Good afternoon, and welcome back to The Argyle Angle.
Argyle recorded their first goalless draw since a stalemate at a Watford side managed by Tom Cleverley back in March 2025, with Reading the visitors to Home Park for only Argyle’s second draw of the season.
Argyle have now won just one of the last four home games, but the Pilgrims are still in the play-off places.
🏆 LEAGUE ONE (SAT 31 OCT 2026)
🟢 Plymouth Argyle 0
🟡 Reading 0
Storer steps in between the sticks
The most notable omission from the starting line-up yesterday was that of ever-present goalkeeper, and potentially Argyle’s player of the season thus far, Murphy Cooper. The summer signing dropped out at short notice due to a family emergency, and we wish him well.
It meant a surprise league debut for James Storer, whose action in an Argyle shirt has so far been limited to the Carabao Cup defeat to Coventry City and the Jersey Mike’s Trophy wins over Crystal Palace and Newport.
Despite an early hiccup when he almost dropped the ball over his line, the 22-year-old, who also joined the Pilgrims in the summer, recovered to put in a solid display as he kept his first clean sheet for the club, with FlashScores rating him as Argyle’s player of the match with a score of 7.8 out of 10.
The goalkeeping department was a hot topic for the wrong reasons throughout much of last season, and it does seem as if Argyle have done well in correcting this in the summer and we now appear to have a good pair of custodians.
Home form a concern?
Last week I talked about Argyle continuing their unrivalled away form, but the home form continues to be an issue. The Pilgrims have now dropped 11 points in home games — won three, drawn one, lost three — with their tally of ten points from seven outings at Home Park placing them 11th in the ‘home games only’ table.
Argyle have won just one of the last four home games in the league, which came when Xavier Amaechi profited from a clearance striking Alex Hartridge in the face to score a last-gasp winner against AFC Wimbledon. Despite the win, it was a poor performance, and you could argue there hasn’t been a good performance at Home Park since the 3-0 win over Barnsley.
We are clinging on to a play-off spot in spite of our excellent away form. If promotion is to be achieved, the home form must improve.
Star performer: Alex Mitchell
You might expect a defender to claim the star performer prize after a clean sheet, and indeed Mitchell was Argyle’s star man according to WhoScored, with his performance scoring 7.65 out of 10.
He won three of his five duels, made 12 clearances and was responsible for blocking two shots. A botched clearance in the second half did let Jamie Reid in on goal, but he did well to recover and dispossess him before he could get a shot away.
It is perhaps unsurprising in a goalless draw that our four highest-rated players were the back three and the goalkeeper, with Wes Harding (7.35), Storer (7.11) and Julio Pleguezuelo (7.07) the only other players to score above 7.00.
Data aside, I felt Xavier Amaechi performed well and was our biggest threat going forward. As mentioned last week, it feels like he is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the switch to 3-4-3.
Bim needs a break
Cleverley said before Saturday’s game that Owen Oseni is set to return for next week’s FA Cup first round tie against Alvechurch, and that match at Home Park would be the perfect time to give Bim Pepple a rest.
The Canadian is Argyle’s top scorer this season with five goals, and while he scored a crucial penalty in the 3-2 win at Cambridge a week ago, five games have passed since his last goal in open play, which came in the 2-0 win at Leyton Orient.
He missed the victory over AFC Wimbledon with an injury and has played nearly every minute of the four matches since despite not being fully fit, and that’s because there hasn’t been a proper alternative with Oseni on the sidelines.
Now Oseni is set to return to the fold, the Alvechurch game feels like the ideal time to give Bim a much-needed break.
Still in the top six
Despite the concerns that exist around our home form and injuries in attack, Argyle are sitting nicely in fifth place in the League One table. It’s not been a perfect run so far this season, but we would all have taken that after 14 games before the start of the campaign.
It’s perhaps a little tiresome to keep casting back to last season, but this time last year we’d just lost 2-0 at Mansfield Town, a few days after losing to Exeter City by the same score. We were in the relegation zone, below all four teams that would eventually get relegated, with only 13 points.
We’ve taken that many points just from our away games this season and are ten points better off. With a new system getting more out of Amaechi and Will Evans, and with Oseni and Michael Baidoo set to strengthen the attack in the coming weeks, things are looking much brighter.
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Matt Friday
Founder, The Argyle Angle