Muslic on relief after first away win

Argyle’s first away win of the 2024/25 season sparked all of the emotions you can imagine: joy and relief being chief among them. 

The Pilgrims took the lead, away at Portsmouth, just before half-time. A slick move on the left carved Pompey open, with Tymoetusz Puchacz and Michael Obafemi working an opportunity to cross to Ryan Hardie, who flicked a first time pass into the path of Mustapha Bundu, who finished smartly.

Not long into the second half, Argyle made it two, with Ryan Hardie getting beyond Portsmouth, latching onto Matty Sorinola’s ball through, and placing home to stretch the lead.

However, Argyle lost Sorinola not long before the 90 minutes was up, for a second caution, and indirectly, from the free-kick, Portsmouth got one back from Adil Aouchiche. 

Cue 11 minutes of stoppage time, and a nervous wait to see if Argyle could hold out, but they did, and attained a three-point haul that could prove vital.

“It feels pretty good,” said Head Coach Miron Muslic, after the game. “It is a relief, because it does something to a team not being able to be successful away. We finally finish this curse and rewarded ourselves with a strong performance today.

“The first three points away: it feels very, very good.

“I thought we're going to make it because it felt, from minute one, [we were] ready to bounce back, ready to show that we can do it way, way better than the last game. Finally, we also had the momentum on our side.

“We defended well, like the last couple of weeks, and we had this transition threat today with Musa [Bundu], with Hardie, and with Obafemi. We rewarded ourselves with a beautiful first transition goal and with a beautiful second transition goal. If you can be defensively stable ,and have this attacking threat, you are competitive - and we've been competitive tonight.

“When we analysed Portsmouth, they're weak in defensive transition, concede the most defensive transition shots, and we knew we have to bring players on the pitch who are able to attack in behind, and also have the pace.

“If we can manage to play out of pressure, to turn them to attack in behind, to work with opposite movements like on both goals, we can be dangerous - and I think that lads did it fantastic tonight. 

“It's just different if you have an offensive threat. We cannot defend for 90 minutes because, simply, the quality in this competition is way too high individually and collectively. But if we can defend properly like we did over the last couple of weeks, and have this threat, we are hard to beat and hard to play.

“Hardie was missing the last six game; don't forget this. Finally, he looks back to the old Hardie. He's a threat, and I think we deserve these three points tonight  

“After a tough defeat, and also tough moments and days for the Green Army, finally we could reward them for the first away win, a derby win. 

“We are still alive and we have the next opportunity on Saturday. We have to grab this opportunity with both hands - and we will.”