After losing the first two league games of the season, Tom Cleverley’s Argyle reacted by winning 3-2 against Queens Park Rangers on Tuesday night in the Carabao Cup.
The come-from-behind victory – Argyle were two down at half-time and turned it round – stopped the losing sequence at two, and now the job is to bring back the first league points from Lincoln City on Saturday.
Argyle lost 3-1 on the opening day of the season, to Barnsley, and followed with a 2-0 reverse at Bolton Wanderers a week later. In both games, Argyle started brightly, failed to capitalise on any momentum, and then struggled to get back in the game having fallen behind.
Against QPR, Argyle were even more dominant, and yet were two down at the break. Reacting well, they turned the game around to not only reach the second round, but to please their head coach.
“I thought, especially with the ball, we were fantastic on Tuesday,” said Cleverley. “We created 30 opportunities; if anything, to only take three is the disappointing part.
“We know we need to become more ruthless at the other end of the pitch. It can't be that we have five, six chances in the game, and then the first one that the opposition has ends up in the back of our net,
“That takes a real alertness when we’re defending, even when we're attacking. We need to improve at that. Can we do it for 95 minutes? That's the art of being a top defender. Let's see that first, let's be hard to beat first, because I know we've got the quality in the building to score goals at any given moment in the game.
“We’re really pleased with the performance on Tuesday, with the character to come back from two down, which we know we didn't deserve. It is important we back that up now with a strong performance at Lincoln. We need to try and create some momentum now.”
Lincoln began the season with a 2-0 home win against Reading, followed by a loss at Wimbledon by the same scoreline, and then won 3-1 at Harrogate Town in the Carabao Cup.
Having finished 11th last season, and with a home win already on the board, Lincoln will be no easy task when Argyle go there on Saturday.
“It’s a really big game for us on Saturday,” Cleverley said. “Let's not beat around the bush, after losing the first two games. We know it'll be tough, we know it'll be direct. We know it'll be [a case of] really bite down on your gum shield, but then it's about showing our quality, and imposing ourselves on the game to get the job done.
“Resilience was a word that we used when we came into the club. I think it ties into the away form. That's a real characteristic you need to be tough to beat on the road, so we need to develop that.
“I said to the players, we had an upset feeling in our stomach after the two defeats. In football, two wins can change that. We've done part one of the job and now it's all about doing part two on Saturday.
“Then that will lead nicely into two home games that, that we'll be feeling good about ourselves. But we have to get a difficult job done first on Saturday. It's all about responding from the Bolton performance.
“The players and myself, we know we owe our supporters one after being very flat last Saturday. You should see a reaction to that.
“Let's go there with a real resilience and a hard-to-beat spirit.”
