Following the 90th-minute goal against Exeter City on Saturday that condemned the Grecians to their fourth defeat of 2015, I thought supporters could do with a little cheering up ahead of this weekend's Devon derby.
Therefore, I have devised an alternative League Two table, in which Paul Tisdale's side are currently in the promotion places with Shrewsbury and Wycombe Wanderers, while Plymouth Argyle are getting relegated to the Conference with Mansfield Town.
It obviously has to reflect something that City have been good at this season, but at the same time highlight an area of the game that their neighbours from down the A38 have faltered with. It is of course City's ability to gain points from losing positions this campaign.
For the table, see images above.
When City came from two goals down to grab a point at home to Cambridge last Tuesday, it represented the 10th match this season when they have shown the character and resolve to battle back from behind to get at least a point.
Prior to that match, City actually had the best record this season for gaining points from losing positions – it was only injury-time goals from Shrewsbury's Jim Collins and Mickey Demetriou that saw them leapfrog City in the standings – thanks to a 2-1 win at Carlisle.
Perhaps Paul Cox's side learnt something about how to adopt a never-say-die attitude when the Grecians stormed back from two goals down against them at St James's Park in November to win with an injury-time header from Tom Nichols – arguably the stand-out moment of City's campaign so far.
Plymouth, by contrast, have not won a league game this season after going behind and have only drawn two games – against Burton Albion and Stevenage – after letting in the first goal.
So does that mean City don't need to be concerned about conceding first on Saturday and can head into the game confident that if they do falter they can turn the match around?
No, far from it. This is because Plymouth obviously haven't got to where they are in the table – seventh position – by being bad at everything.
If they have a poor record of getting results when they concede first, you can bet your ticket for the derby match on Saturday, that they are pretty good at something else.
Argyle have taken the lead in 17 of their 31 games this season and they have won 15 of them. They have kept 16 clean sheets this campaign – 13 more than Exeter – and have the second best defensive record in the division. Therefore you could argue that while they might not be good at recovering from going behind they are one of the best at holding onto an advantage – making the first goal on Saturday very important.
If City do concede the first goal on Saturday they will find it more difficult than they have in previous games this season to recover.
Therefore their best tactic might be to go for an early goal and hope that a few Plymouth players heads drop instead.
