Cooper's Bolton Reaction

Goalkeeper Mike Cooper had praised for the defensive unit in front of him as Argyle held Bolton Wanderers to a 0-0 draw.

Although former Argyle defender Will Aimson saved Bolton with an amazing goal-line clearance from Pilgrims debutant Ben Waine, it was the Trotters who had more in the way of pressure during the game.

Cooper made two hugely notable stops: one from point-bank range when he denied Jon Bodvarsson, and another when he got fingertips to a late effort by Elias Kachunga, touching the ball onto the post.

His defence, though, more than played their part, on numerous occasions throwing their bodies in front of goalbound shots, or arriving at the right time to shepherd the ball back to their appreciative keeper.

“Some of the lads were just throwing themselves in front of the ball,” said Cooper. “It shows where we are as a group; everyone is putting bodies on the line, willing to keep the ball out of the net by any means possible and limiting the amount of shots I have to deal with.

“[The save from Kachunga] was one of those where you dive, stretch your arm and hope you get your arm on it. Luckily, I did. Apart from that save, I didn’t really have a heap to do considering the pressure they were putting on us. They are always going to have spells, at home, at stadium like this with a big crowd. I thought we weathered both storms quite well.

“You’ll take [a point] after the way the game panned out. To be fair to Bolton, it was a good performance from them, going forward and at the back. You’ve got to give credit to the home team sometimes.

“We responded really well, with blocks and clearances, the way we defended in general today. We kept the door shut.

“A lot of clean sheets, like this one today, are team clean sheets. It can’t just be the goalie. This is also only the third or fourth game where we haven’t scored this season. That shows how much of a threat we are going forward, and we almost squeezed one over the line from Waineo. When we keep the back door shut it gives attackers a lot to go off.”

Waine was one of four Argyle players, all of whom arrived at the club this week, making their debut for the club. Callum Wright started the game, Saxon Earley came on late in the match, while Waine and Jay Matete were substitutes midway through the second period.

Matete, the final arrival, who is on loan from Sunderland, met the team at the overnight hotel, and has not trained with his new team-mates yet. However, he still managed to come on and make a fair impact on the game.

Cooper says that all the newcomers have settled in during their first days, and credits the welcoming atmosphere of the dressing room with helping to facilitate the integration.

“We’ve had a good group for the past few years,” said Cooper. “It’s what we try to build. Any new lads that come in, it is fairly easy for them to become one of the boys. Jay came straight to the hotel last night, had dinner, went to bed and then come on here and did really well on his debut.

“I’m looking forward to seeing more of them all.”