Match Day Thread Plymouth Argyle v Sunderland - Saturday 3rd November - KO 15:00

Sunderland visit Plymouth Argyle in League One

Last time out Sunderland beat Southend and Plymouth beat Scunthorpe.
The Black Cats make the long away trip down to Devon. Jack Ross will be without Watmore, Wyke and Hume through injury, but there is some good news with Loovens back in the squad and both Wyke and Watmore making good progress in their respective recoveries. Max Power misses this final game of his 4 match ban.
Argyle’s season is just kick starting with 2 consecutive league wins, helping them to move off the bottom of the table.
Both teams will wear black arm bands in respect for the tragic events at Leicester.
Jack Ross:
“I think we’ve shown already that we’ll continue to get good results, but if there is an improvement to come within the squad, and I think that there is a little bit, that should stand us in good stead as well.”
“Everything I’ve seen of them (Plymouth), the manner in which they were playing when they weren’t getting results, was fairly open and expansive, and I’ve always felt like those types of opposition have suited us better this season.”
"For the players, rather than there being any complacency, I think they’re absolutely loving playing football at the moment and they’re desperate to get back on the pitch and play and continue to bang out positive results."
"Saturday will be the same, and every away game that I’ve mentioned before has been challenging, and this one obviously becomes even more challenging because of the logistics involved in travelling."
Derek Adams:
“Scott Wootton is still with the medical team. He was due to return but has had a setback so he will be out for another couple of weeks.”
“Ryan Edwards has got a chest infection and has been to see the doctor about that. He’s not training. He’s just resting at this moment in time. They are checking out his lung function to see what the requirements are.”
"Sunderland are a team that should be in a higher division, they have come down from the Premier League. They probably shouldn’t be in League One but they are in League One for whatever reason. It is not a test for us, it is an enjoyable afternoon for us to go and play a team that shouldn’t be in this division."



Match Appointments:
Referee: CARL BOYESON
Assistants: Michael Webb and Simon Shaw
Fourth Official: Ronald Ganfield

Team Line ups
Sunderland: McLaughlin, Flanagan, Baldwin, Matthews, James, Cattermole, Honeyman, Maguire, Maja, Sinclair, Gooch

Substitutes: Ruiter, Loovens, Oviedo, McGeady, McGeouch, O’Nien, Mumba
Injured:
Watmore, Wyke, Hume, Love, Robson
Suspended: Power

Plymouth Argyle (4-3-3): Matt Macey, Tafari Moore, Yann Songo'o, Niall Canavan, Conor Grant; David Fox (capt), Jamie Ness, Antoni Sarcevic; Graham Carey, Freddie Ladapo, Joel Grant.
Substitutes: Ruben Lameiras, Stuart O’Keefe, Gregg Wylde, Kyle Letheren (gk), Ashley Smith-Brown, Peter Grant, Luke Jephcott.
Injured: Edwards, Wootton, Riley, Sawyer, Taylor

Betting Odds:
H 29/10 A 10/11 D 13/5

My two pence:
Argyle have had a horrible season so far, but they have won their last two league games. Having said that, we are on a roll now and seem to be learning how to keep clean sheets and close out games.
So my guess is a 2-0 away win

Ha’way the Lads

 

Good work again mate
Cheers

 

Can’t see our bubble bursting in this match.

1-3 to the lads.

Bart

 

If we take Adams comments at face value I would expect a good 3-0 win at least. However I think he is just blowing smoke. Though they have opened up and knocked in 7 goals in the last 2 games it would seem likely to me, that he will (as all others before him) wind up his team to get in our faces and try and wind us up and stop any kind of flow from our players. So. Tight game but we should wear them down and see a 0-1 or even a late 0-2 to us.
KTF

 

I doubt he is trying to wind up our players noggieland. Adams style would much more likely be put up a wall and defend defend defend so as not to lose. We were quite good at that last term but this term, as our goal difference would suggest, we have been a bit leaky so to speak. Even though our form last season got better and better it disguised a style of football that could at best be described as dour mostly. We definately were not exciting but the fans accepted it on a run that took us almost into the play offs from rock bottom. I think foolishly the fans seem to be expecting the same outcome this time around.

On our day we are capable of giving most teams a run for their money in this league. A lot depends on which Argyle turn up. I think most of you started this season with the opinion you were or should be almost unbeatable but I also think most have come down to earth a bit since then. No game is basically easy but you should have enough fire power to make it into the top 2 before season end. I can understand the we were losing week on week but now it's great and we are winning thing. I did tell you all somewhere a while back that even though this is league one and the clubs are not the most glamourous around you would enjoy this season and it looks like you just might.

I said to RTB on our board that I hope you all have a safe journey down and back this weekend. I also hope the game is worth the time and effort even if I hope you go away with empty hands.

 

You think wrong then, yes there was cautious and justified optimism but I'm sure that results have exceeded most of our expectations. Bearing in mind the turnover of personnel from top to bottom and our long term habit of losing every ****ing game.

I hoped that we'd have enough quality in the squad and Ross would turn out to be a good manager and both have worked out but the idea of expecting us to be unbeatable is laughable considering the misery we've been through these recent years.

 

I think I said "almost unbeatable" not that you would be unbeatable. You should be optimistic given your resources which are, whether you like it or not, probably the largest in the league. We went through 2 relegations back to back and ended up in Administration at the bottom of the whole football league and trying hard not to stand on the trapdoor to the Conference. So, along with a few other clubs in this league we feel your pain and also feel your happiness now things seem to have come to a halt and an upward movement is more likely. There is a lot of misery from past experience in leagues one and two. But, now is now and all of that is behind.

I'm hoping for a good game on Saturday with a good atmosphere and no dickheads trying to be macho. That's mainly on our side by the way as we do have a few idiots. Bring as many as you can because we need the cash.

 

Firstly as I say every week don't underestimate the opposition and thankfully I haven't seen Jack Ross or the team being guilty of this.
Seems Lapado up front has found his shooting boots,recently so keep him quiet and we should have enough for a 2-0 win.

 

Do we go and attack - or pack the midfield?

 

I like the look of that team RTB, and with quality on the bench now we should be too strong for Plymouth over the 90+ mins, but as Sensiblegreeny says, no game is easy, (which I for one never thought it would be), tight games are the rule rather than the exception in this league as in most, and I expect another one here with us shading it by the odd goal, I would be chuffed with a 1-0 tbh. just to keep our run going, and increase the pressure on the teams around us.

 

Is cats injured

 

He is

 

please log in to view this image

 

Time for McGeough to step up with Catts out. I hope Honeyman does well at CM after bigging him up all season.

 

What’s the record for the most players with the same initial on the pitch at one time . We could have 7 today

 

We'll see how good or otherwise Catts is today and he's not even playing.
Lost our steel in midfield, will we cope lets wait and see.

 

Canny turn out

please log in to view this image

 

Perhaps it would have been better to put the camera on the other side of the pitch

please log in to view this image