It is perhaps an indication of the attitude around Home Park at the minute that, despite Argyle’s recent record showing just one loss in the last seven games, it is that defeat which appears to be driving standards.
It would be unfair to zone in on that result – a 1-0 home reverse against Burton Albion – too much, but it is clear that, since then, trying to rectify that scoreline and performance has been at the forefront of Tom Cleverley’s mind.
The first job for the Head Coach was to make sure that his team reacted positively and won their next game, away at Leyton Orient. This was achieved, with a 2-0 victory in East London, and was followed by a 2-2 draw, from 2-0 down, culminating in a penalty shoot-out win, in the Jersey Mike’s Trophy against Newport County.
Now, Cleverley wants to ensure that there is a bounce-back as compared to the last home fixture, with Wimbledon on Saturday followed by Huddersfield Town at Home Park the following week.
“I think there's a real emphasis on reacting from the Burton performance,” he said. “We've done really well against Leyton Orient, and then reacted well to a bad situation in the week to get something out of the game.
“But this is the one that we were very conscious of creating something here. We've been excellent away from home and we've been decent here. But can we really make this place a fortress is the challenge over the next two home games, back-to-back? It'll be a tough nut to crack.
“I'm a demander, I'm a perfectionist, so there'll always be the feeling of ‘we've not cracked anything’. The consistency in the performance has been pleasing. The controllables that we speak about every day as a group have been, in the main, very good, and that gives you a real hard-to-beat nature about the group.
“If you count Tuesday as a win - which personally I don't – then that's six in seven. After losing the first game of the season against a very good Stockport team, we've operated at two points a game in the league. We're pleased, but we're still demanding more, and the group of players do that internally as well, which is pleasing.”
Wimbledon’s start to the season has seen them win three, draw three and lose two, but the eye-catching thing has been how they have scored and conceded goals.
In eight games, Johnnie Jackson’s side have conceded only eight times, and that includes 3-0 and 4-1 away defeats. On the other side of the ledger, the Dons have only scored six times.
“Wimbledon are a stubborn side,” said Cleverley. “They've not conceded many goals. They've got key players coming back as well. [Ryan] Johnson (back from injury); [Steven] Sessegnon and [Miles] Hippolyte back from internationals; [Marcus] Browne has played minutes, who's a key player for them.
“What Johnnie's done with a really depleted squad is outstanding. It's our job to flip that on its head - how do we hurt them?
“That intensity with the ball as much as without the ball. Compete as well as we did against Leyton Orient, against Bradford here, against Barnsley here.
“I'm not very good at pats on the back, but we've been incredibly solid in the last four league games from a stats point of view. How we go and win the game is that intensity when we've got the ball to really hurt the opposition, to be very purposeful. And I think that would be an improvement on what we saw here against Burton and Barnsley if I'm being overcritical.”
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You can watch Tom Cleverley's AFC Wimbledon preview on Argyle TV, in full, here.
