THE DAILY DIARY

Argyle News Sites:

Greens on Screen's Daily Diary is a compilation of Argyle news, with help from these and other Argyle-related sites.

Plymouth Argyle FC

The Herald

Western Morning News

News Now

On This Day:

Also included on the three most recent days, facts from Argyle's history.

Monday 22nd April 2019

A first half blitz from visitors Barnsley was enough to see Argyle go down 3-0 on Easter Monday as the greens slid ever nearer to the relegation zone. The game was lost by the 28th minute and there was no way back from there. Argyle: Letheren, Threlkeld, Edwards, Jones, Sawyer, Fox(Ness), Songo'o, Sarcevic, Carey, Lameiras(Anderson), Taylor(Fletcher). Subs: Macey, Canavan, Smith-Brown, Ainsworth.

21st

Derek Adams reflected with bemusement at the profligate nature of the greens performance at Priestfield on Good Friday with chances not translating as well as he had hoped into goals: "We obviously started the game very well, we were the better team in the first-half. We get a goal, with a good press on the ball, win it back and we were able to get the clinical finish from Freddie, which he's done throughout the season. They got their goals because they put the cross into the box and he's got in-between the left-back and right-back, and gets his goal. The second goal, it's a free header in the 18-yard-box and one of our players doesn't pick him up. The third goal is a bad back-pass by one of our players that allows him to get in."

"We need wins. We were in a winning position at half-time at Gillingham, and in complete control of the match and two quick goals have swung it very quickly. That's hugely disappointing for us. At half-time we had a very good lead and we didn't see Gillingham causing us too much trouble. They didn't do too much differently, but they got the impetus because they got the goals. They were punting the ball long to Eaves, and we dealt well with that. I didn't think they caused us too much trouble after that, but they've scored three goals through bad defending from us. We don't do well at the corner kick and we give away one at the end to make it 3-1."

20th

Derek Adams made no bones about the responsibility of his players for getting Argyle out of the relegation fight, after the loss to Gillingham saw them drop perilously close to the relegation zone with just three matches to go. Adams said: "We have to be more clinical and we have to defend better. It's not something that you can work on in that short space of time. The players have to take responsibility because they're in the situation where they've got to believe that they can keep a clean sheet and get those goal. Our players have to take huge responsibility in the game, because it's their livelihoods they're looking after, and also the livelihoods of other members of staff as well. The supporters are the ones that have travelled here today in very good numbers, and we thank them for that. We have been in very good positions. Bristol Rovers, we should've had three points, Blackpool, we should've had three points and again today, but the players haven't been able to put the ball in the back of the net and we allowed them to score.

"It's their responsibility, solely. I told them in there, and I told them last week, they've got to get themselves sorted out for the final three games of the season, because there's a lot at stake. We've got to get ourselves the points required to get in a better position. We've had that opportunity so many times, and we've failed to capitalise on them. We have got to put on a very good performance on Monday at home to Barnsley, and get a win, to enable us to be in a much better position on the night."

Adams was able to identify at least one positive which was the performance of Lloyd Jones making his first start since joining on loan in January. Adams: "I thought he did well and dealt well with the threats that Gillingham were causing. That's important for him, because it's not easy coming in for your full debut. Lloyd Jones came in and had a very good full debut. Second-half, they make a tactical change, take Eaves off, and it benefits them. He's one of the top goal scorers in the league, but it enabled them to play in a different style. We'll assess it and look at the players tomorrow and Sunday, and see who is ready for the game on Monday. We don't have the luxury of making too many changes, but there are options."

Adams also chalked up the game as further evidence that Freddie Ladapo and Ryan Taylor aren't suited to playing as a strike partnership, adding: "You have seen I have tried it so many times and it hasn't worked for us. They are individuals. They don't play as a two. When you have a two up front then you have to have a chemistry. The two of them don't have a chemistry to play together. Freddie has come in this season and done exceptionally well. Graham Carey hasn't scored enough goals. Antoni Sarcevic hasn't scored enough, Jamie Ness hasn't scored enough. So they have got to take the weight on their shoulders and score the goals."

19th

Argyle's disappointing run of form has continued with a 3-1 loss at Gillingham, in a game which the Pilgrims led at half-time. A Freddie Ladapo effort put Argyle into the lead but two quickfire goals after the break put the hosts in front. They put the icing on the cake in stoppage time as Argyle pressed for an equaliser and were caught out on the counter. Argyle: Letheren, Smith-Brown(Canavan), Edwards, Jones, Sawyer, Fox, Ness, Sarcevic(Taylor), Lameiras, Ladapo, Carey. Subs: Macey, Moore, Songo'o, Anderson, Fletcher.

17th

Paul Anderson and Jamie Ness returned to training following injuries and gave further confirmation to Derek Adams that he will be able to mix up the team at Gillingham on Good Friday. Adams elaborated: "We will freshen things up for this weekend. We obviously have players who are waiting to come in. Paul Anderson and Jamie Ness will train today and we will assess them ready for Friday's match, we will give them every opportunity because, with four games to go, we have got to do that."

"I don't care at this stage in the season how we play, it's about how we pick up the points we require. It's about winning the games and finishing on a good points total. We should have won against Bristol Rovers and Blackpool, and we put in a very strong performance against Charlton. In the second half against Doncaster, we should have scored but we didn't, and we go into this weekend's game away to Gillingham looking to get three points. We've played really well, you will have seen the performances against the likes of Bristol Rovers and Blackpool, so we do feel that we should have more points than we do at this moment in time. Easter weekend is always a good weekend because you play quite quickly. We have shown in the past, when things move fast, we do well. We will have to do that against Gillingham and Barnsley, but we will take one game at time. Only Gillingham are in my thinking at this moment in time. At this stage in the season, it's all about wins."

Despite the disappointment surrounding much of this season, Niall Canavan was keen to make the point that Argyle's fate remained truly in their own hands ahead of Easter. The defender said: "It's an interesting season. There's still plenty of teams in and around, fighting for one or two spots you don't want to end up in. It's still in our hands, as everyone will be saying up and down the country. So long as it's that way, you can always do something about it. That's what we're looking to do this weekend. I was looking at the fixtures for everyone the other day, and there's plenty of games with teams that are down there playing each other. Come the other side of Easter weekend, it should be a much clearer picture, and hopefully a happier outcome."

"I think Bristol Rovers and Blackpool are the two games that everyone would look to. Two games where we performed well and just didn't see the game out, really. I've been involved before when it's been right down to the wire, so I know what this can be like. Thankfully, there's more people in there, it's not just yourselves or one or two teams, so there will be plenty of pressure felt across the league. There's plenty going on and still quite a lot of football to be played. All we know is we've got four games, and we need to get as many points as possible."

On a more positive note, Canavan did add that regular football at Argyle had enabled him to start enjoying his football again this season: "It has been a challenging season for more reasons than probably are apparent. Given how things have been and the lack of game-time at Rochdale it has been really good for me to just enjoy playing football again. It has been getting into some sort of rhythm and realising that I can play football at this level. That has been a good thing for me. I had the operation just before Christmas so I had from then until coming here to get that right. Pre-season was tough, I'm not going to lie. The Gaffer is renowned for having a hard pre-season. When you are coming back as a player of my size with a bum ankle it's not the most enjoyable of times, shall we say. It was very much a process of my body adapting and getting used to the rigours and the strains of everything, with what had been repaired."

16th

Argyle's head of stadium redevelopment Jon Back has hit back against accusations that Argyle's grandstand development project was being done on the cheap. Back reputed: "Sometimes I do get feedback, particularly from people that haven't been on the ground, about the budget being small or Argyle doing it on the cheap. What I say is, look at what we are doing and actually count it up. So, absolutely, £6.5m is the main contract. In addition to that we have got our professional fees and in addition to that we have got a drainage scheme which we are going to put in. That isn't just for the benefit for Plymouth Argyle. It's also going to help the drainage of Central Park as well. It's a big scheme worth somewhere in the region of a third of a million pounds. In addition to that we have got the Plymouth Argyle supporters' bar, which is being fantastically funded by the Green Taverners, our wonderful supporters. Actually, if you start to add up all those components we are between £9m-£10m. This is between a £9m and £10m investment into Home Park and Plymouth Argyle Football Club. Of course, at every level and at every decision, we want to maximise the most that we can for every pound that we spend, but goodness me this is not a project being done on the cheap.

"It's a fantastic state-of-the-art investment that is going to see the best facilities that Plymouth has ever seen. It's a wonderful thing and, of course, those benefits aren't just for the match-day users of Plymouth Argyle – the Green Army. It's going to provide the city, its businesses, its communities, and the areas around it, with conferencing and hospitality facilities which are state of the art. There are two key elements to the work that I'm doing. One is programme. We want it to be open and ready this year, and I remain confident it will be. The second, of course, is budget. We have a fixed-price design and build contract so we know exactly what we are getting for £6.5m. Now, as we move along, there are additional items that we may want to increase the spec on, or do differently.

"Within the club there is quite a clear governance line about how we do that. So within a certain budget line I will make that decision. If it goes up to the next tier, it's an issue for the chief executive officer and I to resolve. And, at a threshold above that, it's a board of directors decision. The feedback has been, without caveat, absolutely positive. People say it's not until you actually walk around and look at the scale of it that you realise quite how much work has been entailed in redeveloping this stand. I have taken a number of groups around and they have all been quite astonished by what we are going to provide for Plymouth Argyle."

14th

Derek Adams was livid with Argyle's 'shocking' first half display that he deemed the reason for Argyle's latest failure to pick up any points at Doncaster's keepmoat stadium. The manager fumed: "The way we started was exceptionally poor. We were very, very slack on the ball in the early stages of the game. We gave it away, we were second best, and Doncaster punished us on that: the way that we passed the ball; the way that we didn't compete with Doncaster; and we didn't win any second balls.That was probably as bad as we've been this season in the first half. That was disappointing. We lose possession of the ball inside our box, we don't get a tackle in, and Rowe gets the first goal. I think that we carried that on throughout the first half, and it was a shocking first-half performance by us all: the slackness on the ball; the slackness to anticipate the ball coming to one of their players; and being second best all over the pitch. Then we lose the second goal direct from a free-kick. It gave us a really hard uphill struggle in the second half. The goals we concede are poor goals. We have to make the tackle for the first one, and we maybe don't have enough players in the wall for the second, but we're also not lined up properly as a wall, and that is poor defending by us. The 'keeper's got to tell the outfielders what side of the post that he wants covered. We had the smallest man on the outside, and that's not right."

"We made a go of it. We had chances to make amends and we should've scored goals in the second half, because we had opportunities to do that. We weren't good enough to take the chances when they came along. We certainly had the chances, but we weren't good enough in that final third to get the goal. We were in their penalty area quite a bit in the first half but didn't get there."

Adams also confirmed that there would certainly be changes to come for Easter Weekend after a string of poor performances have prompted him to reshuffle the pack. He said: "If I said we're not, I'd be lying. We haven't done ourselves any favours. Performance-wise, in the first half particularly, we haven't done well enough, and that's not like us. Usually, we've come out and done really well in the first half, but, today we didn't. What it means is there's a tightening up of the league table. We're in a position now where, with four games to go, we have to still pick up wins. We have to do 100% better because the performance level wasn't good enough. We can't allow that to be the case."

"We've had injuries, as well as a loss of form. We'll have to make changes for next week. We've got that long journey to Gillingham on the Friday, then come back and play against Barnsley on the Monday. We obviously have to pick up points in these games."

13th

Argyle's winless run has continued, going down 2-0 at Doncaster Rovers. Two goals in a poor first half sealed the greens' fate and they were never quite able to recover. Argyle: Macey, Threlkeld, Edwards, Canavan(Jones), Sawyer, Songo'o(Taylor), Fox, Sarcevic, Carey, Lameiras, Ladapo. Subs: Letheren, Wootton, Smith-Brown, Jephcott, Fletcher.

12th

As Argyle prepared to travel to Doncaster Rovers, Antoni Sarcevic spoke of the importance of ensuring Argyle took the huge opportunity presented to them of climbing their way out of the relegation fight. He said: "It's massive, not only for the club, but for the players. We don't want a relegation on our CV, we don't want to send the fans back down to League Two. We want to stay in the league where it's competitive and there's good teams for fans to see us play against. It's frustrating, the two draws we've had, if we had seen them out, I think we're safe, it's done. We can't dwell on that, it's gone. You're still looking over your shoulder, which is a bit nervous, but we can't be showing that. The last few games, we've been playing well, we've just got to make sure that we carry that on and get the wins. I've seen the fixtures for Saturday and a lot of them play each other again. In that sense, it's helping us, but we need to make sure we're doing our side of it, to help ourselves as well. We can't keep going on and depending on other results. We have to do it ourselves, it's as simple as that. We're going into Saturday confident, the next five games we're going to look to win every game, we've got to."

Derek Adams added: "Doncaster have done well this year and are in a position where they are in the play-offs at this moment in time. We have got to go there and play as well as we did against Charlton, especially in the first half, we played really well, and follow on from the good performances against Bristol Rovers and Blackpool. We played really well, we took the game to Charlton, stopped them playing out from the back. We were unfortunate not to have gone ahead in the game, we missed a penalty kick, two minutes later, they go up the park and score, after that, half time comes, and we lose a goal quickly after that. We found it difficult in the second period, once we were 2-0 down, but the first-half performance was very good, following on from the games against Bristol Rovers and Blackpool.

"We have had it a number of times this season where we have not taken our opportunities when they come along, you get a sucker punch quickly after that, and that's hard to take but we have to take opportunities when they come along. We get in the final third more times than many teams; someone told me a stat the other day that we have had more final third entries than Barnsley this season. The frustration is not taking maximum points from Bristol Rovers and Blackpool because we were in good positions. Against Charlton, we played ever so well and were frustrated that we didn't put ourselves in a better position."

Argyle will return to the Netherlands for the fourth successive pre-season later this year. It has been confirmed that the' squad will hold a Dutch training camp from Sunday, July 21 to Friday, July 26. Argyle's training base was not identified but it is likely to be in Delden, as it has been for the previous three pre-seasons.

11th

Antoni Sarcevic has spoken about the importance of being prepared to play through injuries for the duration of Argyle's relegation run-in, admitting he is currently suffering with a knock: "At first, the lad's landed right on top of my achilles, and when I got up, I had trouble with my metatarsal. The pain I had was worrying. I got it assessed the following day, on the Sunday, and it was just a lot of bruising, so it was just about how much pain I could take. You take some pain killers and get on with it. I felt good on the Saturday against Charlton, before the lad absolutely smashed me from behind. I couldn't believe it, I knew straight away, it was just too much pain to carry on, really. I wanted to carry on but I was in a lot of pain, and I'm no use to the team like that."

"It will be just the same again, really - we've assessed it, and done all we can. It's just about how much pain I can take, really. I'll be taking pain killers, if I'm selected, to get through the game. I wouldn't ever put myself forward for the gaffer's selection if I don't feel that I can put everything into the game. Just, hopefully, no-one comes from behind like the lad did on Saturday. I said to the referee, tackles like that make these injuries happen. That's what really frustrated me, the manner of the challenge."

"I know a few lads at Doncaster. They've had a good season, but we finished above them when we got promoted, we finished above them last year. Doncaster, I know they've had a very good season, but team-wise I wouldn't say they're miles ahead of us," the midfielder continued. "We're not going into the game worrying about them being in the play-offs, we want to win. If you look at the last three games, we probably should have won every game, and that's how the lads fee. It's not a camp that's low, at all. We're going to go into Saturday and look to win it. It's just a game that we've got to go in and get the three points that are going to get us closer to safety. It's going to be a tough game, they're on a good run this season, but I fancy us with the way we're playing at the minute. The performances have been there, just not the results. Past Christmas, we've shown that we can go up against any team. If we started the season well, we could have put ourselves in a position to have a good year, so we've just got to get ourselves safe this year and go again."

With nerves jangling around Home Park, Derek Adams sought to cool tensions by saying that he thinks only one more win would be needed for Argyle to secure their League One status. He explained: "Ideally we would like to get five wins, that's the aim. We want to pick up as many points as we possibly can to move ourselves ahead of the position that we're in at this moment in time. There is a gap between ourselves and the ones above us but we can go above two teams on Saturday if we win. It's an extremely tight league, with five games to go, we have 15 points to play for. At this stage of the season, no game is easy, but we are playing a team at the top of the division at this moment in time. We have shown, going away to Blackpool, we should have won that game, Charlton at home, we competed well, so we have got a good opportunity of winning the game on Saturday. We need to pick up points between now and the end of the season, three points is what we are going for, so we will try to win the match. It has been that way for a number of weeks now, we have just got to look at ourselves and pick up the points that we can, and we will finish in a good position."

9th

Argyle are withdrawing from the South West Peninsula League after four seasons. Instead, the Pilgrims are set to compete in the new Devon County League, which will start in 2019/20. hat will be at step seven in the National League System, one level below the SWPL Premier Division. Usually, the Pilgrims' side will be made up of young apprentices and players from the Argyle Community Trust. Second-year apprentices and professionals will get game-time in the Central League and Premier League Under-23 Cup. Argyle will be part of a 16-team south and west division in the Devon County League. Argyle entered the SWPL in 2015/16 to get more games for their young players or senior professionals needing match practice.

7th

Derek Adams took encouragement from Argyle's loss to Charlton, taking solace in the level of performance on the pitch. He spoke positively of the display: "I thought we were very good in the first and we looked like the team in the play-off position. For 45 minutes it was excellent. We took the game to them, stopped them playing out from the back and created a load of opportunities. The pivotal moment was when they conceded the penalty kick, we missed the penalty kick. I was hoping he was going to hit it to the right of the goalkeeper because he had left a big gap. He did try to go down the middle. I think the goalkeeper maybe guessed correctly and got a leg on it to keep it out the net. Having said that, the full-back should stop the crosses and the centre half should stop the player getting in-between them to get the goal. Graham Carey has taken the responsibility for the penalty kick and responsibility has to be taken by the central defenders that they've scored the goals from. We have got to chase the game after that, we are 2-0 down. We didn't really look like it in the second half, even when we had all the attacking players on, we just couldn't find a way through. The whole stadium went flat at 2-0, Charlton took the sting out of the game, they sat back, as you do at that stage in the game. They killed the game, kept the ball, and were happy to have the 2-0 advantage."

He added that opponents Charlton were lucky to end the game with all eleven men, arguing: "I believe they could've had a couple of players sent off in the first half. Their two centre-halves had already been booked, and committed two, possibly three fouls after that. Also, their central midfield player, number four, committed a foul, so they were a bit fortunate to go in at half time at 1-0. When they got the yellow card, then one of them gets a warning after he's already been booked, we thought that one, if not two, of them should have been sent off. We have felt hard done by in the last few weeks, Saturday was probably different from the point of view that we were so on top during the match, we created openings, got in the 18 yard-box and we felt we should have been ahead first. If we had been, it would have been a different match. We have five games to go now, a big five games for us. We have obviously moved a position, but if we continue to play like that in the first half and we take a few opportunities, then we will win a few games."

Captain Gary Sawyer added his frustration that Argyle weren't able to turn performances into results, ruing: "I think, in the situation we're in, it's frustrating because it's another game gone by, and we've obviously not got any points out of it. Obviously, the boy gets a cross in, and we didn't really tie up in the box and we find ourselves 1-0 down, which wasn't really merited. They score early in the second-half and everything's a battle from there."

"I think, if you go 1-0 down to a team like Charlton, it's always going to be tough. To come out in the second-half and let a soft goal in, it's always going to be an uphill battle. They are where they are in the league for a reason. It's unfortunate for us, and we just couldn't get back at them. It just didn't work for us. The ball didn't fall right, we didn't really push them as much as we could have, and the game got away from us a bit."

"As good as we were in the first-half, we're sitting here with no points. It's something that we'll look at in training, and if we could play like that for 90 minutes rather than just the 45, we'll certainly have no problem at all. It's a positive to a certain degree, but obviously disheartening as well because we didn't carry it through."

>Sawyer also reflected on the mental strength that the team needed to pick themselves back up from the loss as they have on many occasions in the past: "It's a mentality thing, and we've got a strong mental group in there," said Argyle's club captain. "Everyone's going to be disappointed, rightly so, you're probably not in the right job if you're not disappointed with what happened today. We'll go back, reflect on that, today and tomorrow, get it out of our system, and then all the boys will put their boots on ready to go on Monday. One win takes you to the fifty-point-mark, which is going to be quite hard to get for some of the teams down there. The sooner we can get that, the sooner we can move past that. That's the aim, to get the win in the bag as soon as possible, and then see how many points we can get before the end of the season. The lowest point of the season for me was Boxing Day, losing to Wimbledon and being bottom of the league after that. That, for me, was when you knew you were in a real fight and you needed to do something to get out of it. We've done that – if you gave me the option of being in the situation we are in now, then, I'd have snapped anyone's hand off. We've got more than enough ability in that dressing room to get the points we need. We've been in this situation all season, pretty much. Worse off than we are now. It's been a battle from start to finish, and we're going to carry on going, as we have done all season. We've got five games left, five cup finals, to carry on going and get the points we need."

6th

Argyle lost their first home match of 2019, going down 2-0 against play-off contenders Charlton. It was a game of fine margins when Graham Carey had his first half penalty saved by the Athletic keeper. Lyle Taylor went straight down the other end and put the visitors into the lead before they doubled their advantage shortly after the break. Argyle: Macey, Threlkeld, Edwards, Canavan(Jones), Sawyer, Fox, Sarcevic(Taylor), Ness(Fletcher), Carey, Lameiras, Ladapo. Subs: Letheren, Songo'o, Smith-Brown, Anderson.

5th

Loanee full-back Oscar Threlkeld has said that he often forgets he is only at the club on loan and would indeed be tempted to return for a fifth spell after his loan spell expires in May. He said: "I still have two years out there. I am happy, or at least I was, until the lack of game-time. It is not my place to say if I will stay here, it's up to my agent and the club officials to sort out. I would love to be here next season, I wouldn't have come back three or four times if I didn't love it. As I say, it's up to my agent and the club out there to negotiate. It is weird because it does feel like I am here permanently, but I have to remember that I am here on loan. It's just the same as when I have been here before, over the years. Supporters will talk to me as if I am one of their players, they'll ask me if I'm staying, this and that but I'm really happy. It's nice to hear the fans signing my song and things like that."

Of the vacant right-back spot and the game against Charlton, Threlkeld added: "I do feel sorry for Joe because he was on a good run. He was playing well. It is a bad situation, I wish Joe a speedy recovery, but Joe's misfortune is, in a way, my fortune. That's the way football is. If you're in Joe's situation, you just have to think positively. There is a vacancy at right-back and it is up to me and Ash to fight for the right-back place. There is good competition within the squad and basically we have to give the gaffer a headache to pick one of us. I'm happy with the amount of games I have played here, because I wasn't getting that in Belgium at the time. It's just precious game-time, so I will try to do more in training now that there is an opening.""I think there will be some physical battles but we are prepared, we have been preparing all week, so we have to carry on doing that and hopefully our abilities take over. We are confident, being unbeaten in eight games at home speaks for itself. The fans have been brilliant home and away, and I think they're our 12th man. We need them and many clubs don't get the support that we get, so we appreciate that and that shows on the pitch at home. The league is crazy, I've never seen anything like it in my life in a strange way, it's good to be in it to see if we can cope with the pressure, and we have enough in the squad to overcome that. The players are looking forward to it; the next six games will be like cup finals. Every point is vital but at home we would like to get three. It's a shame we didn't pick up the six points over the last two weeks but it's a learning curve. It will be a tough game, but with the fans shouting and screaming, that will get us over the line."

Ahead of the match, Adams previewed: "They're obviously riding high at the top of the league. They're in the play-off positions at this moment in time, they have been there for the majority of the season. That said, we've done well against the top-six teams this season. From a competitive point of view, we've taken points off them, and we want to do that against Charlton. I would like the budget that Lee Bowyer has. That's where it's difficult to assess how teams are, because of the financial irregularities between all teams in this division. Charlton, as we've seen with the finances this week, spend a lot of money on their team. I think that they pass the ball really well, but we've got talented players in our team that can do the same."

"We saw that Bradford sat off them last week. Charlton probably should have won by more goals. They're a very good outfit that have dropped down the leagues and want to get back to the Championship. They play with a lot of attacking promise, at times. Taylor's a top player for them, but he's not the only one. We've got the firepower to hurt them, too. We've got Lameiras, Carey and Ladapo who have all contributed by either scoring goals or having assists this season."

4th

Derek Adams gave a lowdown on the Argyle players currently battling injury and gave an overview on their likelihood to be fit in the games to come this season: "It's difficult for Joe Riley. To get the blow to the arm as he did, it was innocuous at the time, going up for a header and picking up that injury. He's had an operation on his elbow and he's going to be in plaster for four-to-six weeks. Jamie Ness is fine, but Sarcevic hasn't trained this week. He's going to train today and hopefully tomorrow. We've also got Joel and Conor Grant out, but if anyone's going to take part before the end of the season, it's Conor, who should be back earlier than Joel. He had a thigh injury, but he should be back before the end of the season."

Despite the undeniable frustration of surrendering a 2-0 lead with minutes to go, Adams still beleives Argyle are in a great place to secure their status in League One. He said: "We were really disappointed last week, because to get ourselves 2-0 up against a team that is pushing for the play-offs was excellent. But to lose the points in the manner that we did was really disappointing. The ball got knocked to the edge of the box, the left-back's hit it with his right foot and it's just trundled into the bottom corner then, the centre-half comes up and decides to have an overhead kick, and it goes into the back of the net. From that point of view, it's very difficult to take because we were in very good command of the game. It is extremely frustrating. I think that to be in a position where we were winning against Bristol Rovers and Blackpool, we've lost four points. It would have put us in an excellent position going into the last six games of the season."

"We're in a good position with six games to go. We're in a much better position than we were earlier in the season. We're probably in the position everyone would expect us to be in at the start of the season. We have to kick-on now, and try to finish as high up as we possibly can. We've got six games to do that. We've got three tough games against top teams in Barnsley, Doncaster and Charlton. We've also got three teams that are round-about us in the table as well."

3rd

Argyle have released the season ticket prices in full for the 2019/20 season, at both the early bird and standard rates. Full prices can be found on the club's official website and fans have until Tuesday May 14th to purchase at the early bird rate.

1st

Argyle will have to go the rest of the season without Joe Riley after he broke his arm in the early stages of the game at Blackpool on Saturday. He was immediately substituted for Oscar Threlkeld after the break. Derek Adams said of the injury: "We told him to go away and get checked right away so that we knew the extent of the injury. He's going to get it in plaster; he might possibly need to get an operation on it depending on how the consultant sees the break.

He's definitely out for the rest of the season. There's nothing much you can do – you get a kick on the arm and you break a bone. He wanted to stay on but Blackpool's doctor, who I think is a consultant at the hospital, was quite right when he said: 'No, you have to come off because I fear this is the situation'. He fitted in well to the team. We have got good cover in that area. We have got Tafari Moore; Oscar Threlkeld, who came in today; Gary Sawyer can play there; and Ashley Smith-Brown can play there. We are okay, but we don't want to be losing a player at this stage of the season. We are a player down going in to the run-in. We would all like to have a fully fit squad."

Ryan Edwards issued a rallying call to the rest of the team to recover from the frustrating late set back: "It hurts, it hurts everyone, but we have to stick together and try to get to that margin that will get us over the line come the end of the season. We were dominant. If you had taken 10 people off the street and asked them who is at the top end of the table, 10 out of 10 people would have said us. If we play like that, we will be alright but we can't let leads like that slip. It is another point gained, but it doesn't feel like it; it feels like two points dropped, it is two points dropped. We will have to come in on Monday and try to get that win because I think we're nearly there. It is probably lower than 50 points to be safe but we are not thinking 'lets be there and we are safe', we want to finish as high as we can. Like the manager said before the game, there are six games left and he wants us to go and batter every team we play, which is a great attitude to have."

Diary Archive: