Plymouth Argyle in 'relegation battle' says Tom Cleverley after Mansfield loss

Tom Cleverley admits Argyle are 'a long way off it' in both boxes - and in a relegation battle after a third successive defeat.

Goals in each half from Will Evans and Jordan Bowery earned Mansfield Town all three points last night as Cleverley's men succumbed to yet more mistakes and poor defending. It leaves them 22nd after 14 games played.

Brendan Galloway and Brendan Wiredu, between them, failed to clear a goal kick after six minutes and Will Evans stole in for the opener.

Liam Roberts did make a crucial save to deny Tegan Finn after 77 minutes before Jordan Bowery sealed a fifth league game unbeaten for the Stags after 84 minutes.

Cleverley said: "We are in a relegation battle. I don't think there is any part of our performances or consistency to suggest otherwise, so let's face the situation we're in head on.

"This is not something that is going to fix itself overnight. No one has a magic wand to make this issue go away. We are putting in performances that mean we deserve to be where we are at.

"It's never been a sacking club and it's been hurt by managers leaving at the first bit of success. However, that does not give me the right to have nine lives and I have to turn things round really quickly. I have never seen a team concede so many from direct play and it's worrying."

He added: "Let’s face the situation that we are in head on. There’s no one who wants to stick his chest out more than myself and deal with it and work through it but I think we have to acknowledge now that this is not something that’s going to fix itself overnight or anyone’s got a magic wand to make this issue go away.

"We’re putting in performances that we deserve to be where we’re at. We have to acknowledge that and we have to take ownership of that and I’ll be the first to do that."

Asked if he was worried for his job, he replied: "Of course we’re human beings. We like to impress our fans, we like to be one club really together. It’s been a football club that’s never been a sacking club and it’s been hurt by managers leaving at the first bit of success however that doesn’t give me the right to have nine lives and I have to turn things round really quickly."

On the fans, he admitted: “They have a right to be frustrated. It’s their club and we have to acknowledge how far they travel and the amount of money they spend to support us and yes they’re frustrated. There's no holding back. We’re all hurting. We’re all working as much as we possibly can to turn the situation around."

Analysing the game in detail, he said: "We’re just not giving ourselves a chance to get a foothold in a game when you concede goals like we did the first goal, very similar to the goal we conceded the other night.

"I don’t think any coach at any level would feel the need to create those scenarios in training. Obviously we do a lot of communication, contact, cover work as a back unit but to concede two goals from direct goal kicks as well as thinking back to Barnsley earlier in the season, Bolton away, it’s something that we are really struggling with. Dealing with direct play.

"It’s something that we all have to take accountability for because you’re going to face it in this league and to not be able to deal with it on numerous occasions is a difficult place to be because we look like a team, I saw in their eyes, they’re ready to compete, they’re ready to show some personality and to deal with a setback so early is just a real killer blow."

Asked what positives he could take, he said: “When you’re low on confidence there’s a certain amount of basics you can deliver that you don’t need confidence for. That’s battling, running, communicating, being a good team mate, encouraging, I thought we did those basics better than we did on Thursday and we certainly created more clearer chances which is something to take but in both boxes we are a long way off it."

Joe Edwards was missing in a late change to the team, replaced by Brendan Wiredu. Cleverley revealed: "I tried going down the experienced route on Thursday and didn’t get a positive reaction for that but yes obviously you’d always rather have Joe than not have Joe. What he brings from a technical aspect, decision making and leadership is why we were willing to take that risk. I didn’t like what I saw in Joe’s eyes after the warm up. Of course he would always put his body on the line for this football club but I just thought we’d be risking him too much."

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