Argyle Under-18s will play their first game at Millennium Fields in almost two months on Saturday, when hosting Oxford United.
The Greens have struggled to find consistent gametime through the opening stages of the calendar year, through no fault of their own. Postponements and rescheduling have dominated the news but, when games have been on, Argyle have managed to pick up important points.
Oxford lead the south-western part of the EFL Youth Alliance League South, but that position is within Argyle’s reach, if results continue to fall in the right direction.
Just five points separate the two, with Jamie Lowry’s side also holding a game in hand, something he believes can be a key motivator as we head into the crucial part of the campaign.
“We are all very ready to have a home game,” Lowry told Argyle TV. “Those early mornings, five or six o'clock starts on away games, are difficult, so it’ll be nice to get up at a normal time for once! Our last home game was a good win against Bristol Rovers, but it was a while ago, and we need to build on that and utilise being at Millennium again. We are quite strong at home, with knowing our pitch, how it plays, and the size of it, so hopefully we can use that to our strength on Saturday.
“The boys are training as hard as they can, given what we demand of the boys and reminding them that every day they're coming in to learn, work hard, and give their best to try and improve.
“That doesn't change; no matter if we have the game on or game off. We’re looking forward to playing against a really good Oxford side in the battle for the league. The game up there was a challenge, with them being the best team we’ve played against. Now is a chance for us to go and test ourselves against a really good side who score goals.
“They’re able to go into the striker if they need to, have dynamic and powerful quick wingers, so are a real threat. Last time out, we died off towards the end on the physical side of things, but hopefully the boys are at it at our place.
“We've definitely been a little more focused on the final-third side of things in training. This side of the year, we've created a lot of chances in games and have had three with 15 or 20-plus shots so far this calendar year, and not had massive scorelines. We’ve tried to improve and work on that final detail, the technique and extra things in the final third, so hopefully that will be implemented on Saturday.
“However, the game starts with keeping a clean sheet and being hard to play against. That's our base and foundation to go and build on. Hopefully, we have the quality and ability in the final third to go and hurt them.
“We have lots of good attacking players, so it is about utilising that and being able to hurt them in the right moments.”
