GREEN ARMY’S ON THE MARCH
PLYMOUTH Argyle can finally start to look up rather than down according to boss John Sheridan after their sparkling victory over Cheltenham Town.
Argyle have dropped from the Championship to League Two since 2010, narrowly avoiding relegation to non-league football for the past two seasons.
But Sheridan, who took over from Carl Fletcher in January, is confident they can turn things around and push for a return to League One this term.
“We know the support we have and we want to do well,” Sheridan said.“We want to be talking about promotion, not relegation and if that puts pressure on me so be it.
“We are a club who can get out of this league at the first attempt in my first full season. I have to get that into the players and if we turn up and perform like that the fans will support us all the way.”
Marvin Morgan, Conor Hourihane and Rommy Boco were all on target in the first half as Plymouth powered to their opening victory of the season at Whaddon Road
Cheltenham replied through Matt Richards’ free-kick in the 72nd minute, but a comeback never looked likely, with Argyle in control.
Sheridan was happy with the way his team reacted to defeats by Southend United and Fleetwood Town at the start of the season.
“The manner in which we’ve lost the first two League games hasn’t been good enough,” Sheridan added.
“We didn’t deserve anything from them, but against Cheltenham, who are a very good home team, we did.
“We got away with one or two things in the first five minutes that we didn’t at Fleetwood, but that’s football. After that we looked very comfortable and a 3-0 lead is always a good cushion. It was a very good all-round team performance.”
Robins boss Mark Yates blasted his team for a powder-puff performance and apologised to the home fans, who had not seen their team lose at home in a League Two game since last September.
“I apologise to our supporters for an inept last hour of the game,” he said. “We started brightly and should have scored a couple, but after they scored we were powder-puff at best. I am not going to go over the top, but the players know how dis- appointed I am with that and that they were poor. They’ll be in on Sunday to work hard.”
However, Yates spared new loan signing from Fleetwood Town Steven Gillespie from the blame after an encouraging second ‘debut’ having left the club for Colchester United in 2008.
“Steven looked bright and lively in his first game,”Yates said. “But we were second best after their first goal and that’s not good enough.
“We have been bullied by the two centre forwards and by the two central midfield players and the game became too easy for them. You don’t have any divine right to win games, no matter
who you are playing.”