Plymouth Live's Argyle reporter Chris Errington reflects on a turbulent last 12 months for the Pilgrims
12:00, 31 Dec 2025
Ryan Hardie scores from the penalty spot in Argyle's Emirates FA Cup fourth round win against Liverpool at Home Park on Sunday, February 9, 2025 - Photo: Dave Rowntree/PPAUK
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Ryan Hardie scores from the penalty spot in Argyle's Emirates FA Cup fourth round win against Liverpool at Home Park on Sunday, February 9, 2025 - Photo: Dave Rowntree/PPAUK
It was a year when Plymouth Argyle won away to Premier League club Brentford, beat mighty Liverpool at Home Park in one of the biggest FA Cup shocks of recent times and took the lead against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
Yet despite those incredible, memorable moments, 2025 has to be seen as a bitterly disappointing year for the Pilgrims.
All the good work from 2019 to 2023 to get Argyle from League Two into the Championship unravelled as there was a constant turnover of players and staff at Home Park.
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The Pilgrims were relegated from the Championship last season and by the time they lost 3-1 away to Huddersfield Town on November 8 they were bottom of League One.
There was some much-needed improvement with three consecutive wins in December, but Argyle have not been able to maintain any consistency all year, and that was highlighted in their final two games of 2025, both at Home Park.
A 4-1 defeat by Reading on Boxing Day, after a 12th minute red card for midfielder Joe Ralls, was followed by the Pilgrims salvaging a point with a 1-1 draw against Wycombe Wanderers on Monday night after a last-gasp goal from Bim Pepple.
Those results have left them in the bottom four, in 21st position, and with plenty of work ahead in the next four months to climb away from relegation danger.
Argyle began 2025 without a head coach after they parted ways with Wayne Rooney on New Year’s Eve 2024 following his short, unsuccessful spell at the club.
The combination of first team coach Kevin Nancekivell and club captain Joe Edwards took temporary charge for three matches, with the last of those the fantastic 1-0 FA Cup third round victory over Thomas Frank’s Brentford.
Morgan Whittaker scored a late winning goal, with new Argyle head coach Miron Muslic, watching from the directors’ box at the Gtech Community Stadium after his appointment was confirmed the previous night.
Morgan Whittaker celebrates scoring for Argyle during the 1-0 Emirates FA Cup third round win against Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday, January 11, 2025 - Photo: Alan Stanford/PPAUK
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Morgan Whittaker celebrates scoring for Argyle during the 1-0 Emirates FA Cup third round win against Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday, January 11, 2025 - Photo: Alan Stanford/PPAUK
When Argyle left West London that night hopes must have been high that their Championship status could be secured over the rest of the season.
Muslic, the former Cercle Brugge boss in Belgium, soon found out the fierce competitiveness and ruthlessness of the Championship.
His first three games with Argyle were all at Home Park and they picked up just one point from them, and were thrashed 5-0 by Burnley in the third of them, with all of the goals coming in the first half.
Next up was a trip to the north-east of England to play Sunderland and the Pilgrims snatched a 2-2 draw after a late equaliser from Nathanael Ogbeta, before upsetting promotion-chasing West Bromwich Albion 2-1 at the Theatre of Greens with two late goals from substitute Ryan Hardie.
That game saw defenders Nikola Katic and Maksym Talovierov made their Argyle debuts after joining before the end of the January transfer window.
Katic was on loan from FC Zurich in Switzerland while Talovierov was a club record £1.7 million transfer from Austrian Bundesliga side LASK Linz.
Both impressed against West Brom, but even more so in the following match, which became a very prominent piece of club history as Argyle beat Liverpool, then chasing the ‘quadruple’ under Arne Slot, 1-0 in the FA Cup fourth round.
Liverpool were far from being at full strength as Slot saved his sar players for other challenges but, nonetheless, it was still a significant achievement for Muslic’s side to come out on top.
Hardie tucked away a penalty early in the second half and Argyle then defended solidly after that, with goalkeeper Conor Hazard making a couple of spectacular late saves.
When the Pilgrims followed that famous FA Cup win up with a 5-1 home demolition of Millwall in the Championship the following Wednesday night it looked like they might be able to claw themselves out of relegation trouble.
Argyle head coach Miron Muslic greets Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola before the Emirates FA Cup fifth round match at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, March 1, 2025 - Photo: Dave Rowntree/PPAUK
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Argyle head coach Miron Muslic greets Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola before the Emirates FA Cup fifth round match at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, March 1, 2025 - Photo: Dave Rowntree/PPAUK
Around 8,000 members of the Green Army went to watch Argyle take on Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium in the FA Cup fifth round and saw them put up brave resistance, including taking the lead with a Talovierov header from a Matty Soribola corner, before they were eventually beaten 3-1.
However, on either side of that cup tie, the Pilgrims picked up only two points from five league games before they finally secured their first away Championship win of the season when they beat Portsmouth 2-1 at Fratton Park on March 12.
Argyle came up with impressive home defeats of Norwich City, Sheffield United (both 2-1) and Coventry City (3-1) but that was still not enough to save them from dropping into League One.
They ended the campaign in 23rd position, four points short of being safe from relegation, and went into a summer of huge change at the club.
Muslic abruptly left Argyle to take charge of German 2. Bundesliga side Schalke while key players such as player-of-the-year and top scorer Ryan Hardie, Plymouth-born midfielder Adam Randall and Talovierov all moved on.
Former Watford boss Tom Cleverley was appointed as Argyle’s fifth different head coach since December 2023, while ex-Pilgrims’ midfielder David Fox was brought in as head of football operations, and a major overhaul of the squad took place.
As soon became clear, the recruitment was unbalanced, lacking sufficient experienced players and quality, and Argyle - who had been seen as one of the pre-season favourites for promotion - lost their opening four League One games.
The Pilgrims, who were also hit by a series of early season injuries to some key players, were thumped 4-0 away to Cardiff City at the end of August and loud alarm bells were already ringing.
However, September showed some considerable improvement with three wins out of four in League One and Cleverley being nominated for the manager-of-the-month award.
After beating Burton Albion 4-0 at the Pirelli Stadium on September 27, Argyle were up to 15th place in the table and their difficult start to the season seemed behind them.
Lorent Tolaj celebrates after scoring for Argyle in the League One game against Burton Albion at the Pirelli Stadium on Saturday, September 27, 2025 - Photo: George Wass/PPAUK
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Lorent Tolaj celebrates after scoring for Argyle in the League One game against Burton Albion at the Pirelli Stadium on Saturday, September 27, 2025 - Photo: George Wass/PPAUK
It was a false dawn, though. After conceding a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw at home to Ryan Lowe’s Wigan Athletic, the Pilgrims went on to lose five successive League One games.
The most damaging of those was a 2-0 defeat by arch rivals Exeter City at St James Park on October 23, which was when the Green Army really started to turn on Cleverley and his players.
When bottom-of-the-table Argyle went to 23rd-placed Port Vale on November 22 the pressure really was on. It was a match the Pilgrims could not afford to lose and they dug deep defensively as they came out of it with a 1-0 win after a goal from former Valiants’ striker Lorent Tolaj at the start of the second half.
The Swiss striker had joined Argyle for £1.2m at the end of the summer transfer window and his decisive goal against Vale was already his seventh for them in League One, which was quite a feat in a struggling side.
The win against Port Vale could have been a springboard for the Pilgrims to start moving up the table. Instead, they lost back-to-back home league games against Northampton Town (3-0) and Bradford City (1-0).
The Green Army were still packing Home Park for matches but they made their anger and frustration at Argyle’s dreadful results and performances abundantly clear during the loss to Northampton with chants aimed at Cleverley, the players and Simon Hallett, the club’s owner and chairman.
Argyle director of football Derek Adams before the League One game against Northampton Town at Home Park on Saturday, November 29, 2025 - Photo: Dave Rowntree/PPAUK
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Argyle director of football Derek Adams before the League One game against Northampton Town at Home Park on Saturday, November 29, 2025 - Photo: Dave Rowntree/PPAUK
After the defeat at Huddersfield, Argyle had turned to their former promotion-winning manager Derek Adams and appointed him as director of football to provide support for Cleverley as well as taking the lead on player recruitment for the January transfer window.
Adams attended a fans’ forum at Home Park on December 1, along with Hallett and Paul Berne, who had been appointed as the club’s new chief executive officer after the departure of Andrew Parkinson in September.
Again, the anger and frustration of fans was evident with their questioning of Hallett in particular, with the United States-based businessman admitting from the outset of the meeting that Argyle were paying the price for poor decision-making over a period of time.
Hallett also emphasised that Cleverley had the continued support of the Argyle board of directors, at a time when many fans were calling for a change of head coach to be made.
The defeat by Bradford came five days after the fans’ forum, heaping more pressure on Cleverley and Hallett, but Argyle then responded with back-to-back 1-0 wins, first away to Wycombe Wanderers and then against Rotherham United at the Theatre of Greens.
Cleverley admitted after the latter it was very much a case of substance over style for the Pilgrims as they looked to pick up enough points to start moving away from the bottom of the table.
When they won 5-1 away to Doncaster Rovers on December 20, coming from behind in a game to pick up any points for the first time this season, Argyle seemed to at last have momentum behind them.
However, the two post-Christmas games against Reading and Wycombe were an undoubted setback going into the second half of the season, starting away to Stevenage on New Year's Day.
Argyle are facing a fight to climb away from the bottom four of League One and the Green Army, whose passion for the team has been drained somewhat by their struggles in 2025, need to see from Cleverley and his players their absolute determination to make that happen.
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