Argyle’s straightforward 2-0 win over Cheltenham Town in midweek is unlikely to be remembered come the season’s end, but Head Coach Tom Cleverley is certainly hoping it can be a platform, of sorts.
The Greens take on Stockport County at Home Park this Saturday, a week after a 4-0 loss in Sky Bet League One against Cardiff City.
Cleverley was visibly frustrated about the defeat in South Wales, following what had been a positive week in the lead-up. He warned of not taking ‘two steps forward and three back’, and wanted to use the Cheltenham game as a reminder of what his team can be all about.
This was achieved, with Lorent Tolaj’s first two goals for the Pilgrims setting in motion a strong performance, admittedly against the team bottom of the EFL.
Stockport were League One play-off finalists last season, and have been following an upwards trajectory under manager Dave Challinor for many seasons. They are eighth in the table, with 11 points from six games thus far, but Cleverley’s hope is that the back-to-basics win against Cheltenham is a springboard for Argyle success.
“I wanted to see some processes,” said Cleverley, speaking to Argyle TV about Tuesday night. “What are the patterns that we do to try to break a team down? How are we squeezing the pitch when we're attacking? How do we defend our box?
“These are all things that we have clear processes for. I thought we did them [against Cheltenham]. We delivered them. We certainly did the things we didn't do at Cardiff.
“We could have executed our processes at Cardiff, and won 1-0. Now, it would've put us in a false sense of security. We didn't deserve to win that game. We got well beaten - and why? Because we didn't follow up what we worked on.
“I thought, on Tuesday, we did. We could come up against a better team. We could have a daylight robbery situation, but we have to stick to what we work on, and to give ourselves the best chance of short, medium and long-term success.
“[Stockport] will have learned from their experiences last year, falling at one of the final hurdles.
“I think they've got a real good balance to their team. A balance of ball players, of speed, of experience, of [players who are] proven at this level. They are a team that are really well respected in the league, and you can see why.
“Having said that, we are the home side, and we want to win the game and put in a showing.
“I think tempo is one thing [we need to do]; I thought we did that well on Tuesday. Spot and play, get the ball back in quickly, keep the tempo high, moving from one side to the other. Tempo will be key.
“We need to be defensively resilient. Both boxes is where we suffered it in our last league game, so that'll be a big part of the game, that we defend our box properly. I thought we let Cardiff players cut back in and get clear shots off too easily, so we need to be a bit more ruthless in those actions.
“We've got the carrot there that, if we win on Saturday, that'll be three wins in five and it looks like a period of stabilisation. They're the two steps forward that I talked about after Cardiff. Then we need to be aware of what happened last time we took two steps forward.
“But, first things first, let's do all the processes right. That gives us our best chance.”
