Argyle’s second win of the week, a Tuesday night win at Leyton Orient, was a different style of game to the Greens’ stroll along the prom at Blackpool.
Tom Cleverley’s side were utterly dominant at the weekend on the North-West coast, but were rather more workmanlike in the east of the capital.
That is by no means a criticism. Argyle might not have been quite so easy on the eye, but they were clearly more adept at the fundamentals of the game than their hosts, and more than merited their 3-1 scoreline.
It probably could have been more. The Pilgrims had plenty of chances to extend late on, but the game was, in truth, beyond Orient when Mathias Ross scored Argyle’s third, on 70 minutes. Before that, Ronan Curtis had made it 2-1 early in the second half, following a first period which had looked like going in goalless, only for Bim Pepple, for Argyle, and Ollie O’Neill, for Orient, to both score in stoppage time.
Interestingly, Cleverley said that despite leading for less than two minutes following Pepple’s opener, the mood in the dressing room at the break was not introspective, and the Head Coach himself was not necessarily the first to speak up.
“Joe Edwards drove that straight away, and I absolutely agreed with him,” Cleverley told Argyle TV. “I don't think we could afford to be disappointed because we didn't deserve to be up at half-time. I thought we competed well. I thought we landed on seconds. We won duels, but I thought, when we got into good areas, we were nowhere near as good as we were against Blackpool.
“There was no disappointment in there because we didn't feel like we deserved the lead. We've gone ahead against Stockport, against Lincoln, and setbacks have knocked us because maybe we felt like we deserved to be leading.
“[Today], we cleaned it from our minds, went out and attacked the second half, and were a little bit cleaner. Still not at our best, but thoroughly deserved to win that second half.
“[We were] outstanding at the basics again. I thought, with the ball, we weren’t at our fluid best tonight. On another day we've got the quality to hurt [Orient] with a lot of the turnovers we were creating, stretch the lead by more, and be more clinical.
“I thought, in all the duels, in the horrible parts of the game, we're doing them to such a high level at the minute that we look very dominant.
“I thought we managed it really well. I'll always be demanding of the players. I don't think we've created so many turnovers in the opposition half as we did tonight, and usually you'd see that result in five or six goals. So, I’m a little bit disappointed with our lack of ruthlessness. But the way that we gave them next to nothing in the second half, and managed the game in their half, was really pleasing to see.”
A slight negative on the night was Herbie Kane limping off in the first dozen minutes of the game, nursing a hamstring injury. Brendan Wiredu, though, was a more and adequate replacement, and quickly helped to shore up the Argyle midfield.
“Hopefully he's nipped it in the bud,” said Cleverley, speaking of Kane’s injury. “We hope he came off early enough to not have a significant one. [Injuries have] been a huge part of our season and held us back, not being able to have our best players out there all the time.
“That’s two of our number sixes (Joe Ralls, the other) both on the treatment table now. I thought Brendan Wiredu came on and did a great job. He's not done anything wrong, Brendan. I just thought Herbie was outstanding at the weekend, and Brendan finds himself hard done by to sit and be on the bench, but to come on after 10 minutes, be mentally ready, and put in the performance that he did - huge props to him.”
