Boxing Clever: How Plymouth Argyle turned their season around
Under The Spotlight: Matt Watts shines a light on Tom Cleverley's Pilgrims and their rise up the League One table.
Welcome to Under The Spotlight, a written spin-off to our Under The Lights podcast, helmed by Matt Watts. This column is all about investigating the topics and themes of individuals and teams that shine bright in the EFL.
“Started from the bottom, now we’re here.”
Calm down, Drake. Plymouth Argyle didn’t start from the bottom – but that’s exactly where they found themselves on 8th November.
Following their relegation from the Championship, the departure of Miron Muslić to Schalke and a summer of significant squad churn, Argyle took just 13 points from their first 15 league games under Tom Cleverley. Being beaten at home by Bradford on 6th December took the Pilgrims to 12 defeats from 18 in the league. They were, in the simplest of terms, losing twice as often as they weren’t.
However, the turnaround from that point on has been remarkable. Since that Saturday in the lead-up to Christmas, Argyle have won 13 of their next 21 league matches. In fact, only League One leaders Lincoln have picked up more points (40) than their 33 since the turn of the year.
What’s more, Argyle’s position as “the second-best team in League One right now”, in the words of Ali Maxwell, is backed up further by our own five-game and 10-game xG ratio tables.
Having taken 13 points from the last 15 available, the Pilgrims are now only two points behind 6th-placed Reading, with a game in hand. On Good Friday, they welcome Steven Schumacher’s Bolton Wanderers to Home Park. Schumacher oversaw Argyle’s promotion to the Championship in 2023, when they won an epic title race by amassing 101 points to finish three clear of Kieran McKenna’s Ipswich Town. While the title and automatic promotion are both out of reach this season, promotion through the play-offs is unexpectedly back on the cards.
So: how have Tom Cleverley and his team turned their season around?
Home form
Home Park is often a fortress for Plymouth. It’s a long old trip for the vast majority of their opponents, and the Green Army know how to get behind their team. Across the previous two seasons, 19 of Argyle’s 24 wins in the Championship came at Home Park, and the last time they were in League One, they won 20 of their 23 league fixtures there. However, the class of 25/26 have found home wins much harder to come by. Argyle have only the 15th-best home record in League One this season.
Tom Cleverley’s side do seem to have re-cracked the code recently, though: they’ve won their last four home games, spanking then-leaders Cardiff City 5-2, coming from behind against Doncaster Rovers, then beating two promotion rivals – Stevenage and Huddersfield Town – in the space of five days. That should bode well for their hosting of 3rd-placed Bolton this week…
Defensive stability
Only Lincoln (74) and Cardiff (73) have scored more goals than Argyle (60), but only eight teams have conceded more than their 54. Nevertheless, their defence has improved as the season has gone on. Tom Cleverley’s side shipped 32 goals in their first 18 games, more than any other team in League One, but they’ve conceded just 22 goals in their last 21, keeping 16 ‘zeroes and ones’.
After a host of individual errors and quite a lot of chopping and changing at the start of the season, in personnel and formation alike, Cleverley seems to have settled on a back four of Joe Edwards, Mathias Ross, Alex Mitchell and Jack MacKenzie, with Conor Hazard in goal.
Varied goal threat
Finding the back of the net hasn’t really been a problem, even when they were struggling earlier in the season, but Argyle’s goal output has improved and, crucially, they have become less reliant on Lorent Tolaj.
Before Christmas, Argyle scored 26 goals in 21 league games. Tolaj was responsible for 38% of them, and Owen Oseni and Bradley Ibrahim responsible for another 10%. Since Christmas, though, Argyle have scored 34 goals in 18 league games despite Tolaj missing 10 of those games through injury. His team have had to find goals from elsewhere – and that’s what they’ve done. Canadian forward Bim Pepple had one league goal before Christmas and he now has 13; Caleb Watts has returned from injury to rediscover his scoring touch; and, crucially, Argyle have managed to score 11 goals from defenders or defensively-minded midfielders.
Set pieces
It’s the season of set pieces, and the nationwide trend has made its way down to Devon. No team in League One has scored more goals from set plays than Plymouth and those imperious Imps, Lincoln (25 apiece). Only lowly Northampton have scored a higher percentage of their goals from dead-ball situations: 57.58%, with Argyle on 41.67%.
In recent months, Argyle’s goal threat from corners and free-kicks has been unlocked by the January addition of Ronan Curtis (and, to a lesser extent, Herbie Kane). Centre-backs Mathias Ross and Alex Mitchell have scored six goals between them in the league this season, with all six coming since January and from set pieces.
At the other end, Argyle’s record of 10 goals conceded from set pieces is bettered only by Mansfield, Bolton and Wycombe.
Going back-to-back-to-back
Prior to the 1-0 win at Wycombe on 9th December, Argyle had won back-to-back league games only once in 2025/26. Victory at Adams Park was the first of three in a row. Tom Cleverley’s charges pulled off that hat-trick in December, and January, and February, before winning four of their five league games in March.
Managers often talk about the importance of recording back-to-back wins, but if you can reel off three wins on the spin on a regular basis, then you’re going to climb the league table pretty quickly.
Tom Cleverley
There’s no getting away from it. Whether we like it or not, the majority of dramatic mid-season turnarounds are usually the result of a change in the dugout. While many would have opted to sack Cleverley in October or November, Argyle backed their young head coach and, at present, they’re reaping the rewards of their patience. Would a new head coach have reversed their fortunes to the same extent? Possibly, possibly not. But is their 36-year-old head coach, in just his second managerial role, a better head coach now than when Argyle hired him last summer? Definitely.
Simon Hallett & Co. could have replaced Cleverley with former Pilgrims boss Derek Adams. Instead, they brought him in as Director of Football, to offer Cleverley more support. After a difficult couple of years since the departure of Steven Schumacher, and a summer of significant change following their relegation from the Championship, Argyle needed some stability.
Those decisions taken in the autumn are bearing fruit in the spring.
Love this, thanks for writing a piece on us! It’s been an amazing season and Cleverley deserves the credit and spotlight he is getting
Great piece, thank you