Swansea City (A) | Foster's Reaction
It has taken until Saturday, 3 February – in the seventh month of the season, in the 16th away game of the campaign – for Argyle to win a game on the road.
It speaks so much of the Pilgrims’ home form that in winning away for the first time, a 1-0 win at Swansea City, it simply solidified their position in 15th in the Sky Bet Championship table.
But the win was about more than simply ‘pointage’, as a legendary ex-Pilgrims boss would call it. This was about laying a ghost; about belief, endeavour, and persistence.
If we were being casual, we might posit the idea that Ian Foster may wonder what all the fuss is about. He has had three games away from Home Park so far, and gone draw-draw-win, which is a cracking return in anyone’s book.
However, the Argyle Head Coach knew all about his inherited Greens’ away-day blues. In fact, much of the extensive work on the training ground since arriving has gone into correcting some of the elements that may have been at the heart of the lack of victories outside Devon.
Part of that training-ground action has also been on set-piece taking. Morgan Whittaker’s 18th-minute strike, his 17th goal of the season, came from a slick move, via Adam Forshaw and Alfie Devine, and then from Whittaker’s left foot and into the bottom corner of the net.
This was another first; Argyle had not scored from a set play this season. How else could they could score the game’s only goal in the first away win since the title was clinched at Port Vale in May?
A composed Ian Foster spoke to Argyle TV after the game, saying: “I think when any head coach takes over a football club, you try to tick off the firsts as quickly as you can, otherwise you’ve got a monkey on your back and it's very difficult to shake off.
“We've won at home in the Championship, we've won at home in the FA Cup. We've had decent performances on the road, but it's really pleasing today.
“Today's performance and result is really pleasing. To come here, get a clean sheet, win the game and score from a set play - another first for us - I'm so proud of the players. They've been terrific.
“Kevin Nancekivell works tirelessly with the set-plays. Credit goes to Kevin, and to the boys for taking on the information and then implementing it under pressure. We're really pleased that it's come off.
“The difficulty is we've got is that we score at the rate of a promoted team and we concede at the rate of a relegated team - so that needs addressing. Away from home, we have to play from a structure, we have to press from a shape, and we have to be really compact and well disciplined.
“[The players have] taken on our ideas. There's no getting away from it - it's really, really hard work, and the players put in a hell of a shift today, but that's what it takes to get three points on the road in the Championship.
“We want to be creative. We want to find a way - and today we found it. The timing of the movements, the sets, the pass and Morgan's finish was outstanding. It's another one that we've ticked off, but the important thing is we've come here, we've kept the clean sheets, we've scored a set-play goal and we've won the game - but it's just the beginning.
“We've got to do it again and again and again. That's the test and the challenge for us.”
At the Swansea.com Stadium, there were almost 2,000 Argyle fans; approximately 12% of the attendance in the ground, selling out an away end to watch their team, even though the fruits of the journeys across the country thus far has been a collective of hard-fought draws, and some heart-breaking near-misses along the way.
Foster’s admiration for the Green Army has been instant.
“Imagine another club who haven't won away from home all season and you sell out. Where does that happen?” he said. “That's quite unique in itself.
“Credit to our supporters for doing that, sticking by us in tough times, and then just being as noisy as they were, as vocal as they were, getting behind the players consistently. game. Every one of them - man, woman and child - at the end of the game stayed behind to clap the players off, which is fabulous.”
