Frustrating end of season game which Argyle should have had won in the first half. Played on a blustery day brightened mainly by the Hartlepool International Rescue fans accompanied by a small number of Lady Penelopes. It was a close run thing as to whether the beach balls they brought with them for reasons unknown would blow away in the stiff breeze before or after Jason Banton suffered the same fate. Sheridan set out a conventional 4:4:2 but containing some bizaare individual selections. Positives Nelson Trotman Young in a deep lying quarter back role Hourihane Gurreiri trying hard where he's best suited - on the wing, not at full back, Mr. Sheridan please take note. Reid, who did more in 20 minutes than Showunmi did in 70. Negatives Boco and Showunmi hopeully both straight down to the station and off to somewhere else after being substituted Sheridan who managed to select a centre back (Blanchard) at right back, meaning Berry, who's a good right back, had to play on the left where he's cr*p and Purrington, who you'd have thought would have benefitted from a game with no pressure, sat the 90 minutes out on the bench. Cole, some bizarre moments again. Undecided Banton good tricks but only decent challenge he dared make was on Gurreiri.
Why play Showunmi in the first place....he'll be gone next week....chance to check out players that are not on loan and might show Sheridan what they're worth (or not). Shambols comes to mind.....Sheridan has gone down hill in recent weeks....very worrying personally.
I am informed that Showunmi doesn't have a club next season so i suppose that was the justification for playing him ( i.e. thinking about a permanent deal)-not for me, he has done nothing since being here. As for the rest, Young , Conner, Gurrieri, all played well and enhanced their chances of a deal. berry was woeful- goodbye blanchard was his usual slow witted self- sorry, much as i like the guy i expect he will be off Wotton is obviously now on the coaching staff and sadly i suspect thomas is on his way out. Apart from being very cold and wet in row q of the lyndhurst it was a typical end of season affair- respect to the 'pool fans.
Best part of the day them Hartlepoool people. Pity our stewards didn't have a sense of humour as well. I won't go on about the stewards but they are a pitifull bunch of idiots. To be fair to Berry lyndhurst he was being played totally on the wrong side of the pitch. He is a fairly usefull full back in his proper place which incidently isn't an overlaping back. There were few on show today who I would want to see back here next term. Think Gurrieri is maybe worth another season. Never going to be the greatest but he does try and is a half decent squad player. Don't know why he plays Bocco and Shawumni did nothing much at all. Trust Argyle not to give the fans something to be cheerful about at the last attempt. As you say lyndhurst, it was bloody cold out there today. Strange given the weather we have had this season that I don't remember getting soaked much or freezing much yet this match, normally where people could wear shorts and tee shirt, it was the opposite.
I have to stand up for Berry. He's played some really good games for us at right-back - I believe it might have been Sheridan that described him as "the best right-back in League 2". OK, a fairly limited compliment but we are IN League 2! Time after time when he's on the left, he has to turn infield or even backwards because he's not comfortable with the ball on his left side. And when he does get into a promising position, he can't cross it or pass properly with his left. Now you may say that professional players should be able to use either foot but this is League 2, not the Champions League. Berry plays very well at right-back and that's where he should be selected. He's not the only one BTW, I thought Banton was going to miss his chance because he doesn't look anything like as confident on his left foot as he does on his right. Note to Mr Sheridan: make sure you get some left footed players this summer. Also, to repeat myself, given Blanchard (who's a decent CB BTW) was dumped unceremoniously out of the squad, never mine the team, against Bury, why select him at RB today when Purrington played so well at LB earlier in the season? All that did was to play both Blanchard and Berry out of position with predictable consequences and deny Purrington good experience in a relatively easy end-of-season game. I thought the players looked miserable during the so called "lap of honour", not quite as bad as against Oxford but grim. You may say it's rightly so, but it doesn't look a happy camp. I agree that Thomas looked semi-detached: went around on his own at the tail end of the pack and gave his shirt to someone in the crowd. Do we think he's had a chance to prove himself? As far as I can remember, I've barely seen him and I've been to about every other home game recently. Just as a further depressing end of season note. We were 7th briefly and have been rubbish since then. Have we won only 1 in the last 8, something like that? We are still bl**dy 9th, how little it would have taken to get us there!
My thoughts on an earlier post about being7th and not winning, as every one above us were awfull and we are 9th as you say.. i blame Sheridan not the players.. but then again its better than being the other end and fighting to stay up... in all i would say its been a good season.. but could have been better over the last few weeks.. the way it was looking it could have been auto.. but we live to dream...
It is disappointing that we have sunk to the level of beiing reasonably happy with the top half of what is in honesty a very mediocre BASEMENT DIVISION of the football league....20yrs ago we would of been aghast at such a thought....let alone suffering it in reality.
The point is plym that 20 years ago we were in it and had been for a while so were used to the type of football on offer. The bottom league was always bloody aweful and still is. We are in it and have only got league 2 players so not surprising we are as aweful as the rest and worse than some. Having been to the championship more recently than a number in this league we became expectant of better. All that has gone and is not going to be handed back to us free of charge. Even if we fight out way out of this league it would be mamoth to expect us to repeat it in league one. We know Brent won't fund it and there is no way the fans will increase enough to do the job. To get even close to the championship now is going to require a bit of a miracle however much we think we should be there or want it.
