MANAGER Paul Sturrock has called on his players to show confidence in their own ability when Argyle visit Burnley on Saturday.

The Pilgrims travel to Turf Moor on the back of a hugely disappointing 1-0 home defeat to Swansea last weekend.

Luggy was left gutted by the performance against the Swans and feels a lack of belief led to his team playing a lot of hopeful first-time punts forward.

"I want my players to be confident on Saturday, confident of taking the ball," he said.

"It is something that was drastically missed and we eventually got tarred with the brush of hoof-football on Saturday, which is furthest from my thoughts of how I want to play the game.

"It means my players did not respond properly to the criticism they were getting around the stadium as far as the fans were concerned from an early stage in the game.

"It meant we were playing a lot of one-touch football. It was definitely not ordered.

"We cleared the air on Monday to hopefully get a more confident team. I can't promise a winning team yet but a more confident team to do the things we want to do."

The training ground has been where Luggy and his team went to seek solace after the Swansea loss, and the manager was pleased with what he found.

"It has been a difficult week," he said. "The performance on Saturday was obviously unacceptable to the standards we had achieved against Wolves [in the opening day 2-2 draw], which frustrated me amazingly.

"To be fair, they have responded to everything we have asked of them on the training ground. The proof will be in the pudding of how confident they are when they run out on Saturday.

"I have a problem because there are certain players who been playing regularly who think the styles have been debatable."

Confidence and styles of play are a couple of dilemmas Luggy has to solve, but the fitness of his newest recruits is a further concern.

Chris Barker and Simon Walton both arrived in the week before the season started, and they have been playing a game of fitness-catch-up ever since.

Walton, in particular, has to go back to square one because Luggy feels his fantastic early development in the game cost him the grounding that is essential to the career of any budding pro.

Luggy said: "We have one or two players with debatable fitness levels, who are trying to catch up.

"There were one or two I did not think were up to speed, who are now pushing on. The two boys [Walton and Barker] who came latterly are definitely showing signs of sharpness.

"How do you get them sharp without playing them? You can do all the ball-work you want and all the running, but you need the sharpness of thought and sharpness of action that only a game can bring on.

"Walton has not shown what he can achieve. I am excited about him but my problem is that from 17-years-old he has been lauded as a first-team player and given the rights of a first-team player to walk off the training ground at 12 and not be seen again.

"He has missed that three year backbone of solid work. I told him he is about to receive that in a meeting I had with him individually.

"His tactical thoughtfulness is also naïve, so there are lots of things I am going to have to talk to him about."

One man who could help boost the confidence of the whole squad is talismanic Hungarian defender Krisztián Timár.

The Beast came through 90 minutes of reserve team football on Tuesday and showed, along with others, that he is ready for first-team action.

Luggy said: "Timár came through the [reserve] game and I feel he is ready now, so there is a chance he could be involved.

"There was no pressure [in playing for the reserves]; it was a nice pitch and a sunny day. The only pressure was put on by me telling them that if they wanted to play in the first-team, we had to see it.

"They all responded properly and I was very pleased with their attitude. Sometimes, when first-team players go into the reserves, they have a sub-conscious problem with it.

"They have given me food for thought. Whether there are changes or not, I have one or two things in mind and it is something we will have to deliberate over."