Plymouth Argyle have most certainly had their admirers this season, and to an extent they have deserved the plaudits. However, let’s have a look at the games they have played so far. Is it all roses ?

We should start with their three wins at home this season.

Argyle kicked off their campaign with a 3-1 win over Huddersfield Town. They had to wait nearly four weeks for their next victory, at home to Blackburn Rovers, that ended 3-0 and then a further three weeks before trouncing Norwich City 6-2. That’s Huddersfield, Blackburn and Norwich where they collected their three points per game. They have earned credible draws at Hull City and Watford which see’s them on eleven points one place beneath Swansea City in the Championship standings.

The defeats should be slightly alarming to Argyle fans, but overall from the opinions online they seem pretty happy with their lot. They are back in the Championship granted, and it’s their first season but the likes of Leeds, Leicester and other Championship stalwarts like Middlesbrough and Sunderland, could we possibly include Swansea City in that list are yet to test Argyle ? It’s possibly acceptable they lost to Southampton who came down from the premier league ( at home ) and losing at Birmingham City 2-1 could be the fate of any side this season. The same could be said for the 2-1 defeat at Preston mirroring the Swans result there. Argyle’s loss (4-1) at Bristol City was cast aside by that 6-2 defeat of Norwich City. Nobody can argue that boss Steven Schumacher hasn’t returned a feel good factor to the Devon club, but one win in five and the recent home defeat to Millwall should ‘slightly’ concern the clubs followers.

Morgan Whittaker is of course held in high regard by the Plymouth faithful, now there’s talk of a huge multi million pound transfer if he was to move on. Again, there should be some caution. He scored in the opening game of the season, and bagged three against Norwich, however the rest of his season has been baron in front of goal. He can boast though three assists as well. Regardless of what certain Swans fans will tell you Morgan wasn’t favoured at the club by first Steve Cooper and then Russell Martin. The reason we are told is his lack of endeavour ( at times ) not forgetting of course there was no way he was going to oust Joel Piroe from the main attacking role under Martin. The other issue he had when he returned to Swansea from his loan at Plymouth in January was Liam Cullen was in a rich vein of goalscoring form. There’s only a certain amount of players you can shoe horn in to a match day starting eleven.

And Morgan wasn’t one of them.

Sometimes it has to be accepted that certain players don’t fit in at certain clubs. Morgan was one of them. Plus, he had his issues that sidetracked him from his game, other clubs interested being one. Turning up at Plymouth games when a Swansea player irrespective of the excuses was unprofessional, and if he thought he was going to have a Swansea future after that he was very much mistaken. Plymouth fans also see the whole scenario as greasing the wheels for this game to be ‘more than just another fixture’ That’s fine, but we are pretty certain that’s very much not the case in Swansea.

Albeit seventeen hundred or so Swans fans might spike their attention come Saturday.

Luke Cundle is another who Swans fans will recall from last season, he slotted in really well in Russell Martin’s plans and had some very decent games. Surprisingly he didn’t return to Swansea despite him and his agent making noises in the summer he would like to. The Russell Martin issue and loss of staff was at the forefront of people’s minds, and Cundle almost passed everyone by. As we have seen with numerous clubs, Plymouth seeing his progress for the Swans snapped him up on a loan and he could easily be in the starting eleven come Saturday, as could Morgan.

On the game and his time at Swansea Cundle said on Thursday evening. “I enjoyed it, I learned a lot in terms of playing in the first team environment and things like that. It was definitely a good learning curve for me and my first loan so, yeah, all good. When you are coming up against a former team I think it does give you that little extra bit of motivation just naturally. I will do my best if I play to try to score, or something like that. There is still a lot of lads there I know, I still speak to a few of them, but the manager has changed so a lot has gone on there. It will be a completely different team to what it was last year. We are looking forward to a good and tough game. I think when you have a new manager in it takes time to get his philosophy and ideas across to the players. They have won the last three so they are going to be in good spirit and will have confidence for the game “

The main issue for Plymouth is their ability to get that elusive win away from home, of course that won’t bother them come Saturday. And it won’t bother the player who really should get the Swans attention, that’s one Ryan Hardie (below) His five goals and three assists this season have been spread around the Scottish strikers appearances. He is a one in three goalscorer with a long history of doing so, and has to be the main problem the Swans have to be aware of on Saturday.

So, can Plymouth Argyle worry the top end of the table this season ?

Like the Swans if you take on board their results so far this season then it’s a no. Winning away from home is as essential as winning at home for a top two side. Leicester City do that well. The top two spots look well out of sight already. The more favourable finishes are in the top six. As we saw last season from the Swans even a late charge can set the pulses racing. The league is so condensed for most of the season a run of wins can certainly keep the interest up for the forty six games. Plymouth certainly have the personnel, but surely another season in the Championship will benefit them far more than hoping for the premier league so early ?

Concentrate on getting the points to stay up, then work from there.

Away from home especially.

Photographs licensed from Reuters

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