Dewsnip delighted despite Argyle's 'glitches'

DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL FEELS SEASON HAS GONE WELL SO FAR

- CHRIS ERRINGTON

PLYMOUTH Argyle have set themselves a target of 58 points in the Championship this season, director of football Neil Dewsnip has declared.

The Pilgrims secured Championship survival on the final day of last term with a nerve-shredding 1-0 win against Hull City Home Park and are aiming to have a less tense finish to the 2024/25 campaign.

They have picked up 11 points from their first nine games under Wayne Rooney, who was nominated for the Sky Bet Championship manager of the month award for September but it went to Chris Wilder of Sheffield United instead.

Argyle lost 4-0 on the opening day of the season away to Sheffield Wednesday in Rooney’s first match as head coach and had a record of two draws - including 1-1 at Queens Park Rangers when they played a lot of the game with 10 men after a red card to Adam Forshaw - and two defeats from the first four matches.

However, they have since won three consecutive home games, beating Sunderland (3-2), Luton Town (2-1) and Blackburn Rovers (2-1) and are in 14th position as the Championship action pauses for the latest international break.

Dewsnip told Herald Sport: “The aim very sensibly is to do better than what we did last year, when it was fantastic to survive and that was the aim but a little scary. Our ambitions are to get a minimum of 58 points, which ironically our data analysts tell us would make us finish 14th.

“We are very content with where we are. I’m not going to say we are delirious because obviously we want to do as well as we can do and there has been one or two glitches in there, but where we are as we speak I think we are all okay with.”