Argyle's defensive record is ok..... average in fact for this division.....our season has been dependent on them doing their job well,on a whole they have not let Argyle down. Where Argyle have been let down is scoring goals, the two experienced strikers (by that I mean career Games played) are Chadwick 2 from 25 games and Feeney 3 from 22 games this season....this is an appalling goal tally in this basement level of Div 2. We seem to depend on Banton 5 from 8 games since coming on loan from Palace, that is basically his whole league experience, obviously a bright future beckons for him but certainly not at PAFC. Hourihane 5 from 39 games & Cowan-Hall 5 from 36 games are the nearest we have to regular scorers. We have recently put our faith in Reid a Div 1 reject at present,also in Ugwu and Murray who scored his only goal last week.....22 games between them for one solitary goal. It is becoming very plain now that if they don't all start scoring regulary we are doomed to relegation from this dismal basement league. If Banton gets injured we could close up shop now and book our summer holidays and start checking out Conference destinations for next season. The frustrating thing to me is that on paper we are no worse than nearly half this league.....yet we cannot turn good sessions in matches into winning 3pts more regularly........if it doesn't happen very soon we will find ourselves at are lowest pecking order for over 90 years.....and that is longer than my memory stretches back for sure.
This is where I struggle to understand the decision with Griffiths yes he struggled with fitness I know but the guy has scored goals for fun all his career and his return for minutes on the pitch for us was pretty good, if not our best. Personally would have wrapped him in cotton wool during training and just brought him out on match day until the end of the season. The financial side is not known but I would have thought we would have had to pay at the minimum a % of his wages as a pay off if not all so how did we benefit from that? As for Reid was a bully of a player at youth level but when it comes to the grown ups exactly the same player we let go a few years ago.... Not good enough!!!! Chadwick should have been released after that idiotic red card what message does it send to the kids? Griff worked hard, got injured and get rid but Ginge acts like a 5 year old (apologies to my son and all other 5 year olds) and is kept on...poor decision for me. I mentioned last week that I thought it was one of our strikers made a really poor, confidence lacking, decision in taking a touch on the edge of the 6 yard box instead of smacking the printing off the ball and for me that is our real problem. In a dog fight for survival do we really want some promising kids and experienced secondary strikers(Feeney and Chad) imho HELL NO but unfortunately it is what we now have. As for our new attack that is fully down to Sheridan did we upgrade from Fletcher I think not. Why? Brent is a greedy money grabbing personna non grata (to be polite as I can) Double G relegation, greens and gulls, as I predicted a few weeks ago and nothing showing to change my opinion at the moment hoping York will take our spot but no reason to believe it as yet.
Our inability to score has been the defining factor for more than just this season. Nobody brought in has managed to click in any shape or form. Goals have been in dribs and drabs so hence our position once more. We have always struggled with the 20+ goal a season striker conundrome. We have had a few in our time but it is as rare as my Mrs smiling at me. This probably means we have to win 5 more at 1 - 0 because I can't see us finding form in front of goal anytime soon. I'd settle for that of course but that once again relies on the defence to keep clean sheets and we haven't had that many of them either. I do agree with plym though that our mess is not the making of the defenders and it is the other end of the park the troubles keep coming.
Football was a team game last time I looked. Twenty goal a season strikers are rare at all levels and if you can find one, he'll probably cost you an arm & a leg and then promptly lose form or get injured. Most teams have to find a method of play which gets goals & results without reliance on one individual. Successive Argyle managers have failed to do that since Sturrock I. Personally, I think we went the wrong way under Fletcher by trying to play pretty football, partly perhaps in response to fan pressure after the Sturrock II "hoofball" era. In this league, nothing succeeds so regularly as strength & height and front & back, with a bit of pace added around it if you can find it.
Without analysing how each goal is scored......I ask the question, how many goals do we actually score from inside the 6 yard box that come from mid-field defence splitting passes ? The one goal at Wimbledon that I saw....was from Banton cutting inside from off his wing and getting into the penalty area........is that normally the way for his other goals ? Hourihane's excellent goal against Barnet was I think on the edge of the penalty area, Murray's in the same match was probably inside the six yard area....although it was from an attempted clearance if my memory serves me right. So Reid,Murray and Ugwu seem to be living on the dregs.....long hopeful balls to chase and hopefull balls centred from the wing. So you can see that I'm not too keen on our attacking mid-field potential......throughout the season Hourihane has been a constant choice for that mid-field, isn't it about time we tried something different ? Also I would of thought a game Like the Gillingham match needed someone like Wotton in front of the back four to help win the ball back. Your Views Please !!!
I don't pretend to know much about your team but you did have two good chances that required the best from our keeper Stuart Nelson. Therefore you could blame the lack of chances created, however, keep in mind not many teams are scoring more than the odd goal against our defence this season. I felt you had every chance of snatching a draw near the end due to changes that we made. The players that I can best describe caught my attention the most wearing a Green shirt were, 14 Bhasera and 19 Banton.
Crystal Palace will probably sell Banton on in a year or so.....potential beyond this crap division.....if he puts his mind to it he could go far.
The Murray goal was a rebound from an effort that fell at his feet just outside the 6 yard box plym. I agree with notdistant that it isn't necessary to have a 20 goal a season striker even if it would be nice. Even scoring from all areas is much the better and Sturrocks side had that in the first stint. But, we are firing blanks from all areas generally and have been for a long time now. If everyone in the team baring the keeper scored 5 each that would get us quite a few points. One player scoring 20 with the rest scoring one each wouldn't. Simple fact is we need to win games and no other outcome will do. However we achieve that I don't care but achieve it we must. I am struggling to see where the results will come from. My mate reckoned he had us down for 17 points which included the Barnet game. He started with 3 and it's still 3. That means for him to be right we have to get 14 from 30. Sheridan has almost achieved that ratio up to now. I still can't see it but if ever I wanted somebody to say "I told you so" it's with this one.
