Tuesday night sees Argyle get their campaign under way in the newly christened Jersey Mike’s Trophy, with a game against Crystal Palace Under-21s.
The Young Eagles have already played once in the competition, winning 2-1 against Swindon Town, and will look to head to Home Park with confidence.
Argyle, though, come in following three straight league wins, and will want to continue their winning run to maintain momentum.
Assistant Head Coach Damon Lathrope spoke to Argyle TV, previewing the fixture.
“It's not going to be easy,” said Lathrope. “It's a competitive fixture. They're all professional footballers, albeit they're under-21s. They're a professional football club in the Premier League. We've watched their games; they're a good outfit. By no means is it going to be: ‘turn-up and win’. They proved that with their 2-1 win against Swindon.
“We're going to prepare properly. We're going to go out there and continue our winning run, hopefully, and prepare for it like we do every other game.
“Whether it is training, a match, a friendly - we approach everything the same way. You see the boys training every single day, they want to win everything that they do, everything they're involved in. It doesn't really matter the title that comes before the game, in our opinion. But we know momentum in football and confidence in football is really important. We have that at the moment and we'll do whatever we need to hold on to it.
“We wanted to win it last year, just fell short. We see it as an opportunity to bring a trophy back. For sure, we're taking it seriously.
“Tom's team selection is always difficult, because at the moment we've got a squad of players that are all competing really well with each other. You see it at Doncaster, at Leicester. We finish games really strong because the players coming onto the pitch are doing a great job.
“We've got a full squad of players that are doing their bit. This does present a chance to reward that and give them valuable minutes, and maybe rest a few that have had a real tough start to the season, played a lot of minutes. I think it's a perfect game that presents great opportunities for Tom to really give the players what they deserve.”
Speaking after the Greens’ win on Saturday, at Blackpool, Head Coach Tom Cleverley echoed those thoughts.
“It’s a competition we took seriously last year, and we will again,” he said. “I think it’s an opportunity to see some players who have not got as many minutes recently, and it’s an opportunity to see a couple of our Academy products.
“We’ll take advantage of that, whilst paying the upmost respect to the competition and wanting to win every game we play.”
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You can watch Damon Lathrope's Crystal Palace Under-21s preview on Argyle TV, in full, here.
