‘We weren’t brave enough,’ says frustrated Plymouth boss Lowe

Posted Sunday, September 01, 2019 by PA

Plymouth manager Ryan Lowe admitted his side were not themselves in their 3-1 defeat at Northampton.

The Pilgrims were sitting second in League Two ahead of kick-off and came up against a Cobblers team without a home win this season.

But Ryan Watson’s early penalty set up victory for the hosts as Sam Hoskins twice assisted Andy Williams later in the first half to cancel out Joe Riley’s equaliser.

Plymouth’s second defeat in the league this season drops them to sixth in the table.

“We just weren’t ourselves and we weren’t the Plymouth Argyle team I’ve put together,” admitted Lowe. “We were a little bit jaded and I was disappointed with our first-half performance and especially the goals.

“We’re nowhere near the finished article but fair play to Northampton because they had a gameplan and they stuck to it.

“We gave a better account of ourselves in the second half and made a few changes that helped us a bit, but the first-half performance cost us three points.

“We didn’t do it enough and (Ryan) Taylor kept getting balls rapped into him and you don’t want that as a striker and it’s not the way we play.

“It’s fine for them to press us but we’ve got the quality and the ability to get round it – we did it at the end and created a chance.

“I’m not going to change. We play out from the back, we play through the thirds, we have patterns of play and we create chances and that’s how football should be played, but we just weren’t brave enough in the first half do to that.”

Lowe had no real qualms over the early penalty awarded against Callum McFadzean, adding: “He said it hit his nose but it might have ricocheted and struck his arm.

“The referee took a while to give it but I’m just disappointed to let them get that far up the pitch and then we haven’t stopped the cross.”

The three points lifted the pressure on Cobblers manager Keith Curle, whose side had lost their previous two home games in the league this season.

“It was a fantastic performance,” said Curle. “We were very good and ticked a lot of boxes.

“Our organisation and the willingness from the players to adapt to slightly changing our play was very good because we knew how they wanted to play.

“It was important that we stopped them having that flow to their game and because of that the 10 outfield players all had a job to do out of possession, and they stuck to it and understood it very well. It shows they’re attentive on the training ground and they believe in it.

“Plymouth are a very good team with some very good technicians and they have a way of playing. You have to disrupt that and the endeavour, the willingness and the bravery my players had today was commendable.

“We scored three goals and could have had two or three more as their goalkeeper made some good saves.

“People can say you’re more worried about the opposition but you have to be respectful and that means being half a yard closer, work half a yard more and then hurt the opposition once you’ve stopped their flow – we did that today.”