Winning run surprises Mariner

Mariner: Reasons to be cheerful

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Plymouth boss Paul Mariner has revealed his surprise at taking six points over the festive period.

The Pilgrims secured their biggest win of the season on Monday as they thumped Reading 4-1 at Home Park.

That victory comes hot on the heels of a morale-boosting 1-0 success over high-flying Cardiff, with the Bluebirds having been put to the sword on Boxing Day.

Plymouth remain inside the Championship relegation zone despite finding form, but Mariner is delighted to see all of their hard work starting to pay off.

He said: "Can I believe it? This may sound a little strange but yes and no.

"The players at this club have been magnificent in every single aspect, professionalism, thirst for knowledge, learning new stuff and putting it into practice. They are joy to work with."

Mariner admitted scoring four against Reading was a good way to end a goal drought which had seen his side find the target just once in their previous six games.

The former England striker added: "There's nobody on the planet that can tell you how it comes about. You go through barren spells, dry spells, and all you can do is keep working and the players have been terrific and they got some just desserts today."

Battles

Reading caretaker coach Brian McDermott was understandably downbeat after the Home Park hammering and admits all he can do is try and raise spirits ahead of the club's next outing.

He said: "I didn't see it coming. We had a really bad day, really disappointing.

"If you come to a place like this and don't win your individual battles that's what can happen to you and that's what happened to us today.

"The fact they have out-fought us hurts more than anything. I don't know where that has come from. I didn't expect that.

"From the start I didn't think there was anything in the game and then we gave the penalty away.

"We got ourselves back into the game at 2-1 and have then given another poor goal away.

"All we can do now is look forward to the next game - and that's against Liverpool (in the FA Cup) - and it's a massive game."