Tom Cleverley hails Plymouth’s improvement after narrow win at Peterborough

Plymouth head coach Tom Cleverley felt his side’s 1-0 League One victory at in-form Peterborough was a sign of where they are now as they continue to put a poor start to his tenure behind them.

The Pilgrims lifted themselves four points clear of the relegation zone, but they could be setting their sights higher, should their improved form carry on.

Their results on the road are particularly impressive, with the three points picked up from the Weston Homes Stadium being their sixth win in their last seven away games in all competitions.

Cleverley said: “I think it is a statement, in terms of where we’re at as a team and the development and the improvements that we’ve made.

“To talk play-offs now would be losing focus on what’s important – and that’s preparing the team for Luton.

“I’m really delighted with the performance, but we won’t be getting carried away.

“It’s a good statement – I felt like the Reading game was a chance to do that and the game was never a contest, so today was the next top opposition we’ve come up against – with all respect to the recent opposition – and it was a good day at the office.

“I thought from the first whistle to the last, in possession and out of possession, the game plan was delivered perfectly but the quality within that was individually on show.

“If there’s anything to improve on today, we should have been three or 4-0 up and out of sight.”

Plymouth’s winner came after 23 minutes when Lorent Tolaj caught Peterborough’s Tom O’Connor hesitating before squaring the ball to give Bim Pepple an open goal.

Pepple then blazed a great chance over before later being denied by Posh goalkeeper Alex Bass, while the hosts had winger Peter Kioso sent off late on.

Peterborough boss Luke Williams said: “The opposition were very good and I think in their game plan, we were the best player, so we got what we deserved today.

“I think the fight and the willingness was there, but for this team to outfight an opponent is always going to be difficult.

“While we have to fight and compete in every single game – and the players did that today – if we don’t control the game and play with composure, we’re flipping a coin every week and we have to try and avoid that.

“We have done in this run that we’ve had and then today it was too tough an opposition for us to be able to find a foothold in the game and to really control it.

“It’s a soft goal (to give away) and then immediately after the goal we suffered the loss of Tom, so our rhythm was broken a little bit.”