Ash Eastham keen to beat Plymouth Argyle to banish memories of Home Park defeat

Ash Eastham is keen to beat Plymouth Argyle on home turf this weekend and banish memories of their defeat in the reverse fixture.

Town lost 2-1 at Home Park last November when Freddie Ladapo’s double undid all of their hard work despite Paddy Madden pulling one back late on.

Back then Plymouth were in the midst of a relegation battle but, fast forward four months, and Derek Adams’ men have climbed to within four points of 10th-placed Town.

Eastham said: “They are a team that have picked up form having had a tough start to the season.

“It is another team that we want to put in a performance against because we feel we were not satisfied with our performance down there earlier in the season.

“Having been in the game so well, to kind of give it away late on was disappointing.

“Going into a two-week break with the Sunderland game being cancelled, it is one where a win will send everyone away with good messages and confidence going into that final eight-game push.”

Town boss Joey Barton is also keen to get back to winning ways at home with their last win at Highbury being the 1-0 victory over Charlton Athletic at the start of February.

They also go into the game on the back of losses at Walsall and Coventry City.

Barton said: “We have not been fantastic at home recently and it is important that we are knocking these off.

“First half I felt we were excellent at Walsall, second half terrible.

“On Tuesday night, for 90 minutes, it was a 90-minute performance barring a couple of freak incidents.

“We went in at half-time having faced one shot on target and we are 2-1 down.

“Sometimes you are scratching your head but for me it is about levels of performance, turning up and showing what Fleetwood Town are about.

“I felt we did that if we cut out those individual errors.

“We did not manage to take valuable points back to Highbury but we get a chance to put that right very quickly at home against Plymouth.”