Strictly has started so here goes..... Argyle once again ran out winners at what is again at last becoming 'fortress' Home Park. The stats keep stacking up, 5 clean sheets on the bounce, 13 points from 15, and the meanest defence in the football league. For those frequent HP visitors the first half was a case of deja vue (all over again!) . We started well, played some great football and absolutely battered Cheltenham who themselves are a decent team who try to play in the 'correct' way. Hardly a ball was hoofed into into the air and Mellor, Reid, et al ran amok, especially down the right hand side. No surprise then when a slick passing move ended in Reuben scoring with a tremendous strike into the roof of the net from the edge of the area. An outstanding goal that brought an appropriate response from the green army. Many (including me) thought we were in for another rearguard performance to defend the solitary goal-to a certain extent it was, but we also created numerous chances on the break and were totally dominant. A rare headed goal from a set piece made it 2-0 and debutante Kellett should have made it 3-0 just before the break when clean through, but put it wide. Half time was greeted with a well deserved standing ovation. My son, who only started watching Argyle 5 years ago and has rarely missed a home match in that period, claimed it was the best 45 mins he has ever seen Argyle play. He is fast becoming my football barometer and who am I to argue with his assessment? The second half was never going to match the first and it didn't. Argyle sat back a little, wasted time when they could, and generally prevented any chance of a Cheltenham comeback. The most notable part of this period was an unbelievably poor piece of refereeing. Mellor was told to go off the pitch to change his blood splattered shirt which he duly did but the referee either forgot to wave him back on, or chose not to despite the baying of the crowd. Mellor must have been waiting for the best part of 5 mins, but for whatever reason the ref waited for the ball to go dead before allowing him to reenter the fray. Alessandra made it 3 with a well worked goal mainly due to some good work by B Reid but one that Cheltenham will have been disappointed to concede. Subs (sponsored by Royal Navy reserves-to become a Royal Navy superstar log on to [email protected] etc); Smalley replaced Reid (Reuben) and Harvey and Banton replaced Alessandra and Hartley resulting in O'Conner dropping into the back 3. Cheltenham pressed but Luke really didn't have a save to make all match. Plenty of MOTM contenders and a case could easily be made for most, especially Mellor, both Reids, Blizzard and all of the defence, but for once I agreed with the sponsors and awarded it to the excellent Kellet who looks to be another top drawer loan signing by JS who despite his size will do very well at whatever level he ends up in. All in all an excellent performance, 3 points, great entertainment and a real sense of teamwork between the management, players and fans. As some said, It looks like we actually have a good team. Next league match at home is v the free falling Portsmouth. This is also this season's Armed Services Day so I will be watching from the directors' box (following a possible pre match appearance on the pitch) lets try to pack out Home park, celebrate the work of the armed forces, and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Only fault to pick with all of that lyndhurst was Mchugh was subbed not Hartley but otherwise I can't argue with any of it. I actually would argue with the first 10 minutes perhaps where I thought Cheltenham put the ball in the air as often as possible. They are a big side physically so can see why they would do that. Argyle didn't really give them a sniff in the first half. I agree with your lad lyndhurst it probably is the best he has seen in his time. Second half they came into it a bit but mainly because they got a bit more physical and we let them. Perhaps 15 to 20 minutes though is all they got. I still think they never really looked like scoring and our defence is a joy to watch nowadays. I said somewhere else that I don't get worried anymore when we go under the cosh a bit and today is the prime reason why. The only disappointment was we stayed in 6th. On the strength of today we derserved to move up a notch. Gap closed but I'm still a bit miffed at that. Today said that we can and should be in there this season. Word to Sheridan......leave the tactics alone it doesn't need playing with. Just keep the same team fit and we have cracked it.
Meant to add previously the crowd size which is as relevant as the scorelines as one dictates the other. Up to 6800 this week which is another 500 on the last home game. That's a further £7.5k in the bank extra. Just keep going Argyle and we will pass the 7000 mark soon. Keep it up and we might get to 8000 and beyond. Budget wise and finance wise that will be heaven.
Great Report Lyndhurst..thanks..you must have heard Gordon Sparks screaming at the Ref. to let Mellor back on...
No BC-Sparksy must have heard all us apoplectic ones in the Lyndhurst!. I reckon the ref was the only one that didn't know what was going on.
I would think anyone with normal hearing could have heard the crowd baying in Cheltenham. Have to say it was more than a little bizaar. The Ref in the first half was pretty good in my opinion. He totally let himself down in the second not least with that decision. The only thing we could think of was he decided the rules stated he couldn't come on again until the ball had gone dead. I can't believe he forgot he was off surely. He totally refused to look over at Mellor though so what was his lino doing. He clearly didn't have a word down the microphone did he. There were one or two other Ref things in half two which spoilt completely his performance for me. Mind you it got the crowd going that's for sure.
I am led to believe that following a 'blood' injury the player cant be allowed back onto the field of play until he has been assessed as 'clean' by one of the officials. If this is the case then I can understand the ref waiting for the next dead ball before waving Mellor on . However, the ref didn't bother to check Mellor but just eventually waved him on to the pitch. Just seemed like a poor piece of officiating i.e apply one part of the law but not another. I agree sensible, he (the ref) was decent in the first half but for some reason lost focus in the second.
If he was supposed to check he was clean then that makes sense. Agree though that none of the officials bothered to do that which made the decision to leave him stood there even more stupid than the overall rule. Mellor was fouled in getting his blood injury but didn't get the decision then. Being penalised twice when totally innocent of anything just adds to the frustration. Had they scored..............god forbid what might have happened because I haven't seen that much anger from the crowd in a long time.
There is a solid team with confidence emerging now at Home Park......becoming a hard team to beat at home.....about time too....the rolling over days are hopefully now behind us. Still work to do away at present......Wimbledon was a start....confident defending against Akinfenwa & Stubbs...both high in the Div 2's scoring chart.....Akinfenwa scored again yesterday. Burton Albion away next week will give us a benchmark of how we are progressing....they came unstuck 1-0 at Stevenage yesterday.....stuttering a little at present....but still got a good home record. Had to look twice at the league table.....couldn't believe that Luton where top.....only lost three games of course.....so accumulating points most weeks.....one of those defeats at home was against us. We need to win these games whilst Bobby Reid, O'Connor and Kellett are with us....they are better then Div2 level and will not be around at the end of the season to do their magic.
Good 3 pts and performance by the sound of things. What was the crowd yesterday hopefully will start rising if they carry on like this.
Very good result indeed as predicted we might have to settle for a draw for this game. Yes we need to play the same team next game and give Burton a stuffing. ..I believe our record is not great there though? COYG.
We shouldn't fear anyone now. We've done that for too long but we are better than most sides. Confidence is everything of course and we should have that. If you look at the table before yesterday or even including yesterday we have played almost everyone in the top half either home or away. Most of our next 8 games must be against those in the bottom half. Ergo if the above is right then we are doing very very well indeed. I watched the Football League Show today on play back to see the first goal and the others if honest. Reid's goal was superb and much better on the screen than live. I didn't realise how well the Argyle players did with that one and the finish rounded it off. The other 2 weren't shabby either. Wasn't our last rise down to a play off for top spot between us and Luton plym? Spooky ain't it that this could be a re-run. All we want is some prat to say "Plymouth who?"
