James Brent has backed manager Carl Fletcher after the clubs shock defeat in the FA Cup against non-league Dorchester Town. We've had absolutely no discussions Brent said, when asked by BBC Devon if he had considered changing the manager. "we've said we'll back Carl to achieve success and that is very much the plan we're following". Brent said 'I get many more people writing to me saying "don't blink and give in to others who are hankering for a change in the management team, we have a great manager who will go far and please support him' I think I get more criticism for the short nature of Carl's contract than for the fact that he's on a contract" That is the most depressing statement the I have read from Brent in a long while. It seems to me that Brent and Fletcher should discuss which one of them will turn the lights out when there is no one left but them at Home Park. Scanning the Argyle web pages today there is obviously a change going on........comments like " I've been a supporter for xxx amount of years and enough is enough I can't take anymore"........."I just feel embarrassed by it all"........."once upon a time I would feel broken hearted about a defeat like that,but it's strange I just don't feel anything.....there are other things I can do" How do you get through to Directors who support with their heads and not with their hearts that a change must happen. Football experience will not be found in PAFC's boardroom...it is frightening to admit that but it is the truth. Saw a picture on ATD of Argyle's Directors box yesterday Newall looking gaunt staring ahead Peter Jones just visible bent with his head literally between his knees hands covering his head...........and then today Brent telling us that we will achieve success with Fletcher and that we will go far with him. There is much more joy in watching paint dry than following PAFC at present.........we couldn't bribe a Football Chairman enough money to come to PAFC to take over this devoid of ideas Boardroom. I'll cheer myself up and book into the dentist for a fun full 30 minutes.
Good, at least somebody isn't over-reacting to defeat in an unimportant match, ruined by a waterlogged pitch and an idiot referee.
That statement is a bit hard to swallow in the least.....seemed like Fletch left out some key players and to lose to a non league team without putting up a decent fight says it all. With Argyle having so much cash flow problems they should have made it priority to reach the 3rd round and hope to pull a money spinning draw eg. Arsenal or Utd. away. Last week Brent did say money will be pumped into the club so probably answers the above statement!
He said the deficit caused by lower than forecast gates would be covered - not that money would be "pumped in". I don't think he left many that were available out did he, apart from the keeper? Gilmartin did OK apart from one spilled shot, not that he had a lot to do other than pick the ball out of the net after a bit of a fluke goal. What didn't work was Griffiths isolated up front after the sending off up against 2 larger centre backs. Fletcher might have considered putting someone nippier up front - Cowan Hall would have been the obvious choice - who 2 lumbering defenders might have had trouble with. Unfortunately the pitch was so much of a pudding that that might not have worked either.
Madjo left on the bench....Feeney first sub.......questionable. Nothing flookey about their goal from what I saw notDistant.
Argyle are like tea bags - they don't stay in the cup long On a more serious note, "shock"??? Who exactly was shocked by this? Embarassed yes but it was hardly a shock. People are talking of us like we are some half decent side, now come on! I've been saying "Fletcher out" for weeks now and Plym has been saying it much longer, someone new has to be thrown into the mix and sort out the bloody lot of 'em. Watching was painful so how on earth sensible and his like manage it once a fortnight is commendable.
Mrs LaLa.........it's either going to the match......or staying home with Mrs sensible and doing what he's told.........it's an excuse to have a few jars with his mates as well. Sorrow drowning generally.
Loyalty is my middle name Mrs lalala........ There you go again notdistant. Are you infact James Brent in disguise? The Ref didn't get Hourihan sent off. He managed that all by himself by being a complete and utter ******. The opposition played on the same pudding as the professionals. Didn't seem to stop them scoring. Fletcher had not one clue about what to do about it and his substitutions were laughable. People are right. It is embarrassing rather than shocking. We are incapable of putting away a team from league 6. We had excuses last season but not this one and anyone who tries to make any are off their trolley. The more Brent sticks with this sort of line the more he will drive people away. I do not believe for one minute he has all these people telling him how wonderful Fletcher is. In my opinion it is all a smoke screen and if he was Pinnocio then his nose would bridge the Tamar. Money to pay off and replace. That's the only logical reason for him keeping the man in the chair. This smacks of somebody who is beginning to show in public that he cares not one jot for the playing side of this. This smacks of a man who still believes that I and others believe we were lucky he saved our club and will be forever grateful. I won't be and I'm not. He has been here a year now and it is time he dropped this "saviour" act and acted like a football club owner who wants something for his customers. That probably means sacking his manager. Get on with it Mr Brent and put us all out of our misery before I'm sitting alone in the ground on a Saturday.
I'm going down my local this lunch-time. Should have gone yesterday but wasn't in the mood to face the inevitable p*** taking from all the supporters of London's great and good (bloody glory-hunters!). Now don't get me wrong - obviously, as an exiled Argyle fan, one gets used to the banter from fans of other clubs, especially these past three seasons or so - and I can take it and dish it out with the best of them - but it was the nature of Sunday's defeat that was galling. It was an embarrassment to be quite honest, and I'm just glad I watched it at home and not down the pub. Sensible, you have my sympathy if that is the kind of 'fare' you've had to put up with this season, but all power to you. If I was still in Plymouth no doubt I would still be going every game as well......and that's a depressing thought!
It wasn't a shock to me; as soon as I saw the rain and learned that the ref had inspected the pitch with a view to calling it off, I thought we'd lose. Fletcher is trying to play passing football rather than lumping it up the middle and that requires a decent playing surface. This is what the majority of fans wanted and we may have the pitch to do it at Home Park but it makes you wonder how successful it will be at some League 2 away grounds through the winter. Be careful you don't get what you wish for. The goal was a fluke because it was a badly over-hit cross which nobody would have expected could have been pulled back from where it was heading. Not only did it get pulled back, it dropped straight onto Gosling's foot. You could do that 100 times and not repeat it. OK, play to the whistle and all that, but who'd have expected that? I maintain Hourihane didn't touch the Dorchester player until he was already on the floor having slipped under Hourihane's feet on the wet pitch. Not every bit of physical contact is a free kick, let alone a booking. You may have it in for Hourihane but you have to judge each incident on its merits. The second booking would be laughable if it hadn't settled the course of the game. I notice the ref wasn't wearing an accreditation badge in the first half: I did wonder if he was a park referee selected by accident. He did come out with an FA badge in the second half but he'd clearly left his brain in the dressing room also. I have no time for most of them at best but this one was a corker. Did anyone else notice that Lennox got chopped from behind after about 10 minutes? Freekick to Argyle. Lennox tripped a Dorchester players later in the first half. Free kick to Dorchester and a booking for Lennox. Talk about Respect..... And we ARE lucky still to have a club Sensible, VERY LUCKY INDEED in fact. Anyone who thought that we were going to leap from where we were last year to promotion contenders is living in Cloud Cuckoo Land
As Sensible said Distant both teams played with the same disadvantage but they were able to score. I believe we had only about 6 or so shots, only 2 on target! Professional players should be more able to adapt to most weather conditions which ever way they play normally.....Anyway it's all in the past, now we have to concentrate on the next game against The Gills I believe?....probably give them a good beating knowing Argyle, lol.
It's not just the weather or just the sending off, it's the two together. You have to look at the style of play: we are trying to play passing football and that's murder on a boggy, cut up pitch. That's worrying for the winter months generally. It also requires players to be close to each other: going down to 10 men meant that Gurrieri was withdrawn into midfield from the 2nd striker role and that left Griffiths horribly isolated upfront. When he did manage to win something from the two XXL Dorchester centrebacks, which wasn't often, there was nobody near him. If Gurrieri had been able to get at those two on a decent surface, we might well have seen a better outcome. It wasn't a good performance but even the Dorchester manager mentioned that the weather increased his hopes of an upset, so it isn't just me or Greentints generally that think that. What chance there might have been was drastically reduced when Hourihane went off and I haven't heard anyone support the ref's decision.
Wednesday at Home Park 7.45pm.......hp........against Burton Albion.......we could get well tonked if we haven't got over Sundays Pub Match. ......and then Gillingham at home Saturday..........chance of 6pts !!!!!
notDistant .....that first Hourihane tackle could have maimed the lad.....I saw it on slow motion and I cringed.....many said he was lucky to still be on the pitch....no worries tomorrow night he won't be. I wish we had scored a goal like they did, they were worth it.
Not only are you distant distant but you are seriously in need of a trip to specsavers. He stamped on him. You call it what you want but it was a stamp in anyones book and if you want to continue wearing your blinkers then that's up to you. Just don't expect everyone else to wear them as well. We are supposed to be a professional outfit but a lot of time I see little sign of that. The players had no heart for this match and Fletcher was his usual clueless self. That you blame the pitch and the Ref and not anyone else is plainly ludicrous. We spent far too long making excuses for anything and everything previously and look where that got us. 18th in league 2 and out of the cup once again. You can also continue to be glad we were saved as if that excuses everything. Me, I will not be forever grateful to Brent to the omission of all of the faults there are. I've paid good money for this and you haven't, I see it week in week out and you don't. You know I'm not one normally for knee jerk reactions so this isn't one of them. We will be lucky once again to survive this season if this continues and Brent sits on his fat wallet he has stuffed with notes from his purchase of the club. Don't tell me he has spent anything at all because I can do the sums as well. £17m @ £0.07 in the pound equals less than he got for the ground for a kick off. He has spent nothing and tells us we must give him money or it won't work. Fantastic deal if your name is Brent. You sit miles away and say the same. May I respectfully ask you to send him a cheque of your own equal to attending and see if you are happy with the return you get. I suspect it will be a long wait so don't tell others to buy into this rubbish.
Sensible.....it isn't even £0.07.....that would be 7 pence for each pound....it is actually 0.7 of a penny in the pound. notDistant..... it has nothing to do about not liking Hourihane.....it's how sensible has already said....he looks like a foul or a booking everytime he moves in for a tackle.... and he is proving that he is top of Argyles yellow/red card count because he has never been taught how to tackle.......if he has been taught then...... like his second booking Sunday he needs a serious check-out just to see what is holding his ears apart.
I maintain [not having watched in on slomo, but I still have it on the PVR] Hourihane didn't touch the Dorchester player until he was already on the floor having slipped under Hourihane's feet on the wet pitch. Last time I read the rules, fouls [and handballs] have to be deliberate.
Foul or not....the fact is we should have been winning at the time and ended up with a comfortable win! As for last nights result, tired of diving under the sheets with me head under the pillow!
