After a disappointing 2-1 defeat on the Fylde coast last Saturday, the greens bounced back with a comprehensive Two-nil victory over regular division promotion favourites Peterborough United in a dominant performance. Goals from emerging midfield favourite Finn Azaz and a second penalty in two league games for striker Ryan Hardie sealed the three points for the home side.

In what was a very good team performance here are your player ratings.

Mike Cooper – 7

In truth, due to the excellent performances of the defensive and midfield units in front of him, Cooper don’t have a lot to do. After being one of the players arguably culpable for Fleetwood’s winner last time out, Cooper responded with a solid performance.

He was strong in his area, claiming crosses when asked to make one very good save in particular, when he was asked to tip Jack Marriott’s fierce shot around his right-hand post.

Special mention to his distribution, which has certainly been on an upward trend recently and if it can continue to improve it surely will only enhance his own chances of a move higher up the football pyramid.

Joe Edwards – 9 MOTM

Cliché, isn’t it? This was an absolute captain’s performance from Edwards, who along with wing back counterpart Bali Mumba, was tireless all afternoon. He added extra width to Argyle’s attack whilst also being excellent defensively not giving the Peterborough wingers an inch, it feels like he was first to every ball all afternoon.

One stand out moment for Edwards, when after doing excellently to win the ball back on the right wing, he then combined that with a sublime nutmeg to set up an attacking opportunity. 

That was a moment in isolation but it exemplifies just what a good afternoon Edwards had.

James Wilson – 7

Along with the whole defence this was a generally very good performance, not doing anything standout but just doing his job to a high standard, especially in 50 -50 duels, which in all honesty the whole team did fantastically on.

Dan Scarr – 7

The name Jonson Clarke-Harris tends to send shivers down the spine of defenders in this division. A lethal frontman on his day, Clarke-Harris wasn’t given a chance to showcase any of that thanks to the man marking of Scarr who seemed at home with the physical challenge that the Peterborough front man provided.

Just another solid performance without anything to shout about.

Macauley Gillesphey – 7

Another centre back, another front man quelled. 

The entire back three just seemed to compliment each other excellently, Jack Marriott literally had two shots all afternoon which once again showcases Gillesphey’s ability to compete with the very best attackers in the division, He would have been marked up, but at times I felt his passing was a bit aimless, particularly when going long over the top

Bali Mumba – 9

This would’ve been a second MOTM given to Mumba by myself in two player ratings had it not been for the equally brilliant performance of Joe Edwards.

Mumba absolutely plays with his heart on his sleeve, certainly with a fiery side as seen in pre-season, he revs the crowd up after big challenges in 50- 50’s and the fans obviously love that but then to add, he also is a constant menace in attack causing problems every time he seems to enter the attacking half, this is only highlighted further by him winning his second penalty for being tripped in the area in two league games which once again Ryan Hardie duly converted.

Jordan Houghton – 7

 

Houghton made up for his poor defending in Fleetwood’s winner last week with a controlled [performance alongside Adam Randell. In my opinion Houghton can sometimes be frustrating as he is not progressive enough with the ball but with Randell taking on the job  of being the more attacking of the pair. Houghton was able to concentrate on ensuring that there weren’t many pockets of space for the Peterborough midfielders to drop into and the two generally combined well as a unit.

Adam Randell – 7

One of the main positives of Randell’s game in general is that he isn’t afraid to try things, whether they come off or not. Sometimes they don’t and that can. Be frustrating but he absolutely has the technical ability to make things happen. At times he was too loose with his passing but often battled well to win the ball back and I think Randell is at his best when he is given the license to try things and this was aided by the solid performance of Houghton.

Finn Azaz – 8

The new formation that Steven Schumacher has gone with at the start of the season seems to absolutely play to Azaz’s strengths, with him being the driving force behind many of Argyle’s attacks. He is always clever enough to operate in the area between the opposition’s midfield and defence and sometimes operating as a second striker himself. Another strong performance was rewarded with his second goal in two home games this season after a really nice bit of link up play between man of the match Joe Edwards, Danny Mayor and Ryan Hardie which resulted in Mayor cutting the ball back to Azaz before he slotted the ball into the right-hand corner with a good finish.

Ryan Hardie – 7

At times as seems to be the case with the new formation Hardie struggled to get involved in the game as he always does, he ran tirelessly, and his pace is always a threat but in general his involvement was fairly limited with balls over the top to him often being too long. When he did get involved though he generally played well, playing a key part in the aforementioned first goal and slotting away his second penalty in two league games. If penalty taking is something he has added to his game, then it will prove to be useful giving Argyle another option when regular takers Luke Jephcott and Conor Grant are off the pitch.

Danny Mayor – 7

 As is somewhat always the case Mayor was effective at creating openings while also being wasteful on a couple of occasions. Grabbing the assist for Azaz’s goal Mayor should probably feel that he should have had a goal of his own when the ball was pulled back to him by Joe Edwards in the area only for him to shoot straight at the goalkeeper from six yards. Nonetheless his combinations with the left wingbacks, particularly the emergence of Bali Mumba will always be a threat for opposition defenders.

Substitutes

Niall Ennis – 7

Ennis came on just before the hour mark in a switch of formation that saw argyle switch back to last seasons preferred 3-5-2 formation pairing up top with Ryan Hardie. He was able to bring others into play at times with some good movement with the ball which generally helped Argyle maintain their structure and see out a deserved win.

Matt Butcher – 7

Although only on for 20 minutes, Butcher worked hard in mid field and put in some good challenges to disrupt any flow that Peterborough might have had.

Nigel Lonwijk – n/a.

Came on for the last seven minutes and nothing to note.

Morgan Whittaker – n/a.

On for the same time as Lonwijk, made a good foray towards the Peterborough box which could have ended up ion sensational solo goal but was ultimately stopped by a good tackle.