Mansfield put more misery on Plymouth as their winless run continues; and Tom Cleverley gives a brutal but frank verdict on it.
The Stags extended their unbeaten League One run to five games with a 2-0 home victory, while it’s a third consecutive defeat for the Pilgrims.
Will Evans opened the scoring after just six minutes by pouncing on defensive errors from Brendan Wiredu and Brendan Galloway.
Then Jordan Bowery went on to seal the win in the 84th minute after a miskick from Nathan Moriah-Welsh. Argyle missed several chances, including headers from Tyler Roberts and Moriah-Welsh, and a close-range effort blocked by Liam Roberts from Tegan Finn.
The result leaves Mansfield 8th with 22 points from 14 games played, while Plymouth are 22nd with 13 points from the same amount of games played and and have gone almost five hours without scoring.
Greens away …. pic.twitter.com/FNCIkc3c4X
— Andy Davies (@_AndyDavies) October 28, 2025
Literally 15 minutes of “Greens away ha ha ha ha we hate ittttttt ha ha ha ha”🎶🤣 #pafc pic.twitter.com/o2KDRp2wy1
— Jacques (@JacquesHubbarde) October 28, 2025
Tom Cleverley said, per Plymouth Live: “We are in a relegation battle. I don’t think there is any part of our performances or consistency to suggest otherwise, so let’s face the situation we’re in head on.
“This is not something that is going to fix itself overnight. No one has a magic wand to make this issue go away. We are putting in performances that mean we deserve to be where we are at.
“It’s never been a sacking club and it’s been hurt by managers leaving at the first bit of success. However, that does not give me the right to have nine lives and I have to turn things round really quickly. I have never seen a team concede so many from direct play and it’s worrying.
“Let’s face the situation that we are in head on. There’s no one who wants to stick his chest out more than myself and deal with it and work through it but I think we have to acknowledge now that this is not something that’s going to fix itself overnight or anyone’s got a magic wand to make this issue go away.
“We’re putting in performances that we deserve to be where we’re at. We have to acknowledge that and we have to take ownership of that and I’ll be the first to do that.”
If you don’t laugh you’ll cry. Lost for words. #pafc pic.twitter.com/gWPqSr8szQ
— Jack (@__jacksharp10) October 28, 2025
You’d be fuming if your kid defended like that in U10’s football #pafc pic.twitter.com/RrnnWJsUoh
— GM (@Element_M1ller) October 28, 2025
Bim Pepple #pafc pic.twitter.com/EgTpHXDA3o
— Lewis (@LewisCarter5) October 28, 2025
On if he’s worried for his job, he replied: “Of course we’re human beings. We like to impress our fans, we like to be one club really together. It’s been a football club that’s never been a sacking club and it’s been hurt by managers leaving at the first bit of success however that doesn’t give me the right to have nine lives and I have to turn things round really quickly.”
On the fans: “They have a right to be frustrated. It’s their club and we have to acknowledge how far they travel and the amount of money they spend to support us and yes they’re frustrated. There’s no holding back. We’re all hurting. We’re all working as much as we possibly can to turn the situation around.”
On the game: “We’re just not giving ourselves a chance to get a foothold in a game when you concede goals like we did the first goal, very similar to the goal we conceded the other night.
“I don’t think any coach at any level would feel the need to create those scenarios in training. Obviously we do a lot of communication, contact, cover work as a back unit but to concede two goals from direct goal kicks as well as thinking back to Barnsley earlier in the season, Bolton away, it’s something that we are really struggling with. Dealing with direct play.
“It’s something that we all have to take accountability for because you’re going to face it in this league and to not be able to deal with it on numerous occasions is a difficult place to be because we look like a team, I saw in their eyes, they’re ready to compete, they’re ready to show some personality and to deal with a setback so early is just a real killer blow.”
On the positives: “When you’re low on confidence there’s a certain amount of basics you can deliver that you don’t need confidence for. That’s battling, running, communicating, being a good team mate, encouraging, I thought we did those basics better than we did on Thursday and we certainly created more clearer chances which is something to take but in both boxes we are a long way off it.”
Statement from Plymouth Chief Executive, Paul Berne
Hi, everyone. After last night’s game, I would like to talk to you all directly, and address our current status.
None of us – the Board, Tom, staff, or the loyal Green Army – are comfortable with the start to our season. It has been a very disappointing start, and I think we all recognise that.
I feel that the club has been through an enormous period of instability, both on and off the pitch. We have seen too many changes of personnel, and this has made it difficult to find consistency in what we do.
I believe strongly that we need to return to a state where we regain that consistency, and therefore success. That will take time, but this is the right thing for our club and our future.
In the case of our Head Coach, let me be more explicit. We hired Tom as a young, bright, ambitious Head Coach who could come and be a big part of Argyle’s next phase.
We are a quarter of the way into Tom’s first season with us. Whilst results have been disappointing, nothing has changed in terms of Tom being the right person for this club. We need to bring that stability throughout the club, and this comes from Head Coach downwards.
We are confident that things will improve. We’ve had a number of circumstances which have hit us in recent weeks, resulting in key players being missing throughout the opening 14 league games. This was emphasised last night, with Tom unable to fill the substitutes bench, and nine players being unavailable for selection, with the vast majority considered first-team starters.
These are not excuses, but facts, and are clearly not ideal circumstances for any Head Coach to deliver consistent, winning performances. But, we believe Tom has all the tools to still deliver this.
Throughout all of this, the support of the Green Army has never wavered, with continued sell-out home crowds and incredible away backings. This support is never taken for granted by anyone at the football club, especially Tom, his staff and the players.
We are One Argyle, and as history has proven, when we are united we can achieve special things. Let’s stick together. COYG.
– Paul Berne
Mansfield manager Nigel Clough said: “I thought it was a very good, professional, solid performance more than anything.
“We worked hard without the ball and restricted Plymouth to very few opportunities and the only thing was we didn’t score more goals.
“We had three incredibly good chances to double our lead and we should be taking one of them to have a bit more comfort before Deji, unlike him, made an error and Liam Roberts has got us out the cart again with a brilliant save.
“He has done that a few times this season and deserved his clean sheet.
“Moments like that are fine margins. If that goes in it could have been a different game. We can’t afford to give people these chances.
“Our work-rate was outstanding and there are relationships developing on the pitch.”
Here’s how fans reacted after Mansfield put more misery on Plymouth as winless run continues and Cleverley gives a brutal verdict…
@danielsw1997: Your fans deserve much more than the side are giving you, that’s fantastic support coming here on a Tuesday night, fair play. Hope you can turn your fortunes around
@TomSagee: TC needs to walk. But he’s not the only issue, rotten right from the top, club is unrecognisable from 2 years ago, feel absolutely no connection to this team anymore and have 0 faith that you’ll find a suitable replacement to get us out of this mess.
@leelad71: Unbelievable support wish you all the best proper fans .that 10 minute spell in second half when you were bouncing nearly brought a reaction from your players NEARLY
@DaveWitts: Great fight from the lads tonight and unlucky to lose to (checks notes) “Mansfield” 👏 At least we have Britfields, woman’s football, breakfast TV etc to keep us happy. Get that corner flag out FFS
@DykesyPAFC: Queue the ‘we’re going back to basics’ and ‘we’re all hurting’ quotes again from Cleverely. May as well just retweet from the previous games. Putting all the money, all the effort and time to follow this football club to get served up utter dross every matchday.
@VinceRennie: @SimonHallett make the call now! Give us a chance for once!!!! This is yet another disaster and we are stumbling to League 2 and all that hard work will be undone by stupid appointments in management and terrible recruitment! This is the worst argyle squad I’ve ever seen. TC OUT!
@jamespior: Time to sell the club Simon, who wants to invest in a league 2 club that’s over spent off the pitch, has a women’s team losing £1m a year and needs a complete rebuild on the pitch. Thanks for the memories but it’s time to go
@Liam5894: Thank you Simon. Sell the club!!
@Matt4Compton: It’s so depressing to see how far we’ve fallen. Blame lies with a lot of people for decisions over the last two years. However, performances have been diabolical & that means the manager needs to go. Hope the board have learned not to cling onto poor managers for too long. #pafc
@PAFCConnor3: Cleverley scurrying down the tunnel like a little rat not even acknowledging the fans that travelled, he knows he’s done. @SimonHallett pull the plug now before it’s too late.
@t1ngs22: @SimonHallett you have ruined this fucking club. All your previous hard work thrown out the window with your obsession with having the best academy in league 2. Your blatant reluctance to invest in the first team squad over the last few seasons will well and truly fuck you
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