Lowe on Argyle's league position and the fans' high expectation levels

Ryan Lowe reckons Plymouth Argyle have dropped at least four points over the start of their League Two campaign.

He described the Pilgrims as ‘an okay team at the moment’ with the target to become ‘an excellent team’ over the course of the campaign.

With Argyle in eighth position in the table, after picking up 11 points from seven games, Lowe believes they are where they deserve to be.

Lowe has admitted the Pilgrims need to tighten up defensively and addressed the high expectation levels for the team of the Green Army.

Argyle play the first of back-to-back away games when they take on Port Vale on Saturday, which will be followed by a match at Crawley Town next Tuesday.

Lowe said: “We are where we are (in the league table) for a reason. I think we would probably say that we have dropped four points for definite, which would then have put you in third.

“Is that papering over a few little cracks of where we can do better? Probably yeah.

“So I’m under no illusion that we are in a position where we probably deserve to be, and the lads and my staff know that.

“We are in a position where we could have had more points but we haven’t. It’s there to be seen.”

Lowe is seeking a second consecutive promotion from League Two after achieving that with Bury last term.

So the 40-year-old has a good insight into the demands of playing in the fourth division of English football and succeeding in it.

Lowe said: “We do know what it takes. It takes a lot of hard work and there are a lot of ups and downs.

“We have got two away games on the bounce now. Sometimes it’s nice to just go away from Home Park and the shackles are off in terms of you are just going to play your football.”

He added: “There is always room for improvement and we know that.”

Lowe has emphasised since the start of the season that Argyle are far from the finished article after a summer of major change at Home Park.

He said: “You can see that the style of play is good. Everyone is enjoying it, everyone is liking it.

“There are certain aspects of the game where the opposition get a bit more football than we want, we don’t take as many chances as we should and we don’t get as many shots as we can.

“We are an okay team at the moment and I have said to our lads ‘We will become a good team, we will become a very good team and we will become an excellent team’.

Over the course of the season they are your targets, where you want to get to. At this moment we are probably in the right place.”

After the appointment of the attack-minded Lowe in June a feel good factor swept around Argyle.

Back-to-back wins at the start of the season only increased the sense that the Pilgrims were set for success.

They have had some mixed results since then but there are still high expectation levels among the Green Army, which have been vocalised by supporters on social media.

Lowe said: “I’m on Twitter but I’m not a Twitter addict. I’m not on it 24/7 or anything like that.

“If I’m bored for five minutes I will go on it and I see a few comments.

We know where we are at. You can’t read too much into what people are saying. Everyone is the same.

“As a Liverpool fan, I wish Liverpool would have won the (Premier) League last season but they never.

“The Argyle fans will be the same. They want us to be up there but it’s no relevance at the moment.

“We are where we are for a reason. We should have picked up more points. Yeah, we should be in a better position but we are scoring goals.

“We need to now start keeping the back door shut a little bit more.”

Lowe continued: “The expectations at this football club are always going to be big. I know, but I don’t read any sort of comments that say ‘We should be this, we should be that.’

“It’s a case of we will take the league in stages of where we want to get to.

“Come the end of the season, hopefully the expectations of everyone have been succeeded.”

Agree with what RL is saying, the set up looks far more professional and he looks and sounds like a man on a mission.
I see the fanbase as a kinda lower league Toon army, but then after seven years of shite football it's hardly surprising that fanz are desperate for success.

Brents former jamboys are still doing their absolute best on PASOTI to discredit the current regime.

Punchdrunk wrote:

Brents former jamboys are still doing their absolute best on PASOTI to discredit the current regime.

They will never stop.

How come Exeter are unbeaten and top?

PatDunne wrote:

How come Exeter are unbeaten and top?

And to add a brand new grandstand as well not some refurb shit shack they seem better ran from top to bottom

I think it would be churlish to argue that Exeter are not a well run club, always useful to learn from the opposition.

Sorry about this but can't be arsed to look (so prob not that sorry I suppose) is Crawley POTD?

PatDunne wrote:

How come Exeter are unbeaten and top?

Mainly, I think, because they have sorted out their defence, which based on only watching one game, Argyle have patently not done. City have a mixture of the experienced and young players. Gary Sawyer (who had two years at City in 2003-2004 and was a valuable asset) is clearly struggling, as the rest of the defence seems to. City also seem to have found rhythm as a team, and are no longer relying on individual players to create opportunities. Central to this is the ability of the players to swop and change positions without the constant prompting of the manager to deal with situations that develop in front of them. On the other hand the City team are missing lots of opportunities and have only been winning by single goal margins. Can't really understand the gloom and doom on hereabout Argyle. Sort the defence out and you'll be fine.

Grace Less wrote:

PatDunne wrote:

How come Exeter are unbeaten and top?

   Mainly, I think, because they have sorted out their defence, which based on only watching one game, Argyle have patently not done. City have a mixture of the experienced and young players. Gary Sawyer (who had two years at City in 2003-2004 and was a valuable asset) is clearly struggling, as the rest of the defence seems to. City also seem to have found rhythm as a team, and are no longer relying on individual players to create opportunities. Central to this is the ability of the players to swop and change positions without the constant prompting of the manager to deal with situations that develop in front of them. On the other hand the City team are missing lots of opportunities and have only been winning by single goal margins. Can't really understand the gloom and doom on hereabout Argyle. Sort the defence out and you'll be fine.

Exactly we sort the defence out we will be fine.

This stuff takes time we will be fine in the end

Jethro wrote:

Grace Less wrote:

PatDunne wrote:

How come Exeter are unbeaten and top?

   Mainly, I think, because they have sorted out their defence, which based on only watching one game, Argyle have patently not done. City have a mixture of the experienced and young players. Gary Sawyer (who had two years at City in 2003-2004 and was a valuable asset) is clearly struggling, as the rest of the defence seems to. City also seem to have found rhythm as a team, and are no longer relying on individual players to create opportunities. Central to this is the ability of the players to swop and change positions without the constant prompting of the manager to deal with situations that develop in front of them. On the other hand the City team are missing lots of opportunities and have only been winning by single goal margins. Can't really understand the gloom and doom on hereabout Argyle. Sort the defence out and you'll be fine.

Exactly we sort the defence out we will be fine.

This stuff takes time we will be fine in the end

Wait until January to sort defence, feck all happens in Jauary as usual, told to wait until the summer, push on next year for promotion.
The above is what will happen with my reality glasses on. I'm not moaning just my view.

Just have to wait and see, no point stressing over it right now.

Earwegoagain wrote:

Jethro wrote:

Grace Less wrote:

PatDunne wrote:

How come Exeter are unbeaten and top?

   Mainly, I think, because they have sorted out their defence, which based on only watching one game, Argyle have patently not done. City have a mixture of the experienced and young players. Gary Sawyer (who had two years at City in 2003-2004 and was a valuable asset) is clearly struggling, as the rest of the defence seems to. City also seem to have found rhythm as a team, and are no longer relying on individual players to create opportunities. Central to this is the ability of the players to swop and change positions without the constant prompting of the manager to deal with situations that develop in front of them. On the other hand the City team are missing lots of opportunities and have only been winning by single goal margins. Can't really understand the gloom and doom on hereabout Argyle. Sort the defence out and you'll be fine.

Exactly we sort the defence out we will be fine.

This stuff takes time we will be fine in the end

Wait until January to sort defence, feck all happens in Jauary as usual, told to wait until the summer, push on next year for promotion.
The above is what will happen with my reality glasses on. I'm not moaning just my view.

It's the Argo way.   I really hope we aren't looking at another 7 years in this appalling division.