Birmingham City (H) | Edwards' Reaction

There are times when you need your leaders, your big characters at a football club, to step up.

That has happened all over Argyle, in every department, this week, but few epitomise the spirit, on and off the pitch, better than captain Joe Edwards.

In the first game since manager Steven Schumacher’s departure, with Argyle two goals down to Birmingham City, Edwards, playing at right-back, chased up the pitch, stole the ball from City defender Dion Sanderson and scored, just before half-time, to get the Greens back into the game.

After the interval, even though Krystian Bielik was sent off for the visitors, they went 3-1 up, before Argyle rallied and got back on terms with an own-goal and a Morgan Whittaker equaliser four minutes from time.

“I'm proud of the boys, because to come back from 2-0 down and 3-1 down, no matter what's happened out there is a great achievement for us,” said Edwards. “It was a mad game, but we kept going.

“I'm not quite sure why I was there pressing the centre-half! It came to me and I took my chance. Thankfully, it went in. It got us back in the game and it gave us a foothold to really go on.

“We responded; we got back in the game. We said at half-time, we're well in this now and we need to believe that we can get back into it. We wanted to come out in the second half and we knew we'd get a goal, though we didn't expect for it to go how it did, but we always believe we're going to score and we did that.

“We were disappointed with the third goal. It was an early sending off, so we knew we had plenty of time. We probably rushed it a little bit too much, and they get a goal on the counter, which is hard to take. When you've got the crowd believing and cheering, you want to keep going.

“The boys never gave in and they kept believing. When we've got ability that we have up front we fancy ourselves to score goals. Luckily we did that.”

In the aftermath of Schumacher leaving for Stoke City, Director of Football Neil Dewsnip and first-team coach Kevin Nancekivell have been at the helm.

Continuity, says Edwards, has helped the players to stay focused on the tasks in hand. That continuity comes not just from the leadership of Dewsnip and Nancekivell, but from the support of the Green Army, who were in fine voice to support their side.

“Not too much has changed,” said Joe. “I've been working closely with Nance and Neil. We’ve got a great group of lads, so it's just making sure they're still focused. We're not changing inside this dressing room; nothing too much has to change in that sense. We’ll just keep everyone together, keep everyone believing in what we're doing. We’re in a good space at the minute and we make sure we keep doing that.

“The messages I've received and things like that, it really does make a huge difference to myself and the team. We mentioned that before the game, we know that they're fully behind us; it's their club and we're lucky to be a part of their club.

“We're part of their history, but we know it's their club and what it means to them, so we needed to put on a performance to relay that on the pitch. I think we did, coming back from the two goals twice. They're fantastic, and it'll always be their club - we're playing for them.

“We want to make sure that we do them proud, which I'm sure we did today.”