Stoke City (A) | Post-Match Reaction
Argyle Director of Football Neil Dewsnip and defender Dan Scarr have each admitted that the Greens were second best in every department as they lost 3-0 at Stoke City on Saturday.
Stoke scored a quickfire double at the end of the first half, through Ki-Jana Hoever and Million Manhoef, with Wouter Burger adding a coup de grace at the conclusion to the game.
“Stoke City were better than us today; that really disappoints me to say it. I don't want to do any excuses,” said Dewsnip.
“They were up for it a little bit more. I don't know why that was, other than the crowd got really involved after the incident just before half-time when it was still 0-0. That seemed to give them a lift and, in that period, they scored two just before half-time.
“They were causing us a little bit of a problem tactically, as well, which we changed at half-time, and that went away. In the second half, although we weren't really a goal threat, we managed to nullify them, we thought, in terms of the problems that they were creating. But 2-0 down is a mountain to climb in the circumstances.”
After a run of three games in which Argyle had beaten Rotherham United and Leicester City 1-0, either side of a 1-1 draw with Queens Park Rangers, the Stoke loss brought the Greens down to earth with a bump.
For Scarr, he wonders whether the run of seven points from three games may have offered a false sense of security, but is grateful that the accumulation has aided the position in the table.
“I think they just outworked us, outran us,” said Scarr. “They had runners that were just coming at the back-line. They seemed to pick up spaces, win second balls. I just don't think we were at the races today.
“We said before the game, we need to keep doing the things that we've just done the last three games that's put us in this position - today we just didn't do those things. I don't know whether, because we've had a few good results before, we’re high on confidence and were maybe a bit naive, but it was just one of those games.
“Things didn't go for us. I haven't seen us concede goals like that for a while and they were disappointing. There's a lot of things that could be done. Three or four things, a domino effect, that could be stopped, and we just didn't do them. We gave ourselves a mountain to climb and their crowd got up and it got a bit.”
Argyle have two games to go, but the crucial thing remains that they are not in the relegation zone, and therefore remain the masters of their own destiny.
Next up for Argyle, a trip to Millwall next Saturday.
“We'll dust ourselves down, and we'll get ready to go again,” said Dewsnip. “That's what we've all signed up for: the staff, the players, the fans. How good were the fans again today here? That's the way it's been all season.
“If anybody thought that surviving in the Championship was easy, they'd be a little bit naive. We knew the size of our challenge. We're two games out from achieving that challenge. Although today is very disappointing, we're not about to give in.
“It’s my job, and Nance's job, to get them prepared and ready. We'll be doing the best that we can do between now and Saturday.”
“It's definitely in our hands still,” Scarr added. “We had a good three games that maybe gives us a bit of bit of leeway, but we just need to get back on it, stick together as a team, with the fans, and just dig in and go again.”
