Birmingham City (A) | Edwards' Preview
The crestfallen look on the face of captain Joe Edwards was plain to see when he emerged from the St Andrew’s dressing rooms to face the Argyle TV cameras.
The Pilgrims had just lost 2-1, with City scoring in the last minute of injury time, through new signing Jay Stansfield. Prior to that, Scott Hogan had given the home side an early lead, but when Argyle equalised near the hour mark, via Ryan Hardie, they had been more than worth that.
It was a slick performance for the most part, with Argyle dominating possession and having the bulk of the game’s chances.
However, Stansfield pounced, and for the second week in succession Argyle lost 2-1 to a stoppage-time winner.
“The lads are gutted in there,” said Joe. |I think we know we deserve more than that today. That's the hardest bit to take, really, because we're coming to these places, performing and doing well.
“It's a hard one to take today and, I don't think we deserved it. But like I said, we can't feel sorry for ourselves. It's a relentless league, an unforgiving league.
“We're more than in the game and creating plenty of chances, it's that final little bit that we're missing. I can't fault the lads’ effort, it’s just a horrible way to lose.”
Argyle have four points from four games, but have faced some stern opposition, and performed with immense credit.
Edwards says the players are determined to ensure that the small margins that are currently costing them are rectified, and said that praise for their performance gives them hope, but cannot work as solace, long-term.
“We don't want to be a nearly team; we're here to compete at this level,” he said.
“We're not here to be hard done by and feel sorry for ourselves. There's areas that we need to improve on. The goal we need to improve on. That’s two late goals in two weeks.
“We're not going to be here sitting back and saying ‘well done’ to each other all the time.
“I thought we had the better side and on another day we come away with more than the point probably. We have to dust ourselves down, go again and keep positive.
“We'll look back and review it like we do every game. There's plenty of positives to take and we'll use that going forward. We're performing in every game at the moment, which is what we want. We know the results will come if we keep doing that, keep sticking to what we know and working hard on the training field.”
Nearly 2,000 members of the Green Army, behind the goal where Argyle got their equaliser, roared their team on throughout the game, especially the second half, and were clearly despondent following the late sucker punch.
The skipper says that the fans emotions will be shared throughout everyone with green in their hearts.
“We never underestimate how good our fans are,” said Joe. “I'm just gutted for them as well. They're part of us. We all feel the same pain when you lose in the last minute like that.
“I'm gutted for them. We appreciate how much they travel and come with us. That second half was brilliant with them trying to suck the ball into the net. We'll bounce back and get a result for them away from home, then I'm sure they'll have plenty to cheer about.”
