Ryan Lowe impressed by Plymouth’s resilience in battling win

Posted Sunday, September 13, 2020 by PA

Boss Ryan Lowe praised newly-promoted Plymouth’s resilience as they overcame an impressive Blackpool 1-0 at Home Park.

Argyle’s Wales Under-21 striker Luke Jephcott headed home a third-minute winner, while 20-year-old goalkeeper Michael Cooper marked his Sky Bet League One debut with a handful of top saves.

Lowe said: “It’s a good start. It’s always good to get a win. It was good game, a competitive game, two good footballing teams going head-to-head.

“We showed a little bit of a different side to what we are about and we scored a good goal.

“We had a different game plan. We can do that now because the quality has risen in terms of the players we’ve got here now and what we have got to do is keep improving, but it won’t all be pretty on the eye.

“But if I see a performance from my lads like that with good determination, resilience and bravery that means it’s all positive.

“It was pleasing to get a win first game back in League One.

“Luke’s goal came from a bit of a counter-press and we felt we could jump on them and get the ball back if they gave it away rather than give them an opportunity to pass the ball out of defence.

“It was a great ball in from Will (Aimson) and Jephs does what he does best and gets across the centre half. It’s a great finish.

“He came off at the start of the second half because his thigh was a little bit tight, which when he went through on goal he should have scored but he opted to take an extra touch rather than shoot.”

Blackpool boss Neil Critchley said: “If you take the first 10 minutes out of the game, I actually thought we played reasonably well for long periods of the game.

“We created a lot of opportunities and didn’t take them. I was disappointed with the start of the game and I didn’t think we finished the game well either. But the period in between, for an away team, we were quite dominant.

“The way Plymouth defended and their organisation was excellent. There were two good teams out there and I didn’t think we deserved to lose the game.

“I was very disappointed with the start. The goal definitely knocked us back and we had to grow into the game and we had a good spell up to half-time.

“Goals change games and they had something to hang on to, it wasn’t for the want of trying. They had some blocks and their keeper played very well.

“I was impressed by Plymouth. They had a little spell in the game for 10 to 15 minutes of the second half. I said to the staff ‘if we ride this little spell we will come again’ and we did come again. They defended brilliantly well.”