Boss Jim Magilton says he wants to see a reaction from his players after Tuesday's dismal Carling Cup defeat to the MK Dons when the Blues take on Plymouth at Home Park on Saturday. The Town manager could make changes for the visit to the South-West.
Magilton was deeply unhappy with his side's performance at stadium:mk and is demanding better from his players: "You better believe it that I'm looking for a response from the players. It was a very disappointing performance from us and totally unacceptable. We had players out there who thought they could just turn up and win the game.
"They need to realise they are not good enough to do that. We were lethargic in the first half and unprofessional. It was the same 11 players that started against Sheffield Wednesday, but certainly not the same performance.”
The Blues boss is considering making changes with the left midfield role perhaps most in question after Gary Roberts was withdrawn at the break at Milton Keynes after another below par display.
Owen Garvan switched to a wide left role in the latter stages of Tuesday's game when Sylvain Legwinski came on in central midfield. The Irish youngster could start in the unfamiliar role at Home Park with the Blues looking more solid after the introduction of the Frenchman.
Legwinski is still a little way behind the rest of the squad after missing the start of pre-season training as he was continuing his recovery from the broken metatarsal which forced out of the final few weeks of last season.
Another man itching to get back into the starting line-up is Jaime Peters. The Canadian returned from the U20 World Cup in July tired and was rested for part of pre-season. The winger could come into the side on the right with Jon Walters moving to the left, although manager Magilton tends to switch his wide men at regular intervals throughout games.
Gavin Williams will be out of action for four months after injuring ankle ligaments in the pre-season friendly with Panathinaikos, while Matt Richards is again left out of the squad. George O'Callaghan impressed in the reserves on Wednesday but looks an unlikely starter.
Alan Lee and Pablo Couñago will continue their promising looking partnership up front, with Billy Clarke and Danny Haynes available from the bench if required. Haynes starts his three-match ban for his red card in the reserves when the Blues visit Watford on September 9th. Dean Bowditch continues his recovery from his groin operation.
Options at the back are limited at present with Richard Naylor out for three months having undergone surgery on his toe injury and the back four is likely to remain unchanged. Neil Alexander will continue in goal.
Plymouth boss Ian Holloway and Jim Magilton made up a League Managers' Association meeting last week after their minor spat earlier in the summer when the Blues made an unwelcome enquiry regarding Pilgrims' midfielder David Norris, who is also interesting Southampton and Sheffield United.
Holloway says his side can beat the Blues: "We will need to be at the top of our game. We need to be absolutely rock solid on our shape and on our discipline, because they are dangerous from set pieces.
"If we are, I think we can beat them. That's not being arrogant. It's what I feel. They had a very good result last Saturday and a very poor one on Tuesday — with the same team.”
Argyle have won both their opening fixtures, defeating Hull 3-2 at the KC Stadium in the league a week ago and then seeing off Wycombe with a 2-1 victory in the Carling Cup. However, Holloway says he could make one or two changes after resting some senior players for the cup tie: "I have got some things to think about. I have got to look at our opponents.
"I will be selecting from a fairly fresh group of people who have all shown me over the last three or four days that they want to play for Argyle, which is great.
"I think Ipswich played the same team twice. Whether we will have an advantage over them or not, we will have to wait and see.”
Paul Wotton and Bojan Djordjic are on the way back from injury, but are unlikely to feature at this stage. Aside from those two, Holloway can call on a full squad.
Last season's corresponding fixture ended in a 1-1 draw with referee Kevin Friend having a memorably dreadful game in which he booked eight (six of them Town players) and sent Fabian Wilnis off. At Portman Road, the Blues won 3-0, but the Pilgrims had Mathias Doumbe red-carded after just two minutes.
By bizarre and not entirely pleasant coincident, Saturday's referee at Home Park is once again Mr Friend, last season's card addicted official. Overall in 2006/07 the Leicestershire-based ref showed 87 yellow and six red cards in 34 matches.
His total of eight yellow and one red in last year's Plymouth-Town game was not typical of his general approach to discipline with most of his matches only involving two or three cards.
Town squad: Alexander, Bruce, Clarke, Couñago, De Vos, Garvan, Harding, Haynes, Lee, Legwinski, O'Callaghan, Miller, Peters, Roberts, Supple, Walters, Wilnis, Wright.
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