and do that, but the boys are professional here, no-one needs an arm round them, everyone knows what they need to do to amend the game.

“Everyone needs to get their heads on it, which they are doing. We need to all pull together in the right way to get the results we need.

“It’s football; it’s not an easy sport. You need a group of men to stand up and we’ve got that in there, so we’re looking forward to Saturday and we’ll take it from there.”