Hull City (A) | Houghton's Preview

Somewhere in some wetlands on the Tamar estuary, a mother mallard watched one of her offspring take to the river for the first time.

‘How is the little one getting on?’ she was asked.

‘Great,’ replied the mother. ‘He’s taken to it like Jordan Houghton to the Sky Bet Championship.’

Houghton grew up in the Academy of Premier League giants Chelsea, and experienced life in Leagues Two and One, on loan, including at Argyle.

Released by the Blues, he was promoted from fourth tier to third with new club Milton Keynes Dons, but it was not until Argyle’s title win last season, and Jordan signing a new contract in the summer, that he was finally, at the age of 27, set to play in English football’s second level.

He has been a revelation. It is no surprise to the Green Army that he has played well; they have seen him, for two years, be unflappable in the middle of the Argyle midfield, starting the play and organising around him. But even so, the level to which he has stepped up has been eye-catching.

“It’s taken the best part of eight years of work to get to this stage,” he said. “I always wanted the chance to play at this level because I knew I could I do it. Now I’ve got the opportunity, I think I’m doing well. We’re doing well.”

Argyle have earned ten points from their eight games in the Championship to this point, most recently with a sensational 6-2 win over Norwich City.

Nine of those points have come at Home Park. On the road, it has been one point from a possible 12, but that does not really tell the story. After a credible, battling point at Watford, there followed two consecutive 2-1 defeats, at Birmingham City and Preston North End, but the Greens played superbly in each. It is only the last away trip, at 4-1 loss at Bristol City, where Argyle have not been up to snuff.

Considering the step up in class, and that several players are in Jordan’s situation of stepping up to that level for the first time, the opening octet of games has seen more positives than negatives.

“We’ve probably not picked up as many points as we'd like,” said Jordan, “but when you look back, zoom out and look at the long perspective, we're eight games in and it’s a solid start.

“There’s lots still to improve, but I think we've gone toe-to-toe with some of the top teams in the division and you look at last Saturday, we came out on top and with a quite emphatic scoreline as well.

“You want to try and tick off [the first away win] as soon as possible. The main thing is, away from home, we just need to keep picking up points. Wins are nice, but if we can just keep ticking along away from home, as long as our home record is good.

“Every team is a massive game. It’s exciting though. You want those games, especially away from home.  Every ground's massive and there's big followings.

“In terms of the football, the players are a lot sharper, especially in the final third. Those attacking players a lot more skilful, and every side has two, three, four top forwards.

“In my position, I feel it's a little bit more tactical. Teams might sit back a little bit more and they show a bit more respect to the opposition, whereas League One was a bit more helter-skelter, everyone going for it. kind of everyone kind of held to scale to everyone going for it.

“You need to be even more efficient on the ball and you can't afford to be giving the ball away because teams will punish you. It's harder in a way, but easier in a way as well, because there might be a little bit more time on the ball. Your decision making has to be top as well, because when you've got time on the ball, sometimes your concentration can slip and then you're giving away sloppy passes.

“You have to be at it for the whole game; one of the main things is concentration. Every game I've come off this season almost with a banging headache because you're just thinking and analysing as the game's going on, where you need to be, trying to organise people around you as well because one little lapse of concentration and a team could be in and scoring.”

Saturday’s opponents are Hull City, as side that have begun the campaign well. After an opening day loss, they have been unbeaten since, and sit fourth in the table at this early stage.

Should Argyle obtain that first win this weekend, they are going to have to work very hard to do so.

“They’ve started really strongly,” said Houghton, about Hull. “They are another top side with a lot of attacking threat, but there'll definitely be chances for us to utilise our capabilities - playing the ball around, going forward and our attacking threat.

“Away from home, we just need to be a little bit more solid, stay in games for a longer period of time. If we can get to 60 minutes in, I really fancy us to then push on another gear.

“At this level, teams are still fit sides, but I fancy us against anyone to really kick on in that last 30 minutes, especially with the subs and squad we've got.”