REACTION: Lowe on Wigan Defeat
Argyle manager Ryan Lowe expressed frustration with his team’s efforts off the ball during the aftermath of their 2-0 defeat to Wigan Athletic at Home Park on Tuesday evening.
In a similar story to Saturday’s narrow defeat at Doncaster Rovers, the Greens enjoyed plenty of possession and created a number of good chances, but were unable to respond to first-half goals from Viv Solomon-Otabor and Curtis Tilt.
Lowe said: “I think out of possession we were nowhere near [good enough]. There is a ball that has come in the box, twice, and we haven’t dealt with it. In possession, we’re a fantastic outfit going forward, creating chances and we should be scoring more goals.
“We’ve just addressed it with them, we’ve showed them the goals and we’ve talked it through. They are a young group, and we can’t batter them, but we have to speak openly and honestly - constructive criticism has to be there.
“I’m disappointed, the two goals we conceded have allowed Wigan to come here and take three points off us. That’s no disrespect to Wigan, they’re fighting for their lives on and off the pitch, but for us, we’re fighting as well.”
With just twelve games remaining in the Sky Bet League One season, Lowe is insistent that his team need to bounce back quickly to ensure a strong finish to the campaign.
He said: “We have to pick the good bits out, and certainly pick the bad bits out, so they know, and go again. The good thing is we’ve got twelve games to play for, which is 36 points, that’s a bit of a saving grace.
“We need to make sure we pick points up quickly because you don’t want to keep going on these runs - not scoring and conceding plenty of goals - but we can do it because we’ve done it before.
“We just have to keep going, we’ve been in this type of run before and we feel we know what it takes to get out of it. What we’ve got to do now is look to the next one, it’s the only way forward, we can’t dwell on it.”
The first opportunity to right the wrongs of the Latics defeat occurs on Saturday, when Argyle make the trip to take on Ipswich Town at Portman Road.
Lowe said: “The lads will take acceptance of [the loss against Wigan] and say they should’ve done better, but actions speak louder than words now. I always say to the lads I’ll accept lack of quality at times, but I won’t accept lack of effort.
“We’ve got another tough game to go to Ipswich but what a place to go and perform, fantastic traditional football club, we’ve got to pick them up.
“We will be in on Thursday and we’ll do a double session. It’ll be putting them into the mindsets of what they need to go to Ipswich Town and get a positive result.”