Saturday 4th February 2012 nPower league 2 Plymouth Argyle 2-2 Southend United Goals Plymouth: Chadwick 86, McDonald 88 Southend: Timlin 1, Martin 34 Plymouth Argyle 23 Cole 05 Purse 14 Bhasera 22 Blanchard Booked 28 Bignot 08 Walton (Hourihane - 66' ) 15 Young (Lennox - 66' ) 19 Wotton 09 Tsoumou (MacDonald - 70' ) 29 Chadwick 31 Hemmings Substitutes 01 Larrieu, 02 Berry, 20 Hourihane, 21 Lennox, 32 MacDonald Southend United 01 Morris 02 Clohessy 03 Gilbert 06 Bilel 23 Barker 27 Baldwin 04 Hall 08 Timlin Booked 14 Martin Booked (Harris - 83' ) 19 Kalala 22 Dickinson Booked Substitutes 12 Ferdinand, 16 Prosser, 07 Grant, 09 Harris, 24 Benyon Att: 6,328 First Half A chilly breeze with rain greeted the players on both teams as they stepped out onto the pitch. Southend scored in no time after a defensive slip from Paul Bignot allowed Michael Timlin to knock the ball past the oncoming Jake Cole. 0-1. Southend then pressed on, corners JP Kalala and Ryan Hall were cleared by Argyle. After this Paul Wotton watched his shot from outside the area fly harmlessly wide of Glenn Morris' goal. Maxime Blanchard then picked up a booking for a foul on Hall, the kick was taken by Timlin, the ball fell to Hall and his shot was blocked by Darren Purse. Then the second goal, a corner for Southend fell to Liam Dickinson who saw his shot deflected to David Martin who knocked it in. 0-2. Hall then took a shot which was saved by Cole. An effort by Bilel Mohsni from close range flew over the crossbar. The ref then called half-time. Second Half Martin was booked for a cynical foul on Bignot. Timlin then got a yellow for handball. Nick Chadwick took a shot that was easily collected by Morris. Hall saw his effort from close range go wide of Cole's goal. Argyle Subs: Conor Hourihane on as a substitute for Simon Walton and Luke Young replaced by Joe Lennox. Hourhane took a shot from outside the area that was easily caught by Morris. Argyle Sub: Alex MacDonald on for Juvhel Tsoumou. A section of play involving several fouls ended when Dickinson came close with a shot that skimmed the bar. Southend Sub: David Martin withdrawn with Neil Harris comes on. Then Argyle scored, Chadwick collected the ball on the edge of the penalty area and slotted it cooly past Morris. 1-2. Lennox hit the post with an effort before McDonald latched onto a pass from Lennox to knock the ball past Morris. 2-2. Pat Baldwin had a shot for Southend go harmlessly over the crossbar before the ref called time. Stats 23 Cole - 6 Left high and dry on the first goal, a fair performance though. 05 Purse - 6 Some errors but a good display. 14 Bhasera - 7 Played well and tackled strongly. 22 Blanchard - 6 A bit cautious after the yellow. Played well. 28 Bignot - 5 Error led to the first goal. Played better after this though. 08 Walton - 6 Quiet before being taken off. 15 Young - 6 Worked hard but unable to impact. 19 Wotton - 6 Fought well in midfield. Lucky to avoid a booking. 09 Tsoumou - 6 Looked slow and unable to make much of an impact. 29 Chadwick - 7 Slow first half. But better second half. Good goal. 31 Hemmings - 8 Rushed the defence again and again. A real threat. Substitutes 20 Hourihane - 6 Looked good. Played well with Wotton. 21 Lennox - 7 Another good show. Got an assist for the second goal. 32 MacDonald - 7 Reminded me a little of Mackie. Good goal. MoM: Hemmings. Hobo's MoM: Hemmings - no disagreement the best on the pitch by far. Summary A terrible start to a game we really needed to get at least a point from. By half time some fans around me began to mutter about relegation. The second half outlines the main issue with Argyle - we only play one half. Much better play. Lennox, Hemmings and McDonald all looked promising and I think should start next match. Still a point despite the odds.
Good report Hobo and yep what a wonderful start. We had no sooner settled down and it was one down. From where I was sat it was a cock up by all of them. If Cole had been alive and come right away then he would have had more time to clear. If Bignot had taken charge and buried it in the stand we would have been ok. If Young had got more on it and so on. Where I was sat there was a resigned groan. I don't think anyone saw the last 10 minutes coming. As far as I was concerned we had lost it and Sturrock had got his points. Felt like a win rather than a draw this time. Young was called man of the match at Port Vale on the radio commentary and he seemed everywhere. This match he was trying too hard to repeat it and it wasn't working for him. Shame because he absolutely was trying hard. The Ref was pants yet again. There were some challenges out there that probably should have been Red. He bottled them all and to be fair, because he did nothing with the first one I think the players were encouraged to go in recklessly at times. I commented that there was a Red coming from somewhere so the fact they all stayed on was a surprise for me. Quite a few ill tempered confrontations which the Ref also seemed to let go. No wonder players are confused.
I didn't want to mention that as it has got to 20+ pages on PASOTI so far and this site would crash if that happened here..........
