Argyle’s 2-1 win over Port Vale on Saturday kept the Pilgrims in the play-off hunt with one game of the regular season to go, but it was an afternoon that played on the Pilgrims’ emotions.
Bim Pepple scoring after two minutes could have been the catalyst for a more straightforward afternoon, but only three minutes later Conor Hazard handled the ball outside of his area, and was sent off.
With the bulk of the game remaining, Tom Cleverley had a choice: take off a forward and play defensively to maintain the 1-0 lead throughout, or leave Pepple and Lorent Tolaj as a front pair to ensure offensive threat remained.
He chose the latter, and although Port Vale equalised with a Connor Hall header from a disputed corner, Argyle scored early in the second half, through Pepple again, and won the game by a single goal.
Pepple and Tolaj were backed by a midfield three of Ronan Curtis, Malachi Boateng and Owen Dale, who worked phenomenally hard to try to nullify any Vale threats, and to continue to feed the front two, to try to take the game away from the visiting Valiants.
As the second half wore on, Matty Sorinola came on for Curtis, and Pepple gave way for Brendan Wiredu, as Argyle saw the game out to a deafening backing from the Green Army.
“It was such a great start to the game,” said Tom Cleverley, reflecting afterwards. “Those moments that we've been wanting, a little bit more quality and calmness, where we turn the ball over and transition, we got that in the first moment today with a beautiful slide pass from Tolly, a great finish from Bim and we looked like we were on our way to an enjoyable afternoon.
“Obviously one action can change the whole dynamic of the afternoon, where it then becomes about real grittiness, determination.
“What I ask our goalkeepers to do, covering the balls over the top, allows you to keep a high defensive line, I have to understand the risk that comes with that. Conor will know that he's made a poor decision in terms of getting under the ball, but I ask our goalkeepers to cover the depth that has a little bit of risk attached to it.
“I have to accept that those mistakes may happen once a season. I think the goals that it saves and the amount of pressure you can get because you've got a high defensive line counteracts what happened today. Conor will be disappointed with the action, but I have to accept some responsibility for that as well.
“[For Luca Ashby-Hammond], it's never easy as a second-choice goalkeeper to prepare and to be ready, but Luca's training levels, his mentality, to make sure in our biggest game of the season to come on and look so assured and calm when called upon was brilliant. He was outstanding.
“I always thought leaving the two strikers on would create enough. It's just would they get down the sides of us too easily and create enough themselves? We had to roll the dice today, because we needed to win.
“Fortunately, the two strikers were always a threat, and the work rate of the team was outstanding.
“I think that's been a huge part of our success, the connection of those two. You can always absorb and absorb and absorb, but I do think for that length of period, you need to let the opposition know you are still a threat in the game. I thought the two strikers would give us that. Unfortunately for Caleb Watts, with the personnel, I just thought the other three in midfield were what could give us what we wanted at that time. It's never nice taking someone off after five minutes.
“The challenges are, can you still hold a threat? I thought we could with the two boys up front. Can you reduce their box entries to a minimum? Which was a risk, because if you play 4-3-2 like we did, they can get down the outsides of you fairly easily can progress up the pitch.
“And then I thought that the shift that the three lads – Ronan, Mal and Dale – did, and then Matty when he came on, was just outstanding for the team, doing a job of four players and when needed.
“I thought, apart from the goal, we defended our box really well when we went down to 10 men.”
