Consistency of Performance

ARGYLE manager Ryan Lowe believes that consistency is key after their victory away at Bolton Wanderers in the FA Cup last weekend.

The performance from the Pilgrims in their win at the University of Bolton Stadium last week was described as ‘great’ by the boss, with the boys working extremely hard both in attack and defence after scoring the only goal of the game early on in the first half.

However, Lowe wants to make sure that the team can continue producing those types of performances, especially in today’s fixture away at Forest Green Rovers, who currently sit at the top of the Sky Bet League Two table.

“It was a great performance, team ethic, work rate, desire, willingness, everything, it had the lot,” he said.

“We’ve got to replicate that again. We need to find that consistent level of performance, football wise, determination wise and everything else because that is where you get your points and wins from when you put performances in like that.

“We need to find that consistency. I think the league is inconsistent to be honest. You look at where we are now, we’re seven points off number one.

“We’ve got two big games coming up [against Forest Green and Bradford] and we know we’ve got to make sure we put in two big performances to get the results.”

It is evident that a lot of effort is going in each week to help the players deal with different situations that arise during games and the focus is now on the challenge posed by Forest Green.

One of the key elements to the Bolton victory was the maturity Argyle displayed in managing the game, ensuring a slender lead was retained to the final whistle.

“When we have situations that arise in games, we put scenarios on to make sure it definitely doesn’t happen again,” said Ryan.

“The teams are looking forward to Saturday because they’re two big footballing teams that will want to go and get the three points by playing football. The desire and the commitment that the lads have show is very good.”

Overall, Lowe thinks that the league will start to settle come the end of the January when the transfer window closes.

“I think it changes in January because a lot of teams will have players go out and come back in,” he said. “Once January has finished, you can’t have any more signings, so I think that is a big factor.

“If we pick up a good run of form from January onwards, then I think we’ve got a great chance.”