After surpassing 100 points to win League One under Steven Schumacher last time around, Plymouth Argyle set out to impress on their return to England’s second tier this term, having last featured in the Championship in 2010.
They succeeded in making a winning start at home to Huddersfield Town and followed that up with a creditable goalless draw away at Watford to make it four points from two outings, but the Pilgrims have struggled to build on those foundations since, managing just three more points in their last five attempts.
A first defeat of the campaign came at home to newly-relegated Southampton, with Che Adams netting the decisive goal deep into injury time, they again fell to a 2-1 loss in the following contest against Birmingham City,
before at least heading into the international break on the back of a victory as they comfortably beat Blackburn Rovers 3-0 at Home Park at the beginning of September thanks to goals from Finn Azaz, Ryan Hardie and Luke Cundle.
Then returning from the break with seven points on the board from five matches, the Pilgrims travelled to take on former manager Ryan Lowe and league leaders Preston North End last weekend and
succumbed to a narrow 2-1 defeat, before their tough run continued on Tuesday in a 4-1 thrashing away at Bristol City, despite Adam Randell pulling the game back to 2-1 in the first half, as Sam Bell, Matty James, Mark Sykes and Harry Cornick all found the net for their hosts.
While their points tally of seven points from seven games is certainly not concerning at this stage, Schumacher’s men will likely be disappointed having lost four of their last five, and they will now aim to correct their form and begin climbing back up the division with a third win of the campaign this weekend.
Aiming to go into the international break on a high with their unbeaten start intact, Wagner’s men then travelled to Rotherham United and saw their momentum halted by a first defeat, eventually losing 2-1 despite Christian Fassnacht pulling a goal back early in the second half, before they marked the return from the break with a swift return to winning ways last weekend, beating Stoke City 1-0 at Carrow Road thanks to Jack Stacey’s goal on the stroke of half time.
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Such a result saw the Norfolk outfit move back into the leading pack with 13 points from just six outings ahead of a tough test at home to fellow promotion hopefuls Leicester City on Wednesday, but they came out of that meeting empty-handed, as Kelechi Iheanacho put the visitors ahead from the penalty spot late in the first half before Kasey McAteer wrapped up a 2-0 away win with the Foxes’ second in the dying minutes.
Still with little cause for concern, having impressed thus far with the league’s joint-best attacking record while only suffering two defeats, one of which came against a high-flying Leicester side, Norwich will focus on again bouncing back on their trip to Home Park on Saturday with the chance to move back within touching distance of the top three if other results go their way.
