Having to go exceptionally early with this one due to holidays (again), so no guarantee I’d be around to post this next Friday, so once again a bit shorter than I’d ordinarily like (sorry folks). We will be heading into next weekend following what should have been our toughest test to date, having played title favourites Luton Town at Kenilworth Road. Come win, draw or defeat in that game, I believe we can all be pretty happy with the start our fine, young Bluebirds squad has made to life in League 1. We all hoped we’d see some kind of reaction and it’s fair to say we have absolutely seen one since the introduction of new gaffer Barry Brian-Murphy and in the influx of youngsters from our age grade teams. Our opponents at the CCS however appear to be experiencing the absolute opposite, despite the appointment of a new manager and also having followed us down from the Championship last season – Plymouth it seems are struggling to throw off their post Rooney blues… Who Are You? For the second game in a row we face our fellow relegation sufferers, with Plymouth Argyle having managed to finish 1 place and 2 points better off than us after 46 games last season. Since that relegation nightmare it seems the Pilgrims are still yet to awake from their terrible dreams, suffering defeat in every game in League 1 so far (at the time of writing). Upon their relegation, previous manager Miron Muslic was swiftly out of the door, jumping ship to take over at 2 Bundesliga side Shalke. Muslic was fairly swiftly replaced by ex-Watford boss Tom Cleverley, a move which I’m sure most would have considered to be a safe and sensible one? Since then though the transfer merry-go round has kicked in with several departures and arrivals taking place. Departure wise the Pilgrims lost striker Ryan Hardie to Hollywood Clowns FC, Midfielder Adam Randall to their west country cousins/sisters/brothers/mothers Bristol City, Nat Ogbeta to Barnsley, Michael Baidoo to Qatar and record signing defender Maksym Talovierov to Stoke. A flux of new signings have also been made and looking at their squad, the names that stand out are highly rated defender Matty Sorinola (ex-Jack and MK Dons), ex-Wurzel & JB Jamie Paterson and ex-Everton youngster Brendan Galloway. Former St Mirren forward Owen Oseni may also be one to watch. First And Last Our first ever game v Plymouth was a resounding 4-1 win in a division 2 game in September 1930, played out in front of just 6,615 fans at Ninian Park. That 1930-31 season was a poor one for City, suffering a 2nd relegation on the bounce to drop back into the Third Division South. City’s goals that day against the Pilgrims came from Walter Robbins (2), Les Jones and all time leading scorer Len Davies. Len Davies, not to be confused with young Isaak Davies Last time out saw the Bluebirds play out a 1-1 draw at Home Park in a relegation battle that could have gone some way to helping us avoid the drop had we managed to hang on to a lead we’d gained via Yousef Salech. Things were looking good for the City until just after half time when Dimi Goutas was harshly dismissed for a foul on the edge of the box. It looked like a shoulder to shoulder type challenge and there was a 2nd covering defender in attendance so quite how the ref came to his conclusion only he will know. City were of course pegged back and ultimately did well to hold on for the draw, but it could have been so much more. Form At the time of writing we are 2nd in the table and still undefeated in all competitions, we really couldn’t ask for much more. Plymouth on the other hand have failed to win a single point in the league, but do have a decent cup win against QPR under their belts, so they’ve proven they can do ok when the mood suits them, it just seems that it doesn’t happen too often! Statistically (again at the time of writing) Plymouth have the 6th worst attack, having scored just 3 goals in their 4 games. Defensively they have the 2nd worst record, conceding an alarming 9 already so far in the same period. On The Pitch Too early to say, but will leave this up there as we know BBM doesn’t like to tinker too much. We will of course have had another cup game in-between so there may be some rotation made depending on who plays v Cheltenham in the League Cup. Predicted Starting 11 Trott Bagan Fish Lawlor Kpakio Wintle Ashford Colwill (R) Turnbull Willock Salech The Odds Again, too early to say but I suspect we will be strong favourites. C’mon The City!!!!
