Houghton's Peterborough Preview
Argyle meet Peterborough United on Wednesday night at Home Park in the first round of this season’s Carabao Cup.
Strangely enough, the two sides met at the same stage last season – Argyle won 4-0 at the Weston Homes Stadium – and will meet again on Saturday in Sky Bet League One.
Posh, who were relegated from the Championship last season, have a maximum six points so far this campaign, having won 3-2 at Cheltenham Town on the opening day before beating Morecambe 3-0 at home on Saturday. Argyle are one of ten sides in the league to have won one and lost one of their opening pair of fixtures.
Pilgrims midfielder Jordan Houghton got his first minutes of action this season when coming on as a second-half substitute as The Greens lost 2-1 at Fleetwood last weekend. Houghton had missed the opening game having carried over a suspension from last season.
Houghton played the second game of his second spell with Argyle during last season’s clash with Peterborough, but he expects that encounter to have little bearing on this year’s tie.
“It will be completely different,” said Houghton. “They will be a different animal to last season when we played them. Although they were in the Championship, they maybe had a lack of confidence, even that early on, I felt. They were sussing out who was going to be playing. We were full of confidence going into it, with new players eager to push on.
“They will be full of confidence this time, but we have a point to prove after Saturday. We want to get back to playing some good football – and back to winning. It should be an entertaining game, I think. Both teams will want to play attacking football. I’m looking forward to it.”
After a week in which the Green Army were able to enjoy and savour their side’s opening day victory over Barnsley, in which Steven Schumacher’s side played very well, it was back down to earth with a loss inflicted by an 88th minute winner for Fleetwood.
A midweek game when the weekend has yielded a disappointment can be of benefit, giving Argyle a chance to put the loss to the back of their mind before League One action takes over again this Saturday.
“The start of the season is very hectic,” Jordan said, in an interview with Argyle TV. “Lots of games come around. It’s going to be a squad effort. It takes a while to get into your stride physically and with performances as well. It was a learning curve in the second game of the season. Something we have looked on and hopefully can put right.
“That’s the best thing that can happen really. When results don’t go your way, and performances don’t go how you want them to, the best thing is to get back out there and put it right with a good one. We have that opportunity on Wednesday.
“For us players, we just go out and do what the manager has been telling us to do.
“It’s a slightly different formation that we’ve been playing. It’s all about us learning and improving from game by game. It’s going to take a little time to get the formation flowing like we want to, but we’ve showed positives signs early on.”
