Cooking on Gaz

ARGYLE captain Gary Sawyer feels his side deserved more from the 1-0 home defeat to Bristol Rovers on Saturday in our penultimate pre-season game.

Our Pirate visitors scored inside the last 10 minutes, but Gary feels there are positives to be taken, not least the license he has to get on the ball, more now than in previous years.

“I’ve played in a back five before, but only wide left. Other than that its been left-back or centre half, so this is in between roles,“ said Gaz. “The way the Gaffer likes to play, I see more of the ball, which I enjoy. It’s nice not to have wingers bearing down on me; you just need to deal with strikers instead.“

Being expressive on the ball is not exclusive to Gary, as we saw more than enough glimpses of trickery from summer acquisition Danny Mayor to give us encouragement. The captain feels, in certain aspects, we were unlucky in front of a 5,000 strong Home Park Crowd, as manager Ryan Lowe sampled an electric atmosphere on home turf for the first time.

“I think it was a good performance from ourselves, we showed a desire to get on the ball. The boys have been given a freedom to do that by the manager, it’s a new formation for us,” said the skipper. “We have worked on it and improved day by day, Unfortunately, we lost, but I didn’t think we deserved to lose the game, we wanted a clean sheet, so it was a bit frustrating.”

Even though a ball is yet to be kicked in Sky Bet League Two, Gaz has lofty ambitions for his troops as he feels things are starting to knit together nicely. The new boys – who of course all know each other from Bury - alongside Joe Edwards, Alex Palmer and Jose Baxter have gelled well, and are all raring to go for the league opener against Crewe Alexandra at Gresty Road on August 3.

“Everyone wants to do well,” said Gaz. “Unfortunately, we find ourselves in a league we don’t want to be in but  we are capable of having a good season. The Gaffer has been brilliant, getting everyone together.

“They [Bury recruits] got promoted last season, so they are very good, capable players who know the league the same way the gaffer and his staff do and it has definitely added strength to us. We feel we are ready to go now.”