Saturday, 21 January 2012 League Two Plymouth 1-1 Crawley Town Goals Plymouth: Blanchard 90 Crawley: Mills 45 Plymouth 23 Cole 05 Purse 14 Bhasera 22 Blanchard 28 Bignot 08 Walton 15 Young (Lennox 87) 19 Wotton 31 Hemmings 11 Feeney (Soukouna 70) 27 Lecointe (Sutherland 87) Substitutes 01 Larrieu, 02 Berry, 13 Soukouna, 21 Lennox, 10 Sutherland Crawley Town 25 Shearer 03 Howell 04 Mills 05 McFadzean 28 Davis (Akpan 46) 08 Torres 13 Hunt 15 Bulman 22 Neilson 09 Tubbs 23 Barnett Substitutes 01 Kuipers, 20 Wassmer, 06 Akpan, 11 Simpson, 12 Smith Att: 6,417 First Half The game started brightly, Feeney watched his shot curl over the bar and Crawley's Barnett saw his shot blocked by Purse. A poor tackle by Torres on Hemmings got him a booking. Following this Hemmings had an attempt on goal blocked and Wottons effort drifted wide of the target. Tubbs and McFadzean had shots go wide as Crawley attempted to gain a foothold in the match. The ball very rarely stopped moving over the next ten minutes as attacks came from left, right and centre, Tubbs and Hemmings had shots saved. Bulman saw his attempt drift wide of the post, while Purse picked up a yellow for a tackle on Tubbs. Fouls and offsides were called on both sides after this before the break through... Lecointe fouled Torres near the box and a curving cross from Hunt was knocked in by Mills to put Crawley ahead. 0-1. The ref called for half time. Second Half Crawley Sub: Claude Davis goes off and Hope Akpan comes on for Crawley. The start of this half was dominated by Crawley, Akpan had a shot go over the bar and Tubbs fired his shot direct at Cole. Plymouth Sub: Ladjie Soukouna comes on for Warren Feeney. Barnett had an attempt blocked by Purse while Crawley piled on the pressure. Plymouth Sub: Sutherland on for Lecointe. Lennox making his debut comes on for Young. Lennox showed a bit of skill and pace to fire a pass to Sutherland who pulled the ball back across the goal for Hemmings. Hemmings shot was saved in impressive fashion by Shearer. The following corner from Lennox bobbed around the area before Blanchard got his foot to it and powered it in. 1-1. The ref then blew for half time. Stats 23 Cole - 7 Another confident display from the stopper. 05 Purse - 7 Once again the rock in defence. 14 Bhasera - 7 Did well to block off the large attackers he was forced to contend with. 22 Blanchard - 7 A good goal, a positive display. 28 Bignot - 7 Worked well on the right. A big improvement on previous games. 08 Walton - 7 Some passes wayward but earns a 7 for staying on despite a suspected dislocated shoulder. 15 Young - 6 Not at the races today, was knocked about by Crawleys players far to easy. 19 Wotton - 6 A fair performance, fought well for the ball. 31 Hemmings - 8 The brightest star today, shots galore. 11 Feeney - 7 Worked hard again but showed why we need Chadders or another tall striker. 27 Lecointe - 5 Did not really impact play, first touches were poor. Substitutes 13 Soukouna - 5 no real impact, a few good passes but looked as though he was struggling to keep up. 21 Lennox - 6 Not a lot of time on the field but I liked what I saw. 10 Sutherland - 6 Both he and Lennox looked good after coming on. I would not mind giving him a run out over Lecointe next match. MoM: Blanchard Hobo's MoM: Hemmings - ran his heart out. Looked impressive. Summary A match where the bookies had already written us off. However despite a poor second half, neither team looked outstanding so a point a piece seemed fair. I also thought that the defensive back four played well and looked strong. We were let down in midfield though I feel. That said, I believe that we are in a good position to make a push away from the relegation zone and with some more good performances (and luck) we will stay up. COYG!
Hobo, as always I thank you for your excellent match report, however I can no longer promote anything here to article as I no longer moderate this forum. Please continue though as these reports are great and gives those of us not at the game an insight into the match from the eyes of someone who was there.
Thank you hobo.....a good report...........maybe a point was a good result........Luckily for us Crawley have gone off the boil in recent weeks.........to our benefit. You mentioned my favourite subject (sensible won't like this)...........Desperate for a big strong second striker..........Chadwick will spend a lot of time out like he did first time around........Lacointe is not physically strong enough at present........especially against Crawley's bully boys.
Pretty much agree with all of that hobo even if plymborn talks bollocks as usual..... No mention of the penalty shout by both sides one at the very start for us and one at the end for them. Crawley are a very physical side almost to the point of being a bit dirty in my opinion. Their Manager is a pratt who shouts at officials all the time and should learn to shut up a bit. The Ref bottled some of it, especially the pen shouts. He booked Purse for almost nothing yet kept the card in his pocket for most of their efforts. Not good and nor was the lino on my side of the ground. The officials in this league are poor.
I looked up Crawley's League yellow/red card count. Only two reds..............38 yellow...........interestingly those yellows are spread amongst 22 players !!!.........and a lot of them are on only one. It's not just me sensible...........it is so obvious that we need some muscle up front............even if it is only to keep opposition defences employed........you know it makes sense....... sensible.
I would not dream of commenting on my reports about the refs sensible. I am not WENGER!!! LOL. I will say though that IMO the standard is pretty poor but I thought the youngish chap we had for the Burton game was actually quite professional and saw through a lot of the play acting. Perhaps the next generation of refs will be better (we can hope ). As to the penalty shouts, Hemmings was debatably on the line of the box (as far as I could make out on the web replay) so a free kick was perhaps the best decision the ref could make from where he was but it was potentially a penalty. The replay's for the Crawley appeal show a different story, Baz did have his foot out but the Crawley player did not trip over it, he simply saw it and dived over it. Crawley have a few dirty players but with the manager probably for the sack if he does not get them up to Premier League in 5 years that is how these teams are told to play (e.g: Man U's Vidic + City's Toure). Still the result is a good one and on to Vale! Green Army!
In my not-so-humble opinion, diving & the associated feigning of injury are the most corrosive influences on modern football. Firstly, refs HAVE to be MADE to start booking players for diving. The law's there now but they ignore it. They're fast enough to get the card out for what they deem to be reckless tackles but are too scared to back their judgement on diving. Secondly, if a defender is deemed to have fouled or handballed to prevent a clear goal scoring opportunity, he gets a red card. Is not diving in the box an attempt to OBTAIN a clear cut goal scoring chance [a penalty] by breaking the rules? So the rules should be equalised so diving in the box becomes a red card offence. Then the refs would need to be made to apply that too. How many defenders do we see sent off unfairly? Lots, so a few attackers sent off unfairly for diving isn't the end of the world if it stops the whole grotesque mess and let's not hear any whining.
