‘MY LIFE HERE
Plymouth stability boosts boss after sad end to his Bury reign
ASK Ryan Lowe what he likes about Plymouth Argyle and it’s clear that managing a Bury side on the cusp of collapse has left lasting scars.
“I’m not going to lie,” says the 41-year-old Scouser, who guided the Shakers to promotion from League Two last season amidst a financial meltdown that would eventually see the Greater Manchester minnows expelled from the Football League.
“It’s things like knowing your wages will be going in the bank at the end of the month. Not having to worry about bailiffs turning up at the training ground. Or the water being turned off.
“At some clubs - not just Bury - you spend as much time dealing with all the crap as you do on training players. Stadium issues. Bills. Interference. Being told who you can and can’t pick.
“All any manager wants is to be left alone with his team to do the football stuff, and that’s what I’ve got here. It’s been fantastic.”
Plymouth rode to Lowe’s rescue in June, just as it was becoming apparent that Steve Dale, the Bury owner, could neither locate a buyer nor fund the club. Two months later, having failed to fulfil a single League One fixture, the Shakers’ 125year tenure in the EFL was over.
“It was incredibly sad what happened at Bury,” adds Lowe, who scored 72 goals in 189 games for the club as a player. “It was a real shame after last season, and to see the club go under was heartbreaking. But you have to move on, don’t you?”
For Lowe, that has proved easier than it otherwise might. Partly it’s the idyllic Devon locale that his young family - currently based in the north west - enjoy every other weekend.
“My family comes down every home game and I go back every away game,” he explains. “They visit during the school holidays as well. They love Devon life. We were thinking of all moving down after Christmas, but we couldn’t sort the schools. We wanted the kids in the same one but they only had a place for my boy and not my little girl. When the season finishes, we’ll look at it again.
“It’s been tough for them, and for me at times. Sometimes you feel a little bit lonely because your family aren’t around. But I’m here to do a job for them. They understand that.
“And having good people around makes it a lot easier. The chairman, the CEO, the secretary and the board - they can’t do enough for me.
“Some football clubs now, they get rid of managers for losing two or three games, let alone the six you always hear about. “But the last one here (Derek Adams) got four-and-a-half years, which tells you about the value they place on longevity.
“As a manager, you have to make sure you pick the right option and at this moment it feels like I have. It’s a special place.”
Special
Lowe’s relocation has also been aided by a swathe of familiar faces. Amid the flotsam and jetsam propelled to the surface following Bury’s plunge into the abyss was the bulk of a promotion-winning squad.
Plymouth snapped up five of the best - Danny Mayor, Will Aimson, Dom Telford, Callum McFadzean and Byron Moore - as well as Lowe’s entire backroom staff.
“We basically brought our philosophy with us,” Lowe admits. Wasn’t he worried, though, that such an influx of chosen men would alienate a squad already bruised by relegation?
“I look at it the other way,” he says. “As a player, I know there are a lot of lads who won’t want to pick the brains of a new manager, an analyst or a fitness coach. “But those same players will naturally talk to other lads in the dressing room. So when there’s five of our old players in there, they can ask ‘What’s the manager like?’ or ‘What’s the train
ing like?’, and kind of get to know us through them. I think it helped the lads who were here to prepare for us and understand us.
“We also emphasised the clean slate. There are a lot of lads who didn’t play much under the previous regime, including my whole back three. They’ve played more or less every minute of every game for me this season.
“They’ve been phenomenal and all credit to them for staying here to fight and get the club back where it belongs but also for being good characters and good footballers.”
One youth team graduate Luke Jephcott - has proved the unlikely impetus behind the Pilgrims’ bid for glory. Recalled from a loan spell at Truro at the turn of the year, the 20-yearold striker had, pre-weekend, plundered six goals in ten games. Only 11-goal top-scorer Antony Sarcevic has scored more for Plymouth this season. Better
“He just looked a little bit raw so we sent him on loan to Truro to play some games, toughen up and just get to know the game a little bit better,” said Lowe.
“The boy did that and all credit to him. He worked hard on what he needed to - and what we asked him to - and he’s reaping the rewards.”
As are Plymouth, who began the weekend in fourth place. Defeated once in their last ten matches and just a single victory off top spot, Lowe’s side are currently a point better off than Bury were at the same stage last season.
Given the wholesale transplant from Gigg Lane, was such success inevitable?
“Not at all,” insists Lowe, who also played for Crewe, Sheffield Wednesday and Tranmere over the course of a 703-game career.
“I think a lot of people thought, ‘Well, Ryan Lowe has come from Bury, he got promoted under bad circumstances, we’ll p*** this league’.
“Expectation was through the roof, and we spent a lot of our time trying to lower it. We talked to supporters and said ‘Listen, can we just work together, believe in what we do and accept that it won’t happen overnight?’. Since then, they’ve been different class.
“Because this is a tough league, full of good players. You can’t take anything for granted. All we want to do is get to the last ten games and see where we are. In the meantime, I just want to get this place rocking.”