A True Argyle Team

ARGYLE went down to a 3-1 defeat at Torquay United in their latest pre-season fixture but it was a game where manager Ryan Lowe could extract some positive signs.

On the downside, conceding two sloppy goals and not taking our chances were the lessons to be learned but the gaffer is only concerned with building to a true Pilgrim performance on the opening day of the Sky Bet League Two campaign at Crewe on August 3.

Klaidi Lolos scored an early opener for the Greens in the Plainmoor sunshine before Torquay equalised through a superb Armani Little free-kick, and then pounced on hesitancy in the Argyle defence to take the half-time lead through Jamie Reid.

Kalvin Lumbombo-Kalala sealed the result with a late strike for Torquay on the counter but Ryan’s major focus is on getting his players ready for the right outcomes when the league kicks-off.

“I’m disappointed with the result but happy with some bits of play,” he said. “There were some good signs and we should have scored more goals, but not conceded two sloppy goals.

“The first one is a worldy, nobody’s going to take that away from the kid [Little], he smashed it right in the top bin. Overall, if you take the result out of it, I’m happy with the way we played, the way we passed the ball and moved it.

“Overall, I’m happy with the signs I’ve seen and we’ll see a true Argyle team at the start of August. We don’t want to lose any game but these are small games for us, where we need to blow the cobwebs away.

“It’s no concern for me, there are no points on the line and you’ll see plenty of teams lose throughout pre-season. We knew Torquay would be right up for it because they’re playing against Plymouth Argyle.

“I’m not taking anything away from them [Torquay] but we feel we should have scored more goals, and they scored two of theirs through our mistakes. You can’t look at pre-season games because if we win our first two or three [in the league], no-one looks back on the Torquay result.”