Good morning, and welcome back to The Argyle Briefing.
That was much more like it. Argyle produced their best performance of the campaign so far as they made light work of a Bradford side that hadn’t even conceded a goal this season.
Let’s look back at a lovely afternoon.
🏆 LEAGUE ONE (SAT 29 AUG 2026)
🟢 Plymouth Argyle 2
Pleguezuelo 44
White 50
🟡 Bradford City 0
Despite the Bantams arriving at Home Park as the early pacesetters with four wins out of four in all competitions and not a single goal against, this was about as comfortable a win as Argyle will have all season.
The early signs were good with Tyreeq Bakinson drilling a shot narrowly wide, and the chances kept coming with Bim Pepple and Alex Mitchell nodding over from good deliveries before Will Evans lashed the ball over the bar.
The worry was that Argyle wouldn’t convert their dominance into an advantage on the scoreboard, but the breakthrough came just before the break when an Oliver Irow cross found its way to Julio Pleguezuelo, starting in place of the injured Mathias Ross, who volleyed it past Bantams goalkeeper Jon McCracken.
To grab a goal before the break was excellent, but to grab a second just after it was even sweeter. Harvey White had one effort disallowed in first-half stoppage time, but he got his moment five minutes into the second half, with his low strike from distance taking a small deflection to steer it past McCracken.
And from that point it was a cruise to the finish line for the Greens with Bradford offering little resistance. Critics would suggest that the size of the victory should have been greater, but a win is a win, and Argyle are truly up and running now.
👥 Argyle line-up
M Cooper, W Harding, J Pleguezuelo, A Mitchell, A Hartridge, R Curtis (C Watts 90+2), T Bakinson, H White, O Irow (X Amaechi 71), A Pepple (B Ibrahim 84), W Evans.
Subs (unused): J Storer, J Edwards, T Finn, M Sorinola.
Yellow cards: Harding.
A good week for the new signings
If the opening-day defeat to Stockport and, to a lesser extent, the 1-1 draw at Wycombe a week ago demonstrated that Argyle urgently needed reinforcements, then Saturday’s win showed that Cleverley and director of football Derek Adams have done well in plugging the gaps in the squad.
The season-long loan signings of winger Oliver Irow and central midfielder Tyreeq Bakinson — from Tottenham and Leyton Orient respectively — were confirmed last Monday and the pair impressed in the Carabao Cup loss to Coventry, with Irow scoring Argyle’s first goal in the 4-2 defeat at Home Park.
Irow has already shown to be a consistent threat out wide in his two games in green, and his crossing ability looks to be a big weapon in Argyle’s armoury for the rest of the season. One of his deliveries yielded the opening goal, with his cross from the right falling for Pleguezuelo to volley into the bottom corner.
Bakinson arrived as a replacement for Brendan Wiredu, but has come into the starting line-up following Malachi Boateng’s unfortunate injury last weekend, and the Orient loanee had another good game alongside Harvey White. Early signs show that this could be a strong, dynamic partnership in the centre of the park, with both players not afraid to get forward.
White has already showed his keenness to have a shot, and got a deserved first Argyle goal in the second half, but Bakinson could have scored the opener when his effort whistled narrowly past McCracken’s post in the opening exchanges. Having an attack-minded midfield pair could be vital in spreading the goals around the team.
🔍 Go Deeper
Watch Argyle boss Tom Cleverley’s post-match take on proceedings.
Listen to Pilgrims Podcast’s dissection of Saturday’s game.
Watch the Green and White Podcast’s latest episode.
Perhaps 4-4-2 is still the way to go
The defeat to Stockport exposed the flaws in Cleverley’s preferred 4-4-2 system, with the Hatters ripping through Argyle’s two-man midfield with ease as they ran out comfortable 3-1 winners on the opening weekend.
The midweek defeat to Coventry offered more optimism with the 4-2-3-1, so it was slightly disappointing to see Cleverley revert to a 4-4-2 for Saturday. However, the excellent performance certainly vindicated the Argyle head coach’s decision.
Irow and Ronan Curtis were excellent in the wide midfield roles with the latter enjoying a return to the kind of form he showed in the second half of last season. As mentioned above, Bakinson and White performed well in central midfield, and Will Evans is slowly growing into his role as part of a striking pair with Bim Pepple.
The Stockport game told us that an alternative setup was sorely needed, but Saturday showed that Cleverley is sticking with 4-4-2 for a reason. Perhaps, he and Argyle have now got a solid Plan A and Plan B for the rest of the campaign.
🆚️ League One results
Blackpool 4-0 Peterborough
MK Dons 0-0 Leicester
Cambridge 1-2 Huddersfield
Leyton Orient 1-3 Barnsley
Notts Co 2-1 Burton
Argyle 2-0 Bradford
Sheff Wed 7-2 Bromley
Stevenage 2-2 Doncaster
Stockport 5-1 Wycombe
AFC Wimbledon 1-0 Wigan
Mansfield 5-2 Luton
Three’s the magic number in defence
Mathias Ross was a somewhat surprise omission from the starting line-up, with Cleverley stating before the game that he needed a small procedure after a facial injury got infected, and that he should be fine for Tuesday.
It meant that Alex Mitchell, back from injury himself, partnered Julio Pleguezuelo in the heart of defence on Saturday, making it the third league game in a row that Argyle have started with a new central defensive partnership.
That’s never a particularly good thing — ideally, you have a consistent partnership in central defence — but it hasn’t seemed to affect the Pilgrims, with the latest defensive duo dealing with almost everything Bradford threw at them, which admittedly wasn’t a huge amount.
Indeed, they performed well at both ends of the pitch, with Pleguezuelo opening the scoring with a well-executed volley and Mitchell a constant penalty-box threat at set pieces.
The question will now be whether Ross comes back into the team for Leicester tomorrow, but it’s an excellent problem for Cleverley to have.
📊 League One Table
⚪ 8. Oxford — 4 pts (+1)
⚪ 9. Barnsley — 4 pts (+1)
⚪ 10. Cambridge — 4 pts (+0)
⚪ 11. Argyle — 4 pts (+0)
⚪ 12. Burton — 4 pts (+0)
⚪ 13. Luton — 4 pts (-2)
⚪ 14. AFC Wimbledon — 4 pts (-2)
🟢 Automatic promotion 🟡 Play-offs 🔴 Relegation
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Matt Friday
Founder, The Argyle Briefing