JUST IN: Why Championship survival is the main priority for Argyle head coach
MIRON Muslic admitted it was a ‘fantastic ride’ for his Plymouth Argyle side, but now their FA Cup exertions are over, the focus switches firmly to the journey ahead, which is that of Championship survival.
A 3-1 defeat at Manchester City on Saturday put a stop to the giant-killing exploits of the Pilgrims for another year – and now they are readying themselves for tonight’s crunch league clash with Hull City (7.45pm).
With Argyle still entrenched in the relegation zone – three points adrift of their hosts, who occupy the last safety spot – Muslic knows it’s now or never in terms of preserving their Championship status.
“Some memories we can keep for a lifetime, but now it’s just important to leave this behind us and to take the benefit from the FA Cup,” he said. “It was our togetherness, a lot of beautiful moments, a lot of celebrations and it should give us the necessary confident boost we need to go again fully, and the next opportunity is Tuesday night.
“I’m very happy this beautiful journey is behind us so we can refocus and find the right balance again to bounce back in the Championship.”
Since his arrival in January, opponents have found Argyle a much tougher nut to crack. Just one defeat in their last six league fixtures underlines the strides the club have made
“I think we have already the perfect example,” added Muslic, citing Argyle’s performance against Millwall – when they beat them 5-1 – just three days’ after defeating Liverpool in the FA Cup.
“We knew exactly what happened after Liverpool, because just three days later we needed to rebalance after this historic win and historic day to face Millwall and to be again super competitive.
“The lads managed to do this in a very strong way and managed not only to compete but also to get the three points against Millwall. We need to have the same approach now for Tuesday, then also for Saturday [against Sheffield Wednesday].
“The FA Cup gave us a lot and we should take all this good things into the Championship. If we can manage to do this on Tuesday we will be very hard to play against.”
Hull, however, are themselves very much in the relegation scrap and the Argyle chief acknowledged the threat they will pose, particularly on home turf.
He said: “It’s an important one again, but tell me one game in the next couple of weeks and months without this kind of importance? So I will never put too much pressure on the lads.
“We have found a good approach over the last couple of weeks. We have lost only two games out of the last eight so we are very competitive. It’s important for us to stay competitive so we can always collect points and every point is important.
“It’s a big one on Tuesday, but it’s a big one again on Saturday and the week after, so stick to the plan, we are calm, we are focused and we are ready to pick up this challenge I think.”
Argyle will assess the fitness of midfielder Adam Randell ahead of tonight’s clash. The Plymothian sat out the Manchester City game with a quad injury picked up in the 1-1 draw with Cardiff City.
Whilst Randell is rated “50-50” by Muslic, the visitors will again be without strikers Ryan Hardie (back) and Muhamed Tijani (hamstring).
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