Luck in Running

JOHN Sheridan believes that Argyle’s 2-0 Sky Bet League 2 home defeat to Scunthorpe United was not a fair reflection of his side’s performance.

Despite coming up against a team who were unbeaten in 20 games, spirits and expectations were high around Home Park for Argyle, who had picked up 15 points out of a possible 21.

Argyle were every bit the Iron's equal for the majority of the game but were hit with a sucker punch in the 79th minute as Dave Syers scuffed the ball home just after Lewis Alessandra had agonizingly hit the post for the Pilgrims.

The visitors sealed their victory in stoppage time with what the Pilgrims’ manager described as a “joke” of a goal, substitute Hakeeb Adelakun’s shot hitting the post and cannoning off a helpless Jake Cole into the net.

Luck, clearly, was not on Argyle’s side, and the manager believes that this played a huge part in the result.

“There’s a rub of the green, sometimes, when you’re at the top of the table,” he said. “You do seem to get a little more luck than others. Most managers would agree with that.

“You could see that Scunthorpe have got good players that have played in higher divisions, even the Championship. They’re experienced and on a good run of form, but I don’t think they’ll have many tougher games than they’ve had today.

“It’s a shame that it ended 2-0 really. It just wasn’t to be, but anyone at the game would tell you it was a closer game than it finally ended up.”

Despite the loss, the Green Army applauded their players as they came off the pitch – a sign of their appreciation for a terrific performance.

John said: “I think we put a lot of effort into the game, and I don’t think we deserved that scoreline, to be fair.

“We matched them. They’re a good team, and kept the ball a bit better than us possession-wise, but I think we always looked a threat, going forward. It was two very evenly-matched teams out there, and they’re top of the league, so you can see how far we’ve come.”

“I’m sure Russell [Wilcox, the Scunthorpe manager] would say that he’s had a really tough game today, which is good on our part.

“We’ve shown up today, and it’s just a shame we didn’t get anything from the game.”