Tom Cleverley praises Plymouth players for ‘driving’ second-half display

Tom Cleverley praised Plymouth’s players for “driving” their own response to a late first-half setback in the 3-1 win at Leyton Orient.

Having taken the lead in first-half stoppage time through Bim Pepple, Argyle immediately conceded an equaliser to Ollie O’Neill.

Cleverley revealed long-serving defender Joe Edwards led the way during half-time as the team “cleared their minds” before sealing victory through goals from Ronan Curtis – his first for the club – and Mathias Ross.

Asked about any disappointment in the dressing room at the interval, Cleverley told club media: “No, Joe Edwards drove that straight away and I absolutely agreed with him.

“I don’t think we could afford to be disappointed because we didn’t deserve to be up at half-time.

“I don’t think we were near our levels – I thought we competed well, we landed on second (balls), we won duels, but when we got into good areas we were nowhere near as good as we were against Blackpool.”

He continued: “There was no disappointment in there because we didn’t feel like we deserved the lead. What I would say is that the players cleared their minds, that was driven from within that dressing room and I absolutely agreed with it.

“We’ve gone ahead against Stockport, against Lincoln, and setbacks have knocked us because maybe we feel like we deserve to be leading these games. Today we didn’t deserve to lead at half-time.

“We cleaned it from our minds and went out and attacked the second half. We were a little bit cleaner, still not at our best but thoroughly deserved to win in that second half.”

Plymouth missed several chances to kill the game off, but they hung on to pick up three vital points and leave Orient boss Richie Wellens frustrated.

Wellens said: “We let mistakes affect us. There wasn’t much in the game. It was a second-ball game, they won more seconds than us and they put it forward and they are good at it.

“They are in a good vein of form. It was a real difficult second half, we kept constantly giving the ball away.

“To be fair to the players we were trying to get back into it, but you lose shape.”

Defeat left a new-look Orient team in the League One relegation zone and Wellens added: “It is not easy, but we knew that. I felt the new lads did great on Saturday but the lads need games.

“The players need to react. The players need to put on better performances. This is a great football club and the supporters don’t deserve what they’ve seen this season. The players have to look into the mirror.”