Sense of Purpose

WITH the drama of the season notching all the way to 11 the squad all know what they need to do. There is a clarity and focus, and around the ground, the sense of purpose and determination is almost palpable.

That’s the thing about football: you can quickly get the events of the weekend out of your system, get out on the training ground and start working towards the next game, and in Kevin Nancekevill they have the perfect person to help them to do that. 

For the rest of us, what do we do with the swirl of emotions going round? What can we do to distract ourselves, focus our thoughts, stop the replay of the different permutations that will result in either heartbreak or euphoria?

One thing is to press pause on the debates and opinions. We are all armchair managers: those discussions we love to have over a pint on a Saturday evening are part of what we all love about football, but let’s save them until Sunday shall we?

We’ve got a team of very good players and, when they have clicked this season, it has been fantastic. We all want them to do their stuff on Saturday, so let’s step aside and let them do it.

On Sunday, with another season in League One to look forward to, we can turn our thoughts to the future and maybe allow some dissection of the past. For now. we have one game to focus on, so let’s get on with it.

It will be a full house on Saturday and I am expecting a cracking atmosphere. I know it makes a difference to what goes on the pitch, and I wouldn’t like to be a Scunthorpe player right now. We are lucky to have a great club like Plymouth Argyle, with great fans who want the very best for their club, and who show superb loyalty. We’ve seen it in the past and we will see it again this weekend.

The players are professionals who know what their job is. Kevin won’t be doing anything new with the team, just picking a team, clarifying roles and tactics and helping the players manage the usual elements of pressure and performance, but when they step over the white line at 5.30pm on Saturday and hear the roar of Home Park, their motivation, performance and desire to win will sky rocket.

It is occasions like this that draws players to Plymouth in the first place and states our credentials as a club worthy of a higher place in the league than we currently occupy, but all that is for Sunday and beyond.

‘Yesterday is gone, tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today, let us begin.’ Mother Teresa

Arthur Goode
Plymouth Argyle Club Chaplain

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