Argyle left-back Jim Paterson spoke to the Plymouth Herald ahead of his side's League One match against Carlisle at Brunton Park this evening, 31-year old Paterson already looking at life beyond his playing career :
"Coaching is something I would like to do after I have finished playing. When I'm not playing football, I'm watching it on the TV. That's just the way I am. I should have been at a session last weekend, but I missed it because we had games on Saturday and Tuesday. So I had seven hours of coaching sessions to plough through on Sunday and I will send it up to them (the SFA).
"Overcoming offside was my topic, and I was bored to tears because it's not really my strong point! I had to write out the sessions I would have done if I had been there last weekend. I have already done my 'B' licence and I'm on my 'A' licence assessment during the summer. So, hopefully, fingers crossed, I can pass that and that's me qualified.
"It was disappointing on Saturday at Hartlepool because I don't think we lost the battle. We lost poor goals. I think if we had scored first we would have gone on to win, but fair play to them, it was a hard place to go. The mood in the camp is still good, even after Saturday. It wasn't like the performance against Brighton (4-0 defeat on February 22). We were always in the game.
"Confidence is quite high because we had won three games on the trot before Hartlepool, so we are looking to bounce back against Carlisle. The boys have spent a lot of time together this weekend and we have had a good laugh. I think you could see that on the training pitch yesterday morning.
"There are no excuses. It's not like we can say 'we had a hell of a journey', or that kind of thing. It has been good preparation, so we should all be fresh and ready to go against Carlisle. It will be interesting to see how they react to their defeat at the weekend. If we can come out and be solid for 20 minutes, their fans might get restless because of the result at the weekend. But they are a decent team, and we know what we are in for."
After flying from Exeter to Newcastle on Friday, only to then lose 2-0 at Hartlepool on Saturday afternoon, Plymouth, partly funded by a group of supporters known as The Green Taverners, stayed at the Redworth Hall Hotel near Darlington over the weekend, while also taking in a training session at Sunderland's Academy of Light on Monday due to manager Peter Reid's old links with the Black Cats.
Team-wise the Pilgrims, who will travel back down to Devon by coach after the game, will firstly be missing pacey Zimbabwean left-winger Onismor Bhasera who suffered a knee ligament injury at Hartlepool and is already back in Plymouth. While also absent are two other midfielders, in Simon Walton who will be turning out for the Argyle reserve side at home to Swansea this afternoon as he makes his comeback from a long-term cruciate injury, and Luke Summerfield who is missing after suffering two separate medial knee ligament injuries this season.
In better news for Plymouth though, right-winger Chris Clark is now back available after serving a three-match ban for a high tackle on Colchester's Ian Henderson two weeks ago, and Icelandic central midfielder Kari Arnason is hoping to have recovered from a hamstring problem in order to feature tonight after he missed the Hartlepool game. Finally, it has been a busy weekend for French goalkeeper Romain Larrieu who played in that match, and then quickly flew back to Devon and then back north today at his own expense to attend the birth of his second child.
Plymouth squad for this evening :
Romain Larrieu (GK), David Button (GK), Bondz N'Gala, Chris Clark, Kari Arnason, Curtis Nelson, Stephane Zubar, Carl Fletcher, Yannick Bolaise, Anton Peterlin, Jim Paterson, Rory Fallon, Joe Mason, Karl Duguid, Rory Patterson, Krisztian Timar, Luke Young.
The referee for this evening's match is Neil Swarbrick from Walton-le-Dale near Preston and he will be assisted down the lines by Tony Harrington from Hartlepool and Kevin Mattocks from Chorley. Meanwhile the fourth official is Tony Peart from Northallerton in North Yorkshire.