Look out for: Mansfield Town

Players

With both teams coming off the back of a win on Tuesday night, both Argyle and Mansfield will be eager to continue their winning streaks. Town won 1-0 against Yeovil while Argyle picked up there first points of the season against former manager John Sheridan.  Derek Adams made two changes on Tuesday night with Conor Smith and Ryan Donaldson recalled while David Goodwillie and David Ijaha dropped to the bench. Adams may well choose to name an unchanged team when they return to Home Park after three away games on the bounce travelling an approximately 1700 miles, with Adam stating “the travelling has taken its toll, with the players tired, both mentally and physically”.

Mansfield have had a great start to the season, with a 3-2 away win at Newport County followed by a 1-1 draw against Cheltenham before Tuesday’s victory, which has set them in good stead for the start of this campaign. However, manager Adam Murray will have to make a change to the team as Danny Rose was shown an early red card in the game against Yeovil; the defender will now have to sit out three games.

A player of note in the Mansfield’s line up is Matt Green; Green was the Stags top scorer last season with 16 goals, and has already netted twice this term, so Argyle’s newly formed defence will have to be wary.

Management

Derek Adams has admitted, “there is still room for improvement throughout the team”. With fourteen new players in the squad it is always going to take time for the players to gel, having only been around each other for six-weeks. As we saw last season, the players performed well away from home but not so much in front of the home crowd. Is this the reasoning behind Adams starting Jervis ahead of Goodwille, could there be a few players recalled to the starting lineup on Saturday? Do the players freeze in front of a big crowd?

The opposition manager on Saturday, Adam Murray became the youngest manager in both the Premiership and Football League, at 32 years old, after being appointed player-manager in December 2014 following the dismissal of Paul Cox. Before being as manager on a full time basis, the former captain of the Stags was named caretaker manager while in this role he oversaw a win against Argyle.

During Adam Murray’s time as Stags manger he has overseen twenty-six wins, twenty-one draws and thirty-seven losses, with a win percentage of 30.9%.

Tactics

Argyle switched formation again on Tuesday, shifting from 3-5-2 to 4-3-3 with Carey and Jervis flanking Spencer, and Goodwillie dropped. Argyle were shaky defensively, with Notts having a shot cleared off the line and hitting the post before Luke McCormick made a fantastic late save to cling onto the points.

Carey and Jervis spent much of the time drifting inside, but Spencer was still isolated a lot and Argyle only managed eight shots in the entire match, half that of County.

Since the departure of winger Gregg Wylde at the end of last season, there has been a lack of width in the team, but this may have been rectified with the return of winger Craig Tanner. With a win and three points on the table, can this energise the Pilgrims to go on a winning streak?

Opposition Tactics

In Mansfield’s starting line-up, Argyle may come up against former loanee Ashley Hemmings in the game at Home Park, who started Mansfield’s win against Yeovil. Adam Murray will have to make one enforced change as Danny Rose begins a three game suspension. Aside from that, the rest of Murray’s selection will probably remain unchanged.

Head to Head

Argyle have faced Mansfield thirty-five times with the fixture meeting coming on 18th October 1958, in League Division Three. The Pilgrims won the fixture 4-1 with the goals score by Wilf Carter (3) and Peter Anderson.

The Pilgrims have the edge over Mansfield with seventeen victories, nine draws and seven loses.

Mansfield last travelled down to Devon last season on 16th February 2016 as Argyle came out 3-0 winners, with Gregg Wylde and Ryan Brunt (2) the scorers. Whilst the reverse fixture drew a blank for both sides early on in the 2015-16 season in a 0-0 draw.