Tom Cleverley faces his first away game in charge of Argyle this weekend, as the Greens head to Bolton Wanderers.
This always means his first encounters with that familiar, fearsome strike pairing of the M5 and M6, and for Argyle a reconnection with the past. Bolton are managed by Steven Schumacher, who was in the head coach’s seat the last time the Greens took on Sky Bet League One – and won it.
This season’s attempt at escaping the division got off to a bumpy start, as Argyle lost 3-1 at home to Barnsley. Cleverley’s side showed promise at times, but conceded three preventable goals, and fell at Home Park.
Bolton’s opening game was at Stockport County, and the Trotters could possibly tell a similar story. They had plenty of the game against their fellow Greater Manchester side, but County prevailed, meaning when Argyle and Wanderers meet this weekend, both will start on no points. At least one will remain winless.
Cleverley says he and the squad have put the frustration of Barnsley aside and are looking to put matters right. “Disappointment from last weekend's result lasted 24 hours at least”, he said, “but then the beauty of football, and especially in the EFL, is that games come thick and fast.
“Monday morning comes, and you feel like you've got the control to put that right. That's what I love about my job; I'm accountable for identifying what went wrong, where we can go right, and the exciting part is seeing that come out on Saturday.
“We’re looking for improvement in certain areas. It was quite an easy game for me to dissect in terms of, for all three goals, we lacked conviction to defend those actions.
“We dangled a leg at a set piece, we backed off twice and then had a sort of half-hearted clearance, and then the third one [was] lack of communication. All three were lacking a little bit of conviction.
“It was a shock that those were the three goals we conceded. We've done a lot of work to make sure that that doesn't happen.
“There was some really good intensity, I thought. We started the game well with the disallowed goal, we looked dangerous from set pieces – there are a lot of things to build on, and maintain.
“A good start for me is key, so it's a significant game for both teams. I went to their game last Sunday and thought they were a little unlucky, to be honest. They did more than enough to get a point from the game, and were very unlucky not to go in half-time leading, never mind, behind.
“Both clubs have got a fair few links with each other, I know that, and they will be fancied. With having a significant budget comes pressure. That’s pressure that we’re both under and we both have to get results.”
Argyle were missing a few players with injury for the Barnsley game. Two absentees have recovered sufficiently to be back in contention, but a further pair have had setbacks, and are likely to miss out.
“Bim [Pepple] has trained this week, and is highly likely to be involved on Saturday,” said Cleverley. “Caleb Roberts has trained today, and is highly likely to be involved Saturday.
“Unfortunately, we've gained two and lost two. Joe [Edwards] felt something in his hamstring after coming on at the weekend and tests have proved he's got a little something there. We’ll go easy on Joe, it should only be a couple of weeks.
“Freddie [Issaka} is a little bit more significant. He’s got a slight muscle tear in his thigh, and that'll take closer to a month.”
