Town goalkeeper Christian Walton has sympathised with boss Kieran McKenna after he was pipped for the October Manager of the Month award by counterpart Steven Schumacher at League One leaders Plymouth.

While the Blues collected 16 points from a possible 21 in seven league fixtures last month — five wins, a draw and a defeat — the Devon side accumulated an amazing 19, winning six and drawing the other, to reinforce their place in pole position and earn Schumacher the trophy for a second successive month.

Walton, who started his career at Home Park and was an Argyle supporter growing up, said: “Any other month and the gaffer’s record would probably have won him the award but Plymouth are doing really well in the league and have had some really good results.

“But they lost 5-1 at Grimsby in the FA Cup last week and from what I saw it wasn’t a weakened team that they put out.

“It’s a long old season and hopefully we’ll have good runs like that in the league as well. I don’t think we should see Plymouth’s form as a problem; we just need to focus on ourselves and keep doing what we’ve been doing, picking up results each week and making sure we are consistent over a decent period of time. Hopefully, that will get us through.”

When he was reminded that he has now made 51 league appearances for the Blues and has kept a clean pretty much in every second game, Walton added: “I’m really happy with the stats and very pleased with the number of clean sheets. It’s been a big, big thing since the manager came here in December last year.

“We always look to make sure we are solid at the back and it gives the guys in front of me something to hold on to and go and score goals at the other end. It’s a big thing for me, obviously, and the same applies to the lads in front of me.”

But while Walton has been one of the club’s top performers this season, he admitted he wasn’t at his best in the amazing 4-4 draw at Charlton last month, a game in which Town somehow managed to give away two two-goal leads. Having led 2-0, they were pegged back at 2-2, only to make it 4-2 in stoppage time before the Addicks stormed back to claim a point.

The keeper recalled: “It was one of those games, wasn’t it? I’d never been involved in anything like that before; some stoppage-time winners, perhaps, but I can’t see that happening too many times in my career — hopefully not anyway!

“I wasn’t too pleased with my performance that day — I wanted to do a lot better in the game — but the focus is now on tomorrow against Cheltenham.

“We’ve had a positive result since then in the FA Cup at Bracknell and we’ll be looking for another one tomorrow.

“I actually don’t think Charlton threatened us too much on the day, apart from the goals of course. I can’t really remember too many bombardments, like it was last season there.

“Teams will go through spells when they won’t have too many shots on our goal, whereas others might, and earlier in the season we had a spell against Forest Green where we were under pressure and had to deal with a few threats. This league’s a strange one but each team poses a different threat.”

All of which brought him neatly to the subject of tomorrow’s clash with Cheltenham, who attracted the wrong sort of headlines on Saturday as they were dumped out of the FA Cup at the first-round stage, losing 2-1 to non-league Alvechurch, the lowest-ranked side in the competition.

Walton said: “They will be looking to recover from that one, which would have been massively disappointing for them, but it just sums up the FA Cup because there are always upsets somewhere along the line.

“But they won’t be looking at that when they turn up here. Since losing in the FA Cup, they will have been focusing on tomorrow’s game and probably relish the opportunity to not only put it behind them but leave our place with another good result, like they did back in February with a goalless draw.

“That would be a great way to recover and the threats they are likely to pose on the day will be a good test for us.”

Walton was asked about Town’s trip to Plymouth’s deadly rivals Exeter on Saturday week and replied: “I’ve played against Exeter several times in my career and they are another team doing pretty well in the league.

“They have a new manager and it’s another game live on television for us. They are all games we want to win and be at our best to pick up as many points as possible.

“We’ve had great away support this season but I feel for our fans with that one. It’s a long trip down there from Suffolk and with us kicking off at 12pm it makes it all the more difficult for them. Hardly ideal, but I’m sure they will still be there in their numbers as they have been all season to be fair.

“For my family down there, of course, it’s a lot closer for them to see me and have a catch-up.”

Finally, Walton hailed Soham-born goalkeeper Nick Pope’s achievement of winning a place in the England squad for the forthcoming World Cup in Qatar. The Newcastle number one, released by Town at the age of 16, has put the rejection behind him and showed tremendous character alongside his quality to make it all the way to the very top.

“It’s a massive story, how he’s come all the way from non-league to go to the World Cup,” said Walton.

“There are probably similar stories with some of the other players in the squad. His Newcastle teammate, Callum Wilson, for example, dropped down to the lower leagues at one stage of his career.

“But Nick’s pathway has been really different, coming late into the academy set-up at Charlton from Bury Town and then climbing the ladder since then.

“He progressed really well at Burnley and for several years his career’s been on an upward trajectory — and it still is! It’s not just great for Nick and his family, but also the local community to see a lad like him doing so well.”

Photo: Matchday Images

Dissboyitfc added 09:38 - Nov 12 Plymouth will have a blip in form!
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