Friday 2 March 2018 06:16, UK
Plymouth Argyle were bottom in December but now they are in the play-off places and the form team in League One. Adam Bate spoke to manager Derek Adams, the man who has won more league games than anyone else in the country since his arrival at Home Park in 2015, to find out how they have done it.
It must be the most astonishing transformation of fortunes in the Football League. Bottom in December, Plymouth Argyle have since picked up 36 points from 15 games and are on a run of six wins on the bounce. A 5000/1 shot for promotion with Sky Bet just eight weeks ago, Derek Adams' side are now in the League One play-off places - and they're not done yet.
"I'm obviously delighted with how it is going," Adams tells Sky Sports. "The run of games we have had is probably one of the toughest that any team could have in the division, but we have been able to beat both Shrewsbury and Blackburn. Confidence is a big thing in football and sport in general. The players have got that now and the momentum is with them."
So what's changed? How can a team go on their joint-longest sequence of games without a win since the Second World War and now be a victory at bottom club Rochdale away from their best winning run all in the same season? For Adams, there has been no miracle cure. In truth, there were mitigating circumstances behind the slow start to the campaign.
After beating Charlton in the first home game of the league season, Argyle went down to 10 men in each of their next four matches at Home Park - losing the lot. With a lengthy injury list to go with the suspensions, it is now apparent that a team that had won promotion from League Two so convincingly last season found itself in a false position.
"That was the main reason why we were where we were early on," explains Adams. "We knew we had to keep 11 players on the park. We had too many players getting sent off and coupled with the injury situation that was causing us a problem. Once we had a settled squad we knew that we had good players. Those players are back now and fully fit.
"Jamie Ness, Ryan Taylor and Oscar Threlkeld had all been out injured. They have come back into the side. We added Zak Vyner, a centre-half from Bristol City, and Remi Matthews came in on a loan deal from Norwich City as well. Ruben Lameiras, who wasn't playing at the start of the season, has come in and done really well. So they have all helped us."
Of course, at the heart of it all is Adams. The 42-year-old Scot arrived in the summer of 2015 having been a huge success with Ross County north of the border, winning two promotions and being named his country's manager of the year in 2012. A driven individual, Argyle chairman James Brent admitted to being "blown away" by Adams' interview for the job.
The early season blip aside, what's followed is a period of unmatched success. Literally unmatched. Since Adams was appointed, no team in England - not even Manchester City - have won more league games than Argyle. It has been some turnaround for a club that had been beset by financial difficulties and at risk of losing its league status in recent times.
"The club had been in a downward spiral," says Adams. Off the field, that all changed thanks to the investment of Brent, the man who saved the club from the brink of extinction in 2013 with dreams of turning Argyle into a sustainable Championship outfit and perhaps, one day, bringing top-flight football to the biggest city in England yet to witness it.
On the field, Adams has been the catalyst. He took the team to a play-off final in his first season in charge before going up automatically last term. That rise continues. "Any Scotsman coming down to England wants to do well and I am delighted with the progress made in the past two-and-a-half years here," he explains.
"I had seven years in Scotland and that was a great experience to take Ross County from League Two to the Premier League. But coming to England has been a different experience. It was a league I didn't know too much about at first so for us to win as many games as we have done since I came down is a tremendous effort by everybody at the club."
Adams readily admits there have been fresh challenges. He was used to being remote at Ross County - three-and-a-half hours away from the central belt. But now there are potentially "horrendous" seven-and-a-half hour journeys to Rochdale and Fleetwood to contend with. No club in the division faces so much time on the road.
Other aspects of the job are a little easier. As we talk, Plymouth is on amber alert at the prospect of its first snow in eight years - not something likely to trouble a man accustomed to life in the Highlands. Even so, he did take the squad to Marbella for warm weather training recently in the hope of giving his players "that bit extra" for the run-in.
The possibility is there. It is a realistic aim now
The time away was an opportunity to reflect for this student of the game. Prior to arriving in Devon, Adams had used his time out of the game to watch foreign clubs train in Marbella with a view to furthering his development and that process continues. "I have always kept an interest in Spanish football as well as Dutch and French football too," he says.
"But my main interest was always the Italian game going way back. They were so well drilled and they defended their goal. They always knew how to defend and if they got a goal they could see the game out. That has been a big thing in my management career, having teams that are sound defensively with a wee bit of creativity in the final third.
"We have got creative players here with Lameiras and Graham Carey in our side. Man-management is a big thing too, of course, but I think organisation is my strength. Knowing how you want your team to be set out and being adaptable by moving with the times. That's what I strive to do by making the football club a better place to work year on year.
It has not been this good at Plymouth Argyle in years. But could it now get even better? "It is going to be very tight," says Adams. "There aren't more than two places up for grabs in the play-offs and others have got games in hand. But the possibility is there. It is a realistic aim now." And nobody could have imagined that at the start of December.
