Tom Cleverley has described Plymouth Argyle's rise into the League One play-off places as a "significant moment", though the head coach was quick to temper any sense of arrival with a reminder of how little September promises.

"You don't win any trophies or any prizes for being sixth in September," Cleverley told BBC Radio Devon after Saturday's 3-0 defeat of Barnsley at Home Park. "But it's a significant moment. We've not been there under myself and there's been a lot of hard work to get the 10 points from a really difficult six fixtures."

That careful framing is worth taking seriously. Cleverley is right that a top-six berth at this point in the season is a marker rather than a destination, and the table shifts violently enough in the third tier that this week's sixth place can easily become next week's ninth. But context matters: barring a handful of minutes on the final day last season, Argyle had not occupied a play-off position at any point during Cleverley's tenure before this result. Moving there with purpose, off the back of what the manager himself called a targeted block of fixtures, is a different thing from drifting in on goal difference.

The win over Barnsley set the tone inside 20 seconds. On-loan forward Oliver Irow, 20 years old and on a temporary deal from a Premier League club, drove Argyle ahead almost from the kick-off. The goal, struck with power and direction from outside the area after a rapid first touch to cut inside the full-back, drew particular praise from Cleverley.

"Thinking back, it's the best goal I've seen at Home Park," he said. "The first touch is really impressive, the ball gets switched out to him, to take the first touch inside his full back and then produce a strike of such power and direction and quality. We've got a player who's got X-factor and those kinds of players turn tight games into two winning games, turn draws into wins."

There was also a small tactical story behind the goal. Cleverley had spent part of the week working on kick-off routines after Plymouth had conceded from one at Leicester City and seen Doncaster Rovers go close from another. The fruits of that work arrived in spectacular, if slightly unexpected, fashion.

"It was an area of the game that I thought we could easily improve, so we did some work on it and I didn't expect it to end up in a 25-yard top corner goal," he said. "But you should always get territory from your own kick-offs and we've been working on that, so pleased to see it come out today."

The detail matters because it points to a coaching staff paying attention to the margins. Giving away a goal directly from a set piece or restart is exactly the kind of avoidable error that costs teams in the third tier, where fine margins between automatic promotion, the play-offs and mid-table can hinge on two or three points across a season. The fact that Cleverley identified the problem, worked on it and then watched it produce the opening goal rather than concede one is a reasonable sign of a group that is improving in the right direction.

Ten points from six games is the headline number Cleverley keeps returning to, and it is a fair one. He acknowledged it matched what Argyle would have targeted from that run at the outset. The next question is whether the squad can sustain the momentum now that expectations have quietly shifted upward.

Cleverley's warning about complacency suggests he is already thinking about that. "We've got momentum and we need to not be complacent with that momentum, keep hold of it, work hard for it and push forward," he said.

For a club that spent most of last season looking over its shoulder at the wrong end of the table, reaching the play-off positions with a measure of intent is a genuinely different conversation. Whether it holds through October is a different matter, but this is at least a foundation worth building on.

Frequently asked

Where are Plymouth Argyle in the League One table?
Plymouth Argyle moved into the League One top six, the play-off places, following their 3-0 win over Barnsley at Home Park.
Who scored Plymouth's opening goal against Barnsley?
On-loan forward Oliver Irow scored inside 20 seconds, striking from outside the area after a sharp first touch to cut inside the full-back.
How long has Tom Cleverley been Plymouth Argyle manager?
Cleverley took over at Plymouth Argyle the summer before the current season. The 3-0 win over Barnsley was the first time Argyle had moved into the top six under his management, outside of a few minutes on the final day of the previous campaign.