Well this is the one you have all been waiting for. The return of Derek and a spectacle of football rarely seen at Home Park before. The expectation for this match is that it won't be one. It will be a side that digs a trench in their own half and doesn't come out more than once or twice in 90 minutes. In fact football may be the last thing we see. They are rock bottom with our Ex as their manager. A manager who was panned by our supporters when he was here for trying very hard to play no football at all and then blaming the inevitable loss on anyone who moved after the game. Nobody was spared not the players, supporters or officials and perhaps sometimes all three. But it was never Derek. Lets face it we should be winning this one at a canter. But, this is Argyle and we all know that winning at a canter when no other result is expected is perhaps the hardest thing we can do. One thing in our favour is that there has been no new manager bounce for Morecambe. Or, does it start here......................... COYG
So Morecambe today.....and to finish the year off we have Macclesfield away...Cheltenham away and Stevenage at home....we need at least 9 points from these games to be challenging for promotion.....unfortunately McFadzean will be missing....hard player to replace.
Palmer, George Cooper, Wootton, Canavan, Sawyer, Moore, Sarcevic, Josh Grant, Mayor, Telford, Joel Grant. Subs Michael Cooper, Riley, Taylor, Conor Grant, Clarke, Randell, Rudden.
Sorry but gotta say this was the most boring 3 - 0 win I have probably ever seen. We should have put Morecambe to the sword. They were terrible. Best of luck to Adams with that one. The Devonport end sang we not boring any more. News flash yes we are and that had nothing to do with Adams even if they were taunting him.
Let's say first Morecombe were quite possibly the worst side I've ever seen at Home Park. Clueless. The possession stats don't lie and what's more, virtually all of it was in their half: we weren't passing it around at the back. Scott Wootton twice got crosses into the box which tells you a lot about our territorial superiority, If it was a boxing match, it would have been stopped in Round 8. Neither were we in anyway lucky because of the way we scored, The red card came as Dom Telford had the goal at his mercy one-on-one with the keeper. The resulting free kick from Cooper was sublime and the goal merely justice for the one Telford would surely have scored. Graham Carey, eat your heart out. The penalty was stonewall: and again Joel Grant was about to square the ball into a crowded 6 yard box that might well have yielded a goal. By my count, we hit the woodwork three times, including a curving thunderbolt from Danny Mayor which struck the bar with such venom that a structural safety check on the goal was required at halftime. Why oh why doesn't he do that more often? If you were considering both sides, MotM was Halstead, the Morecombe keeper who made several annoyingly good saves. More conventionally, I'll go with George Cooper who was unplayable at LWB and scored a peach, You may detect a difference of opinion between myself and Sensible. There isn't. It's not that we could have won this by 6 or 7 but that we should have. Some of the crossing was poor and Cooper was probably the worst culprit with almost everything he hit going well past the far post. We don't have big strikers and we must get the ball in there accurately if we are to succeed. Equally, the shooting was erratic and we really need to get better quality in both areas. With a big game in terms of it's potential for a place in the Third Round coming up on Tuesday, it may be that feet were taken off the gas in the second half given that we were so superior. Nevertheless, a fluke Morecombe goal could have left us scrabbling around at the end to avoid a 2-2 fiasco. We didn't put to bed until the 91st minute and anything under 3 points would have been ridiculous against this lot. A word for the officials. Excellent. The lino effectively gave both the red card and the penalty. Flag straight up and stayed up, no hesitation. I saw the them speak on the radio and the ref went straight for the red card and afterwards put a thumb up to the lino. Can we have them every week please?
Comments about Derek Adams reading of the game in his post match interview on pasoti suggest that he only sees what he wants.
Any thought the fans turned on the team are utter bollocks, as is the statement that Morecombe were comfortable at any stage. We set up camp in their final third from the first whistle: it did turn a bit more scrappy for 15 minutes later in the first half and they got a bit further forward without really threatening... but then we broke away and got the fatal free kick and red card - to repeat, both entirely justified - and that was it. What the fans did do was chat Ryan Lowe's name throughout, which is rather unusual, and must be taken as a deliberate insult to Adams who never got the same, even in his good times. And then there was: " We're not boring, we're not boring, we're not boring any more" and you don't have to be a genius to work out what that meant.
My boring comment was that this game was not exciting as it was a foregone conclusion about 1 minute into it. However, normally we play the ball around in our own half for 10 minutes before anything happens and that bores me so to sing we aren't is not strictly true. But, I obviously realise it was a poke at Adams who was even more boring and we got relegated still doing it. Adams had a go in the technical area as well. He actually was in our's at the time. Mayor was cynically brought down from behind right in front of the dugouts. It was a nasty challenge and clearly meant. Lowe obviously went a bit OTT whilst the Ref was booking their man. Adams could clearly see it was a cynical assault on Mayor and I would not be shocked if he hadn't told them to kick him. A normal person would accept the opposition having a toot about the kick but Adams of course had to chip in and start waving his finger about. Then, at the end of the game he does a press conference and reverts to saying all the crap he used to say when he was here. Notdistant is right at no time whatsoever did anyone in the Ground get on Argyle's back. Not even close. No wonder other Managers think Adams is a complete nob because he just confirms their opinion every time he opens his mouth.m Morecambe are welcome to him and if they stay up then it will be a miracle.
I missed that yellow card - you are right it did look a nasty challenge and deserved a card. The fact he was booked removes my one gripe about the ref. I thought he hadn't booked their Brewit for GBH but then did book Josh Grant 10 minutes later for a mere trip, albeit a cynical one.
