Lockyer for Wales again.

Lockyer has made Ryan Giggs's first Wales named squad to face China in the semi final of the China cup on Thursday 22nd March. If Wales win that then they could face either Uruguay or Czech Republic in the final just a few days later.

It means he will miss the Peterborough away game on 24th March. May even miss the following game too on Friday 30th March vs Bury.

2 former gas players have also been called up for Wales. Step forward Mr Billy Bodin! Also remember Connor Roberts who we had on loan from Swansea? Him too.

 

We do now have J Clarke back to fitness as well as Broadbent and Sweeny to play along side Craig so not quite as serious as the last time he was called up

 

Sweeny also called up for international duty same time as Lockyer

 

Partington can fill in too

 

We'll be fine. Lockyer conceded a couple of soft penalties today.

I was sat with the Plymouth fans today. They were complimentary about Rovers in the first half. We should have been out of sight by half time. Their second equaliser took a massive deflection and was a bit fortunate.

A draw would have been a fair result really

 

Gastro was the foul on Harrison in the first half when he was through just before their first goal a booking or a sending off or was it just an accident, the implication on the twitter feed was a goal scoring opportunity was denied
The feed that was coming on the updates put Rovers in control of the match. DC not impressed with the pen decisions

 

Thought Rovers were a decent side today and am not sure how we ended up with the points either. Not so sure about being out of site by half time though but were deserving of the lead at least. Penalty one was "soft" unless you are a prem league supporter and then it was nailed on. Second one was absolutely nailed on. Your man raked his hand up Songo's face off the ball and it was spotted by the Ref. Where I sit gave a grandstand view of it and believe me it did happen that way. Not sure about the booking/sending off/accident one for you. I sit a long way away from that incident so be unfair to say which it was. From my distant vantage point it didn't look anything. The Ref was crap all day today though despite the 2 pens we got.

Grateful for the points and will of course take whatever we can get. Can understand why you boys might not be so happy with it but that's football I guess. You had first half and thought we just about shaded the second. Not a game for the faint hearted but it was one you couldn't take your eyes off. If you continue to play like you did today then my guess is you will win more than you lose.

 

sensiblegreeny thank you for your honest reply

 

It wasn't an obvious booking or sending off.He was trying to get goal side of the defender and they got tangled up and Harrison went sprawling. The Argyle fans around me kept saying how much more skilful Rovers were. In the first half, Argyle should have been blown away. Their goal was a good one, but that was their only real sniff of a chance.They were chasing shadows, which is another comment I heard from the Argyle fans. Then their second goal was a complete fluke and the second penalty seemed harsh. But then the Argyle fans felt Sinclair took a dive for the free kick. I think we should have won it in the first half, and a draw probably would have been a fair result. It was a good advert for this league anyway.

 

Thanks for that Gastro, when you read these updates you never know whether someone is biased or whether it is an honest opinion. From everything I have read the Plymouth we played on Saturday and the Plymouth we played at home were different teams, the one we played at home I thought was the worst Plymouth team we have played against for many a year

 

After listening to the match and hearing the commentators feelings and the thoughts of DC about the key decisions, I decided to break down the 1st penalty decision frame by frame. The Plymouth bloke was already on his way down before our player got a foot in. No pen. The 2nd penalty decision, looks like Ollie put his arm out and the Plymouth bloke ran right into it and rightly went down as the contact looked nasty although completely accidental. I can see why a penalty would be given for this but when you are on the wrong side of those decisions, its harsh. Especially when its right at the end of the game and we didn't deserve to lose it. How many times have we seen this happen to our players and nothing given? Too many!
For some reason, they havent decided to show Harrisons incident. But from what the commentators said (biased of course) it was a foul, it was last man so should have been a red card.

We had enough chances to win the game though.

 

CJS Funny you mention the Harrison incident not being shown watched the highlights on both local news bulletins and it wasn't even mentioned

 

Already said above that the first was soft. However, the second one wasn't for me and I did have a great view of it. In real time which is what everyone sees on the day it looked every inch that he didn't just put his arm out and our bloke run into it. He put his hand out quite deliberately and straight in the face of Songo. No doubt that is exactly what the Ref saw as well as he had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. No attempt by me to re-write history on the first one or indeed on the outcome of the game. If rolls were reversed then no doubt we would be slightly pee'd about losing a match that should at least have been a draw. Having said that I could probably name a dozen games over the last two seasons that Argyle didn't deserve to lose but they did. It's what happens to some team or other every Saturday somewhere. It won't be your first near miss results wise and I doubt it will be anywhere near your last either.

 

When we were promoted back into league 1 my first thought was at last we will have a better standard of refereeing. I have only missed 1 home league game this season and I believe that the standard of the refereeing has dropped not got better, but at least no visiting team can accuse the ref of being a homer. With all the money coming into football I think that a greater proportion should be given to the lower leagues and in an industry where results are all important like the premier league judging by the number of sackings that have happened some should also go to improving the standards of those who actually are in charge of the matches.
Maybe the Ref Assc should also allow the refs to be interviewed and not ban them from giving them, then they can have the opportunity to explain some of the decisions given

 

Would be nice if there was a former referee (who is well respected) who analyses every performance of the ref's and linespersons in each of the top 4 leagues and then makes each report public for all to see. They will sooner or later improve!

 

Have to agree with you there old timer. The Refereeing this season for me has been worse than the last and that was bad enough. We all know that people can make mistakes so yu can sort of forgive it a bit. But, it isn't the odd mistake. The thing worse than the Ref is the lino. Why do they have them at all? I didn't see the lino in front of me make any decisions at all on Saturday even if it was on the end of his nose and he just could not have failed to see it. The Ref therefore gets little or no help. The lino actually missed your man coming back from an off side position to get fouled for the first goal. I note nobody has mentioned this an it hasn't been shown on any video either. He was yards off side before he played the ball. Not much made of tht by Argyle fans but then again we got the points. That's the thing. If you win then you aren't looking for a reason to moan about anything much. It's when you don't that all these things come out and give reasons why you lost. A further issue is that Managers aren't allowed to complain. If they point out what everyone in the ground apart from the officials have seen then they get done by the FA for bringing the game into disrepute. I fail to understand why that is because if hey are stating the obvious and fact then where is the disrepute. It's their job on the line each week not the Ref so in my view they are entitled to make a point as long as they say it properly and in the right manner. Referees also seldom ever admit they are at fault. They only do when backed into a corner with no choice. I also find that fellow Refs support their own no matter what the evidence is. There are 2 on another website for us who defend everything everytime. Even if they are alone in thought process it makes no difference. I fall short of saying some Refs cheat but they do lie for sure. When the Leyton Orient player assaulted our ballboy last season the Ref said he never saw it. Every video shows him looking directly at the incident at the time. He still denies he noticed. Because he didn't do what he should have he tried to cover it up by lying. The FA who could see the proof as well as everyone else did nothing. Sadly though it will not change and all this VAR probably won't always help either. Lets not start on the players cheating as well though or we will be here all day.

 

Specsavers don't sponsor the referees for nothing do they?

 

While I like most football fans moan at the linesman when they don't give obvious decisions, while in hospital a few years back I got to know a ref assessor and he said that the linesman can only give what the ref tells him to give, EG offsides throw ins some refs like Clive Thomas used to tell his linesman if you see it and its wrong wave your flag. when I see a player of either side thrown to the ground in front of the linesman and he says nothing wrong then I think its time to be worried.
Cant remember the name of the ref but he retired a couple of seasons ago, he made a horrendous decision in a match when a career threatning tackle went unpunished, as he left the pitch at half time he saw the tackle on a monitor and realised why the crowd were not happy, during the second half another tackle of the same kind was made and he only booked the player who was in opposition the first tackler.This all came out after he retired, if he had spoken to the TV / Press he would have lost his pension, he genuinely didn't see the first tackle but having seen it on the monitor he felt he couldn't send the second player off., if he had been able to explain that at the time I am sure there would have less fuss

 

Came on for the last 20mins against China today Bodin was an unused sub