Ryan Lowe pleased with Plymouth’s victory at Cheltenham

Posted Friday, December 27, 2019 by PA

Ryan Lowe praised his Plymouth side for their resolve as they returned home from Cheltenham with a battling 1-0 Boxing Day victory.

Zak Rudden scored the only goal of the game in the 33rd minute and the result lifted Argyle up to eighth, leaving them well-positioned to make a promotion challenge during the second half of the campaign.

“We’ve seen a different side to an Argyle side that is resolute and determined,” Lowe said.

“We’ve just beaten one of the best teams in the league 1-0. We knew it was going to be a tight game.

“We’re doing well against the top teams but have to make sure we do it in every game.

“They had a couple of half-chances but then so did we.

“I feel we can do better in certain elements of the game but overall I’m pleased.

“My team is building a winning mentality. We’ll see 2019 out and crack on in 2020.

“I won’t be giving too much credit until the end of the season.”

Rudden is on loan from Rangers and Lowe said he was pleased to see the 19-year-old net the decisive goal at the Jonny-Rocks Stadium.

“Zak’s been champing at the bit and scoring goals in training so it was only fair he got his chance, and he took it,” Lowe said.

Robins boss Michael Duff felt his side were unfortunate not to take anything from the game as they suffered only their third home League Two defeat of the calendar year.

“We deserved to win the game, never mind draw,” Duff said.

“We were excellent for large parts of the game and Plymouth are a big club in this league.

“They have a real way of playing and we nullified that today.

“We just need to score at key times in games, which is the one thing we have struggled to do recently.

“We started really well, then at the start of the second half we had two minutes when the ball was fizzing across the face of goal and we need somebody to land on those.

“Even at the end, we had some good chance as well and it’s not just the centre forwards because there were lots of people missing lots of chances, but to create that many chances against a team like Plymouth shows that we have been good on the day.”

Duff has been without his two most experienced front men in Luke Varney and Reuben Reid.

“They are two big players but they are not available so there is no point in moaning about it,” he said.

“It’s frustrating as the lads were excellent, ran their socks off and kept going for 94 or 95 minutes, so it’s a tough one to swallow.”