Argyle secure Championship survival with Edwards winner

PLYMOUTH Argyle will be playing Championship football again next season after beating Hull City 1-0 at Home Park on the final day of the 2023/24 campaign.

- CHRIS ERRINGTON

The Pilgrims avoided relegation back to League One after a nerve-shredding game, with captain Joe Edwards getting the all-important goal late in the first half. Edwards, who joined Argyle as Ryan Lowe’s first signing as manager in the summer of 2019, played like a man possessed as Argyle clinched the victory they so desperately craved.

It took the three points to keep them up as well, with Birmingham City winning 1-0 at home to Norwich City. A draw would have seen the Pilgrims drop back into League One.

Instead, they can now plan for a second consecutive season in the Championship while Birmingham will join Huddersfield Town and Rotherham United in League One next term.

Ryan Hardie returned to lead Argyle’s attack against Hull as one of two changes from the 1-0 defeat away to Millwall while Alfie Devine, the 19-year-old loan signing from Tottenham Hotspur, also came into the side.

Ben Waine and Brendan Galloway dropped down to the bench, and Jordan Houghton was also among the substitutes after illness ruled him out of the previous match.

Joe Edwards captained Argyle as they lined up in a 3-4-2-1 formation against Hull, who brought Liam Delap into the team for Abdulkadir Omur after drawing 3-3 at home to Ipswich Town the previous Saturday.

Devine was in central midfield alongside Argyle academy product Adam Randell, with Edwards and Bali Mumba on either side of them as wing-backs.

Mustapha Bundu and Morgan Whittaker, who needed one more goal to become the first Pilgrims’ player since Steve Castle in 1993/94 to reach 20 in a league season, were the attacking support for Hardie.