Ryan Lowe confirmed that he has a ‘nearly full’ Plymouth Argyle squad in his press conference yesterday, as he informed fans that Niall Canavan is back in full training and would be available for selection against Cheltenham on Saturday.
However, it’s worth pointing out that Lowe did elaborate that ‘we already had a player on the bench’, which perhaps indicates that he was planning to drop Canavan anyway following an error in the build up to Port Vale’s winning goal. So, whilst the Irishman is available to return to the 18, it remains to be seen if he will do so.
On a more negative note, the manager revealed that Byron Moore’s injury, which saw him subbed off in the second half against Crawley, would see him miss at least the next two games. Argyle will have to rotate their strike partnership yet again for the visit of the Robins, as Lowe confirmed he’ll be out for ‘a couple of weeks’.
Meanwhile, Lowe confirmed that talks had not yet began with Jose Baxter over extending his contract beyond the temporary deal that lasts until January but he did confirm that it’s something on his agenda for the medium-term. Lowe said of his midfield playmaker: “We have got Jo on a short-term deal. He’s not worried about it, I’m not worried about it because we own the rights to him, if you like. When we are ready to give him an improved contract we will do that, but at this moment in time Jo is enjoying his football.”
Finally, Lowe refuted any idea of nervousness creeping in around the squad following Argyle’s run of one win in nine games across all competitions. He was insistent the reward will come eventually, arguing: “when we perform to the standard that we have done, the results will come. If we were 11th with 5 games to go I’d be worried, but we’ve got 38 games to go and we’ll continue to keep working away.”