A home defeat on Good Friday to Bolton Wanderers has done Argyle’s play-off hopes no favours at all, but Head Coach Tom Cleverley still believes his side can obtain the points they need to break into the top six by the season’s end.
Against Bolton, the Greens seemed on top at 0-0 when the visitors had John McAtee send off for what the referee deemed violent conduct on Alex Mitchell.
However, it was Wanderers who took the lead, with Johnny Kelly scoring a penalty, which was given for a handball by Mathias Ross. Argyle equalised through Ronan Curtis, but a scrambled goal, awarded to Sam Dalby, gave Bolton a lead that Argyle could not make further inroads into.
There are now six games to go in Sky Bet League One, at least for the Pilgrims. Argyle are three points outside of the play-off places, with a variety of teams in front of them, and have played varying amounts of games.
Making up around three points on three teams, and holding off a couple just beneath, is still a huge task – but not an impossible one, and that is the mindset Cleverley wants to carry into Monday’s trip to Barnsley.
“It was always my mentality going into the last seven games, very unlikely you win every single one of them,” Cleverley told Argyle TV. “At some point in the run-in, we were going to have to deal with dropping points. We realise the margin for error has now reduced, which increases a bit of pressure.
“I thought we were in control in the first half. Without being in control of the football, I thought we were in control of the game, where it was played, the chances we created.
“Then the dynamic of the game changes with the sending off. Sometimes it's not always beneficial to the team who has a numerical advantage. We had to take control of the game and can you open up a team that's wasting time, sitting in a low block, defending their box well?
“What you mustn't do is, from two hopeful punts down the pitch, is end up conceding goals. It's been a long, long time since we've been guilty of that. Ultimately, it's cost us the game.
“First of all, the goals were conceded, and that gives them a real hope. It gives them something to hold on to, something to time-waste to, something for the goalkeeper to continue to go down for. We must be better in terms of keeping the width. Can we continue to get quality crosses in the box? I thought the three big lads at the back for them defended their box well in fairness. I thought the goalkeeper had a good game and they've got a couple of decent focal points there.
“We know why it's not worked out for us today. We know what to get better at, but we certainly won't feel too disheartened. We've got a massive game in three days. The points tally to get in, I think, has stayed the same after the weekend's results. We've just made it a little bit more difficult for ourselves to get to that.
“We have to clean this one out of our minds as soon as possible. We don't have time to really feel sorry for ourselves. We've got to be not far from perfect now, but in the previous six games we've been very close to perfect, so I think that form gets you in. We know what we have to execute to give ourselves the best chance to replicate that form.”
