Conor's Cracker

MATCH-WINNER Conor Grant’s was as pleased with his team’s resilient attitude in defending their lead given to them by his first Argyle goal at Mansfield as he was with his wonder strike.

Conor fired home a 25-yard left-foot drive in the 13th-minute of the Sky Bet League Two contest at One Call Stadium to bust Argyle’s five-game winless streak.

After claiming his first Argyle goal in his 23rd appearance for the Pilgrims. He then joined a collective second-half team effort to keep the home side at bay.

“I’m delighted with the win,” he said. “We needed to get back to winning ways after recent results, but we’re very happy.

“There was probably a side [to the team] in the second half that we haven’t really seen enough of.

“When we lead the game like that, we have to dig in and fight for everything. It was a sweet feeling to get a 1-0 win in those circumstances.

“I thought we were good first half, but two halves are very rarely the same, so it was important that we dug in.

“They put a lot of pressure on us – we can’t deny that, it was clear to see – but we dug in as a team.

“My goalscoring record isn’t as good as it should be but I’m hoping that’ll give me the confidence to keep adding a few more goals.”

Having not been a part of the starting line-up for the past five matches, Conor could not have had a better game to come back into.

He said: “I had a little inkling [that I’d be starting], on Thursday in training and then had confirmation yesterday so I was obviously really happy.

“I always believed I could get in the team, but it’s been frustrating the last five games, not playing any football at all.

“[The goal has] been a long time coming. The ball came to me, I’ve had a good touch on my feet and, at that range I always fancy myself,

“I’m just happy to get the win. It’s a strange league; it’s quite an open league and a lot of teams can beat anyone, so it very important to get three points.

“To score a goal and keep a clean sheet is brilliant;  it’s not always as easy as that, so it’s important.”

“I also think the way we won it was important – we had to battle for it, and it wasn’t just one way, it wasn’t all us.”

There was a slight change in formation in this afternoon’s game, went from 3-5-2 to 3-4-3, and it paid off.

“It’s a little different to the formation we normally play” he said. “We actually touched on it at Northampton; we changed in the second half; it’s not too dissimilar,  but it worked today.”

Our next game is at Home Park, next Saturday, when we face Scunthorpe.

“We will analyse Scunthorpe as we analyse all the other teams and come up with a plan,” said Conor.

“We want to win as many games as possible. We haven’t done that recently but hopefully this win will kick us off.”