McPhee delighted with the response of Parkway players

IT was the former Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, who famously said that a week is a long time in politics.

- STUART JAMES

Plymouth Parkway manager Chris McPhee might just be feeling it's a long time in football as well after seven days of very contrasting fortunes at Bolitho Park.

Just under two weeks ago, Parkway headed to Hungerford and it was a somewhat shell-shocked and understandably quiet coach that returned home after a 9-3 mauling that made history of the unwanted kind.

Skip forward a week and it was history of the right kind being made as the club reached the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup for the first time in their history with a fantastic 3-0 win at Sittingbourne. A major contrast of fortunes indeed but after that Hungerford humiliation, McPhee was a far happier man that looked ahead to tomorrow's FA Trophy third qualifying round clash with Banbury United and reflected on the past week at Bolitho Park.

"It was a good weekend off the back of a really important turnaround from the players' perspective and ours as a club when, a week prior, we'd taken a heavy defeat and highlighting some issues within our play," McPhee said.

"The players worked hard to address them and we have done that as well. Last Saturday was a fantastic experience from the journey up, the overnight stay and the players coming together and showing they are not just good players, but good characters on and off the pitch and that led into the game on Saturday.