Edwards' Papa Johns Trophy Reaction
Argyle captain Joe Edwards admitted that Sunday’s Papa Johns Trophy Final went from the proudest afternoon of his long professional career to the saddest in a 90-minute period.
The Greens slipped to a nightmare start in front of the largest crowd in European football this weekend, falling two goals down to a lightning quick Bolton Wanderers outfit inside the first 10 minutes, and it did not get any better from there.
Joe, who has now experienced one win and one defeat from his two playing visits to the national stadium, is under no illusions as to how much that defeat hurt the incredible 39,000 Argyle supporters who made the trip to the capital.
He said: “First of all, I just want to apologise for that because that isn’t the Plymouth Argyle we know and want it to be. When you see the number of fans that have travelled, we are really sorry that we’ve let them down.
“It’s a heart-breaking day really. On the day they were better than us, and we didn’t perform.”
"That’s the opposite of how we want to start. We pride ourselves on starting well, on the front foot. They had the momentum, got their goal, and we were under pressure for the first 10-15 minutes, and they got another one. That sort of laid a path for the rest of the game.”
Argyle had stemmed the Bolton tide by the half-time interval, enjoying much more possession and territory after goals from Kyle Dempsey and Dion Charles.
Tactical changes at half-time, including the introduction of substitutes Sam Cosgrove and Matt Butcher, gave the Greens fresh impetus, but a self-inflicted third goal followed shortly after a promising start, putting faint hopes of a famous fightback to bed.
Joe said: “We wanted to come out at the start of the second half and do that to them, but it just didn’t happen and, unfortunately, we gave them another goal. We’re really disappointed, and it's not how we wanted it to go.
“It went from probably the proudest day to probably the saddest day I’ve had in football. We were looking at all the photos and videos of them travelling up and we were so excited and proud to walk out in front of nearly 40,000 Argyle fans.”
Despite the painful circumstances, the Pilgrims, led by their skipper, made a point to remain on the pitch to take in Bolton’s celebration and thank the Argyle supporters. It was a visibly chastening experience for the group.
However, unlike any of Argyle’s previous visits to the famous arch, this one occurs mid-season, with eight vital fixtures left to go in the Greens’ pursuit of promotion. The talk pre-match had been that Sunday’s result would not define the campaign, whether the Trophy was won or lost, and Edwards believes his colleagues in the dressing room are determined to ensure Wembley’s bitter disappointment will be the last they feel this season.
He said: “We can only apologise to them [the Green Army], and we know how to repay them – so we know what we’ve got to do for that. We’ll do everything we can, and make sure they know how much they mean to us.
“That’s what I’ve just said to the lads in there, we’ve got eight more of these cup finals and we can’t perform like that in these eight games.
“We’ve got to step up now. It’s an opportunity to still achieve something special this year, and we have to look into these eight games with that mentality. They’re all cup finals, and we’ve got to do a lot better than we did today in them.
“We know the job at hand, and we’ll make sure that we’re up for it.”
