Nolan predicts underachieving Plymouth to fly up the League One table

The Pilgrims, who appointed former Watford boss and Manchester United midfielder Tom Cleverley in the summer, spent two years in the Championship before relegation last season. They were expected to challenge at the top end of League One this term but, so far, it’s not worked out that way.

But victory over Port Vale last time out lifted Argyle off the foot of the table and, with players on their way back from injury, Nolan expects them to kick on as his side make the nine-hour round trip to Devon this weekend.

Nolan said: “We always seem to play teams when they are just getting players back! It’ll be another tough one and we have to go there and match them because they’re coming off a very good win and an important win at Port Vale last weekend.

"They should be higher up with the resources and the financial backing they have but I would expect them to be at least in the top half by the end of the season and potentially pushing for play-offs. It’s a tough one but they are all tough.

"We haven’t done too well against teams who have been down there so far this season so it’s a good test of my lads to show the right mentality and to see if they can reproduce the performance against Cardiff. If they do that, I’m sure they’ll get their rewards.”

Nolan was generally pleased with his side’s showing in the defeat to Cardiff but he has made one or two ‘tweaks’ in training this week.

"We've been through a lot of it with the lads and showed them bits where we can learn and get better,” he added. “It's just small tweaks but they are things that can help and it's important to show the players the visuals so they can see it for themselves and then take it onto the grass.

"It’s good to be positive about the performance, and we were happy with how we played on Saturday, but you’ve got to learn as well. But there are some real good points where we can learn and there are some very good bits of play that we can build on and take into this weekend.”