Plymouth Argyle Opposition View: ‘we’re a different beast on our own turf’
It's Friday night under the lights once again for Luton Town, and this time the Hatters are heading to Home Park to take on Plymouth Argyle. While this marks our second Friday night fixture of the season, we're looking to rewrite the script after that narrow 2-1 defeat to QPR. But there's plenty of reason for optimism - Home Park has ironically been a fortress to us in recent years, with three wins and a draw in our last four visits. With that history behind us, let's hope the boys can keep the momentum going and get another big result! COYH!
To get a deeper understanding of what we can expect from Plymouth Argyle, I had the pleasure of speaking with Sam from Argyle Life.
Q: Despite there only being two points between the sides, how do you feel about your team's performances in the league so far?
A: I think our league performances so far have been hard to pin down. Theres been one diabolical game (the opening day at Sheffield Wednesday) as well as three very good ones totalling 4 points combined out of QPR, Sunderland and West Brom. The two that have caused real frustration have been the games at home to Hull and Stoke that saw us pick up just one point. If we’ve left points on the table anywhere, it’s there.
Overall there are some signs that Rooneyball is starting to work of late. He’s shown some tactical flexibility which was always his undoing at Birmingham. Now we just need to keep the same performance level going.
Q: Have you got, or are you expecting any key players to miss out?
A: As for key players who may be missing, we pretty much have a clean bill of health aside from goalkeeper Conor Hazard who’s out for 8 weeks. That said, Dan Grimshaw has started well since joining from Blackpool so he’s essentially made the number one slot his own.
Q: Who are the players we should be worried about facing?
A: Morgan Whittaker is the obvious one. Our top scorer last year with seven assists to boot and we’ve had to ride out interest from Burnley among many others. He’s made a somewhat quiet start to this season but you never know when he can find a goal out of absolutely nowhere, making a trademark of long range strikes.
New signing Ibrahim Cissoko has also got pulses racing but as yet isn’t quite showing the end product to match the footwork.
Q: Are there any Luton players that cause you concern?
A: I’ve been a little surprised at how poorly you started the season because I rarely Edwards as a manager and think there are some good players in your squad.
Obviously Carlton Morris is always reliable but players like Chong and Nakamba should be playing at the top end of this league.
My most feared is probably Alfie Doughty who looked really very good at times in the PL last season. Unfortunately for us it looks like you’re coming into form at the moment so hopefully we can stop your revival in its tracks.
Q: What are your expectations for this game and what is your score prediction?
A: It seems a little harsh on you, but sandwiched between West Brom and Burnley away, we’re probably targeting this game as one we should be looking to get points from, or at least a point. No easy games at this level but we’re a different beast on our own turf and there’s signs the Rooney philosophy might just be working against tough opponents. I’ll go 1-1