Town centre-half George Edmundson felt League One leaders Plymouth won more individual battles during their 2-1 defeat of the Blues at Home Park yesterday.

Edmundson put the Blues in front on 14 but goals from Luke Jephcott and one-time Town loanee Conor Grant either side of half-time saw the Pilgrims to victory.

It was the seventh time Town have been in a winning position in League One this season and failed to claim victory, spurning 18 points in the process.

“I thought we were in the game but I think overall not enough of us won our battles today and that’s what it came down to,” the summer signing from Rangers said afterwards. “They won more of the battles on the pitch and they won the game.”

The game got off to a frantic start with both sides having chances in the opening couple of minutes, while the Blues were left rueing failing to take three gilt-edged opportunities in the final 17 minutes.

“It was a quick start, but they’ve taken their chances today and we haven’t,” the 24-year-old continued. “That’s the be all and end all of the game.

“The positive is that we’ve played well in spells but we know we can play much better than that and we were still in the game. We didn’t really play our best but were still in it.

“If we can just get that bit better and win a few more battles individually on the pitch, then I think we’ll be fine.”

Edmundson was frustrated for the 1,513 travelling fans who made the long trip to Devon to be part of a sell-out 16,087 crowd, Home Park’s largest attendance since 2008.

“What was it a 10-hour round trip and sold out? Personally I feel, it sounds a cliché, but I am gutted for them,” he said.

“Ten hours and it’s a lot of money to get here and we haven’t performed to our best, so I feel like we have let the fans down a lot today, which I can only apologise for.”

Recalling his goal, his second for the club, Edmundson said: “It was a great ball from [Sam] Morsy, Woolfy [Luke Woolfenden] kept it alive beforehand and individually it was good for me.”

Asked how he feels the season is going for him defensively, he reflected: “I’m doing alright, I feel like I’m doing alright, doing bits but there a lot of things I need to improve on and that’s something I need to go away and do on the training ground with the gaffer.

“As a back five, there’s a lot we need to improve on and it’s a team sport, so we’ll go away and try our best to work on it and try and improve.”

Having played as the right centre-half when Cameron Burgess was in the side, former Oldham Athletic trainee Edmundson has switched to the left since Toto Nsiala came into the team.

“I prefer the left anyway,” he said. “I don’t know why, I’ve just played there ever since the youth team.

“If I had a choice I’d play on the left but if I get stuck on the right it doesn’t bother me as I just like playing footie.”

He says he enjoys playing alongside Nsiala but is happy when partnered by all the club’s other central defenders.

“Toto’s a great lad, he’s aggressive, he’s a proper defender,” Manchester-born Edmundson said.

“I like playing with him, I like playing with Cam, I’ve played a bit with Woolfy in training, so whoever I get put with I’m happy. Everybody brings something different and everybody has good individual qualities.”

Woolfenden came in at right-back rather than his preferred central defensive role for his first league start since the AFC Wimbledon game at the end of August, while Hayden Coulson returned from his thigh injury to play at right midfield with Janoi Donacien and Wes Burns both taken ill on the morning of the game and Sone Aluko having suffered a groin problem in training on Thursday.

“For Woolfy, it’s hard when you’ve not been playing and then you come in playing out of position as well, but to fair to him I thought he did really well, I thought he looked solid,” Edmundson said.

“I’ve been in that situation where you’ve had to play out of position or you’ve not played for a while and it is tough, but I thought he did really well.

“And Hayden’s been out a while [since the Lincoln match on September 18th], so it was tough for him as well but I thought those lads, for their first games back, did well.”

After the yesterday’s disappointment, Edmundson is pleased that the Blues are in action again on Tuesday away against third-placed Wycombe Wanderers.

“That’s good,” he said. “We’ve had a bad result today but we’re straight into the next game, we don’t have to wait a week. It gives us a really quick chance to rectify it.”

Photos: TWTD/PagePix

bluewarrior added 12:14 - Oct 31 Edmundson was immense yesterday. I hadn't realised that Donacien and Burns were taken out on the morning of the game and that really disrupted the game plan - meaning we were weaker in an area where they were strong. I still think we were pretty much in control up til the first goal. Should have comfortably taken a point with some big changes missed. Looking forward to Wycombe on Tuesday - 3 points too!

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bluewarrior added 12:14 - Oct 31 Edmundson was immense yesterday. I hadn't realised that Donacien and Burns were taken out on the morning of the game and that really disrupted the game plan - meaning we were weaker in an area where they were strong. I still think we were pretty much in control up til the first goal. Should have comfortably taken a point with some big changes missed. Looking forward to Wycombe on Tuesday - 3 points too!

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Radlett_blue added 12:18 - Oct 31 Was 3 at the back forced on Cook by necessity, or will we see it again? Not sure Donacien is a wing back, although KVY certainly is.
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ArnieM added 14:33 - Oct 31 We need to be far more street wise , especially when going in for tackles and being tackled: our players rarely go down at the slightest touch . Maybe it's time we did !
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surgery added 17:26 - Oct 31 Why was that?
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Linkboy13 added 18:03 - Oct 31 Donasien not a wing back Radlett blue how do you account for the number of assists this season. KVY cant defend and has been responsible for a number of goals conceded this season. Players dont get picked on reputation im afraid .
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Monkey_Blue added 12:38 - Nov 1 Looking at the squad I think most of us could have put out a team more comfortable on the right. To claim we are “stretched” is not just an insult to fans but an insult to every manager in this league who even when not stretched doesn't have the resources we have player wise. Sick to death of the manager who claims he doesn't make excuses making more excuses than any town manager in my lifetime. He uses that phrase “no excuses” just before or immediately after making a load of excuses. We faced a decent side and they were better despite having less money and lesser players. As long as we can't beat teams in form we have a poor manager.

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DavoIPB added 14:13 - Nov 1 I don't think they did win more battles on the pitch. I think we controlled the first half apart from a couple of minutes at the begining and a couple of minutes at the end. Then we switched off for 20 minutes in the second half before dominating the final 20 minutes. A fairly even contest and were the better team in the first half. Kept them and their fans really quiet for most of it.

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