Argyle came back from an international break around a week-and-a-half ago looking to keep up their turnaround in form.
Tom Cleverley’s men had parlayed a shaky start into a bit of a run of form, having won five out of seven games, losing just one, and things seemed to be looking up.
This continued for the beginning of the home game against Wimbledon upon the Greens’ return, with Lorent Tolaj putting Argyle in front. However, Wimbledon turned it around to win 2-1, and then worse was to follow.
On Thursday, Argyle not only lost the Devon Derby against Exeter City, but they did so meekly. Now, the Pilgrims face a trip to Mansfield Town, looking not only to get results going again, but to restore a modicum of pride.
“Football can change very quickly,” Cleverley told Argyle TV. “I understand that a Derby defeat has long lasting effects because it’s four, five, six months until you get a chance to get that revenge. It’s something that I did last year.
“In terms of results and feeling in the building – nine days ago, when [Lorent] Tolaj scored against Wimbledon, we were the best form team in the league. A game and a half later, we are very much in a different place. We’ve got two games now coming up this week to try and change that dynamic, because it turned the wrong way pretty quickly for us last week.
“It is a seven-day period – or even shorter than that – in two games we’ve gone from feeling fairly good about ourselves, about a period where we lost one in six or seven, and now there’s a much different feel about it.
“They’ve showed big character earlier in the season, after the first four games, to then slowly change the narrative – and we need to do it again.
“It’s alright me sitting here and talking about it, but we really need to go out there and show it.
“There are three things for me, that are absolutely key to this week, and to the next couple of weeks. Togetherness is the first thing; staff, players.
“We understand there’ll be a lot of supporter frustration, but as a club [we must find] togetherness, and I’m really confident of that.
“Clarity. There’ll be a couple of tweaks from myself to give the players some comfort, but real clarity on how we get out of this sticky patch and get some, some short-term results and fight.
“Are we doing absolutely everything? Have we got bite in every challenge? Have we got a real edge to us to make sure that we are? As a team, we looked a little one-paced on Thursday.
“[Mansfield are] a real solid team. They’ve got good experience of this level in their side, [and a] really experienced manager. They’ll compete, they’ll do the basics well, but there will be a large focus on what we do ourselves, and how we react to a poor week.”
