Last night, Plymouth Argyle announced that Ian Foster would be leaving the club with immediate effect.
For many Argyle fans, this was no surprise after suffering a fifth consecutive home loss against Bristol City – a club record albeit a bad one. The atmosphere at Home Park on Monday afternoon saw many people calling for ‘Foster OUT!’, which is not the first time that fans have been vocal about this.
Chairman Simon Hallet said: “We have given Ian as long as possible to see if results could improve. Unfortunately that hasn’t been the case”. The Green Army are now back in the same situation they were in a few months ago, when Steven Shucmacher left to join Stoke City, with Dewsnip and Nancekievill in charge as interim coaches until the end of the season.
Now that Foster is gone from the club, after taking Argyle just one point above the drop zone, how will the team fare in the upcoming matches? There are only six games to go until the end of the season, one of those being third place Leicester City, how likely are Argyle to stay up?
One fan on X said: “Personally I think seven points is the minimum we need… if we don’t beat Rotherham, we don’t have a realistic chance of accruing that.”
Lifelong Argyle fan, Cody Carthy, when asked if Argyle would stay up, said: “Yes, because the teams below us in the league are performing worse and aren’t picking up many points either, definitely not because of performances Argyle are producing”
“I don’t think it will come down to the last game against Hull City.”
It seems that fans are trying to stay positive despite only winning once in the last 11 matches. If the Pilgrims do stay up this season, there must be a drive to bring in new players on permanent contracts. Plymouth Argyle lost some of their key players in January due to loan recalls, such as Finn Azaz who was sold to Middlesbrough and Luke Cundle returning to Wolves and was loaned to Schumacher’s Stoke. They were the most important midfield players since the beginning of the season, giving control and attack in the middle of the pitch and the quality of football dropped drastically when they left in January.
Ian Foster’s time at Argyle wasn’t easy, especially going into February, playing Leeds, Coventry and West Bromwich, who are all pushing for a play-off opportunity and the fans were understanding over that two week period. However, many people’s criticism about Foster was his press conferences, and his very ‘boring’ demeanour, not elaborating on his in-game decisions and leaving fans clueless as to what his plan for the team was.
The future of Argyle’s championship place is still unsure and with six games to go until the end of the season. If they can secure six points from six, they should just scrape safety, ensuring another Championship campaign next year. The Green Army have to get behind the players and trust in the interim management now more than ever.