Shuttleworth previews West Brom trip
For the second weekend in a row, Argyle are in action against the league leaders of the Sky Bet Championship.
Last weekend, Argyle met Sunderland, and beat the Wearsiders, who to that point boasted a 100% record. Taking advantage of Sunderland’s slip-up were West Bromwich Albion, defeating Portsmouth to leapfrog into top spot.
Argyle now head to The Hawthorns to play Albion, hoping to take confidence from the Sunderland win. Assistant Head Coach Pete Shuttleworth says that the side will take inspiration from the last game, as well as the previous away trip, a battling 0-0 draw with Queens Park Rangers when down to ten men, and indeed all games so far on the season’s journey.
“It has to give you confidence when you play like that,” said Shuttleworth, referring to the 3-2 win against Sunderland. “After the first 25 minutes, I thought we were excellent. The lads executed what we asked them to do, and they thoroughly deserved that win. It was a good performance as well as a win.
“We have to replicate that and build on it on Saturday against West Brom, who are a good side.
“You take something from every game. There have been bits in every game where you think: ‘that’s what we want to happen’. In the closing stages against QPR, when we were down to ten men, the desire to protect your goal and defend your box was outstanding. If we can bring a bit of that, and the quality we showed on Saturday – if we can put all those bits together, we’ll be a good side.
“We keep telling the lads to believe in that. There’s a lot of quality in our changing room, and also a lot of hard work, a lot of togetherness and a lot of desire to go out and win football matches.”
West Brom have won four and drawn the other of their five games so far. It is a quintet of games in which Carlos Corberan’s side have fielded the same starting 11, many of whom have racked up plenty of appearances for Albion.
Shuttleworth is expecting a difficult encounter but hopes Argyle can show what they are made of.
“They’ve had a good start,” said Pete. “They have a lot of Championship experience in that team. They are a team that has been together for a while, and it is no surprise they’ve started well. They’ve added bits of quality, they’ve got pace, and they’ve got a lot of depth. We expect a tough challenge.
“It’s a tough place to go. It can be a good atmosphere up there when they are playing well. We’ve got to be able to deal with that and then put our own stamp on the game as well. It’ll be a tough challenge but one we are ready for.”
