After a most enjoyable prologue, Act One of the 2026/27 season is ready to begin.
Argyle take on Stockport County at Home Park on Saturday, 12 weeks after the Hatters lost the Sky Bet League One Play-off final to Bolton Wanderers.
Stockport begin the new campaign with a new head coach, Jim McNulty, who has joined from Rochdale, but have retained many of their squad that finished third last time out.
The Greens played Exeter on Monday, in the Carabao Cup, winning 2-0 in a pulsating conclusion, so the game is set up to be an exciting beginning to the league season.
Tom Cleverley, pleased with the Devon Derby victory, is clearly amped up for Saturday. He recognises that County will be a tough proposition, but is obviously buoyed by own side’s situation, too.
“This is a game we've been chomping at the bit for, for a long time,” he told Argyle TV.
“There was nothing ‘dress rehearsal’ about Monday. That was a competitive game. We took it as seriously as we would the first league game.
“The players would have taken a lot of confidence from that. They'll be riding a little bit of a wave from that, and we have to take that into Saturday. The intensity, the energy, the connection with the supporters, against a very good side.
“The new players had a really good experience. We saw last year, we had a lot more new players, but their first couple of experiences of Home Park were bad ones, negative ones, and we had a bit of a hangover from that.
“The players who were here last year, one of the things we never got to achieve was winning a derby. The confidence the group gets from ticking these boxes, overcoming these challenges, obstacles, whatever you want to call them, and the group just feel more resilient every day to whatever's thrown at them.
"They've got the tools to overcome that and that starts with doing a certain set of things we can control. That gives us a baseline of performance, makes it incredibly hard to beat and I feel like those things are really consistent at the minute.
“[Stockport are] a team that's got a new manager and they'll be at it as well. It's a game we're all looking forward to, and it should be a good occasion.
“It's going to be tough. I went to their game last weekend, they look incredibly well coached in only the six weeks that Jim's been with them, and you can see there's a clear identity to what they're trying to do. That's good coaching to get that across in just six weeks.
“They’ve got some very good players; [Oliver] Norwood's been the standout player of the league for a few years now.
“We have to be bang at it like we were Monday, being dominant throughout most of the game. We have to be the same again on Saturday to give ourselves the best chance of winning.
“They're going to be a different team, that's for sure. They've got a few more young players, a few more players that they're trying to maybe develop from lower leagues or within the building. Recently, in the last couple of years, they've been able to really attack the markets They're approaching it a slightly different way, but that doesn't mean they've got less quality.
“Jim looks a real quality coach. His achievements at Rochdale speak for themselves and, like I said, when you've got the likes of [Kyle] Wootton, Norwood, [Ethan] Pye, [Jack] Diamond, [Oliver] Whatmuff is highly regarded. These are all players that are very, very high-class players at the level,
“But we also are very pleased with our ranks and we believe that we have some very high class players at the level who are confident, who are consistent and who seem to have taken last year's form into pre-season, into the League Cup and now the challenge is to take that into the league.
“I can't wait for the game. I got a real buzz in my stomach when I went to watch them. You try to visualise a game plan to get the better of them and win the match. That's what you love: the Saturdays, the competitive spirit, everything as a consequence then for ten months, the high stakes. It is what we live and breathe for, why we dedicate our lives to this industry. I'm happy it's back.”
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You can watch Tom Cleverley’s Stockport County preview on Argyle TV, in full, here.
