Healthy Competition

THE more games we play, the more opportunities players in the squad get to prove themselves and push for a position in the starting line-up.

Argyle manager Ryan Lowe has already switched up his team a number of times this season, seeing a number of players performing in different positions. This is what causes a selection headache for the Gaffer, but it is, of course, a good problem to have.

“It’s competition for places,” he said. “We’ve had young [Klaidi] Lolos on the bench and Joel Grant is looking back to himself in training and in the couple of under-23 games he has been playing in.

“We have decent enough firepower when called upon.

“I don’t like singling anyone out, but Josh [Grant] goes under the radar a little bit with his performances and Tyreeq [Bakinson] has played in there [midfield], also.

“They’re all valuable, so whether its [Antoni] Sarcevic or Josh Grant or Danny Mayor, whoever it is, gets applauded.  It’s a whole team, a squad, and the lads who go on the pitch will continue that.

“Ryan [Hardie] has been scoring, he was a bit disappointed in himself for not scoring on Tuesday night [against Crawley] but he’s getting in the right places at the right time and he will score goals, as we have seen.

“As for young Luke [Jephcott], he’s been terrific, but we want that, we want competition.

“It will be nice to have Dom [Telford] and Ryan [Taylor] back when they are fully with us, but that’s what you want. You want to have those strikers you can call upon and can do the job.”

The past two matches have seen two common factors, a starting line-up not including the injured Danny Mayor and a stoppage in the match for Gary Sawyer to receive treatment on the pitch after being knocked down, both of which are very rare occurrences.

“[Gary’s] in the wars now,” Gaffer said. “I think his tooth went in his gum [on Tuesday] and that’s where the blood came from. At one point, we were going to take him off again, that’s two games in a row.

“That just shows what Gaz is about at this football club, and for me and my staff and his team-mates, because he’s putting his body on the line, we know what he’s about, he’s a warrior, he’s been terrific.

“[Danny] has picked up a bit of a hamstring injury, so we’ve just got to make sure we monitor him properly. We are waiting on some results, but the likelihood is he won’t be playing [against Newport on Saturday].”