Cardiff City (H) Foster's Reaction

Half an hour into Argyle’s game against Cardiff City, the Greens were trailing to Perry Ng’s 10th minute goal, and Head Coach Ian Foster’s first Sky Bet Championship game at Home Park was not necessarily going to plan.

That said, though the Bluebirds were leading, they had not been particularly close to adding to their tally, and when Ryan Hardie equalised on 31 minutes, everything changed.

Argyle seemed to find an extra yard in their running, attacks became more purposeful, and it was the Pilgrims on the front foot.

After the break, Hardie scored again, before Morgan Whittaker made it 3-1. The longer the game went on, the better Foster’s team looked.

“We're absolutely delighted,” Foster said, after the game. “I felt for the boys in the first half. I didn't think that they should have been 1-0 down on the balance of play, but they showed some resilience and character to get themselves back in it. I thought it was only fair that we went in level - at least level.

“It's an unfortunate one, [conceding from] a set play, but we have to do better. We have to be better in those moments. Other than that, in the first half, they didn't particularly cause us too many problems, if any.

“I thought in the second half we really played how we wanted them to. I spoke to the players afterwards and said that's the benchmark in terms of the non-negotiables.

“I thought they worked incredibly hard. While we're at home we need to make this a fortress and make it uncomfortable for teams; I thought we made it very uncomfortable for Cardiff second half.

“Sometimes you can't wait for the game to end, but I was quite happy for it to keep going. I felt we got stronger. I thought we had a really good shape to press from and break from. I thought perhaps we ought to have had one or two more.”

Hardie’s two goals take his seasonal tally to 11, while Whittaker is now on 16 for the campaign. Argyle are the only team in the Championship with two players in the top seven goalscorers in the division; Whittaker’s 15 league goals is bettered only by Sammi Szmodics of Blackburn Rovers.

Whittaker was made captain against Cardiff, wearing the armband for the first time, and Foster explained his rationale: “Morgan's part of the leadership group. Sometimes you give the armband to different leaders, and I felt that Morgan leads by example in terms of his levels of performance.

“For me, he was the next in line. Sometimes you give it to a player, and it doesn't make a difference to their performance. Sometimes, you give it to a creative one and it can just add that little bit of spark. I'm not saying that's the reason he got his goal because his goals have come anyway.

“He warranted the captaincy and I thought he performed well with it.

“[Hardie’s] a threat; he's got energy, he's got quality, he's got determination, he's got football intelligence. He's not nice to play against, I'm sure, as a centre-back because he'll challenge you in terms of running in behind and making those intelligent darting runs.

“His performance warranted two goals. He took them particularly well, and that's the level that he's got to play at consistently in order to be a top player in this division.”

Alfie Devine, Matty Soriniola and Adam Forshaw all signed for Argyle this week, with the former and the latter starting the game, and Sorinola an unused substitute.

Foster felt the new recruits performed well, particularly in light of how little time they have had with the group since joining.

“They've been excellent because they've only had two days,” Foster said. “Alfie's had two days with us, Adam's had one, [and they’ve taken in] an awful lot of information.

“It may be easier for Alfie in that he's played for me previously, but Adam hasn't. Adam and I had a couple of hours together yesterday afternoon, just going through how we want to play. To put in the performance that they both did is really pleasing.”