Cleverley rues 'painful defeat' in Argyle opener

Plymouth Argyle head coach Tom Cleverley says his side's 3-1 loss to Stockport County was a "painful defeat".

The Pilgrims came into their League One opener at home having beat Devon rivals Exeter City in the first round of the Carabao Cup on Monday night.

But Stockport, who were last season's beaten play-off semi-finalists proved too strong for their hosts, racing into a 2-0 lead after 26 minutes before going on to go 3-0 ahead early in the second half.

"It's a really painful defeat," Cleverley told BBC Radio Devon.

"Everyone's hurting inside that dressing room.

"We've had a lot of optimism around the place for a long time and that wasn't the start to the league campaign that we all planned."

Cleverley had optimism going into the new season having kept the bulk of the side that ended the last campaign with 14 wins from their final 22 games.

It was form that took the Pilgrims from the relegation zone to within touching distance of the play-offs.

But the Argyle boss felt too many of his players were not at the required level against Stockport:

"Focusing on ourselves, first and foremost, I thought the intensity, the duels, the things that have made us really consistent were down," he said.

"I thought the goals are really disappointing ones to concede at key moments, really disappointing.

"The flow of the game, the control of the game was certainly with them, but sometimes that's fine and you get through those periods, but they had the control of the game, we were a little bit late with the press.

"When we got it into areas to regain, we didn't then commit to the duels, we lost second balls, conceded soft goals, and I think it's a performance that, focusing on ourselves, there's a lot to do."