Simon Hallett reveals his biggest Plymouth Argyle worry at the moment

Simon Hallett believes Plymouth Argyle making the League One play-offs at the end of this season is 'still a realistic ambition' even after the very slow start to their campaign.

The Pilgrims lost their first four league games following relegation from the Championship but have now won three of the last four, including an against-all-odds 3-2 victory at Luton Town last Saturday, leaving them in 17th position in the table.

Hallett admitted the number of injuries Argyle have already had this term, and continue to pick up, is 'my biggest worry at the moment' and he indicated that would be looked into.

However, the Pilgrims' owner and chairman has been encouraged by the recent improved performances and results and believes with the return of some players from longer term injuries, such as Conor Hazard and Jack MacKenzie, the team will be 'in a good position to continue to rise up the table'.

It was a summer of significant change at Argyle, including the appointments of Tom Cleverley as head coach as former Pilgrims' midfielder David Fox as head of football operations, and he has been pleased with the way both of them have settled into their new roles.

A large number of players also came and went during the summer transfer window so, given all of that, it was probably not surprising that Argyle did not get off to the best of starts on their return to League One.

Hallett told Plymouth Live: "My biggest worry at the moment is injuries. We are continuing to get injuries. We need to review two things, and we are getting close to where it would be meaningful.

"Firstly is recruitment. We are in the middle of doing recruitment reviews now and will examine how we went about our business, what worked, what didn't work, in so as far as we know what has worked. When you recruit a 20-year-old maybe you don't know for six months whether it was a successful recruitment or not.

"The other thing we need to do a review of is the number of injuries we are getting. Now a lot of them have been contact injuries which at root are pretty random.

"If you get a spate of injuries as a result of tackles or collisions it's essentially unlucky, but when you get a whole bunch of soft issue issues, hamstrings and so on, I think we need to look at training regimes, we need to look at what we can do to prevent those. That I think is something that will be undertaken in the coming weeks.

"I'm not prepared to write the season off. Obviously, I'm not as confident that we are going to be in the top two as I was, let alone the play-offs, but I think definitely the play-offs is still a realistic ambition.

"If we continue to improve and if we can cut down on some of the injuries, get some of the longer term injuries back, then I think we will be in a good position to continue to rise up the table."

Cleverley has come across as calm and measured in his Press conferences, but he has picked up three yellow cards for his reactions on the touchline during games, and was sent-off in the second half against Luton.

Hallett said: "He does get a bit lively during matches. I must admit I don't hear him swearing like you hear some managers so I have been a bit surprised at the cards he has got.

"They seem a little harsh. He just doesn't seem to be the kind of character to go out and abuse officials, or abuse anybody. Tom is very hard-working, very diligent, very smart, very thoughtful, obviously passionate about football, like all of us.

"I think he's committed. He certainly seems committed. He's the hardest working person at the club. He has assured us that he's with us for the journey, and all my interaction with him so far indicates that he's with us for the journey.

"I'm confident he's going to be around a long time and he's going to help us where we think we need to be," added the Argyle chairman.

There are already early, encouraging signs that Cleverley and his coaching staff can develop Argyle's largely young squad into better, more consistent players. Hallett said: "To the fans, please be a little bit patient with some of these young players. Maybe the best example already is Bradley Ibrahim.

"It was 'Why the hell did we hire him' just six weeks ago and now, all of a sudden, he's man-of-the-match and everybody's saying 'What a great find'. So I think we need to have a little bit of faith in the process here.

"Tom does seem the right person. His coaching team around him are young - if Nance (Kevin Nancekivell) will bear with me as one of the exceptions! Nance, of course, has all the energy of a spring chicken.

"I think we have got a good mix of youth and experience in the coaching team, let's put that it way. The player morale does seem very high, even when results weren't going our way it did seem very high and now it seems to be extremely high."

Fox has had a lot to deal during a short space of time as Argyle's head of football operations and Hallett said: "In some ways I think it has been unfair on David he has been thrown in at the deep end. Let's not forget he has had Tom Randle as head of recruitment.

"I think David because he's around Home Park rather more has ended up being the face of the recruitment effort, but that doesn't mean that he is 100 per cent of the recruitment effort. Having to be the public face I think has made it a little bit more difficult for David, but he has fitted in great.

"He's the kind of person we like to have around the place. He's thoughtful, hard-working. He's diligent about the way he goes about his business. I think he has had a bit of a baptism of fire but he has coped with it remarkably well. He's very calm, as we know from him as a player. He was the level head when all around was chaos."

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