Totally agree, I would like to add. There has been some criticism over our subs Richards and Armstrong. Richards, which I am not a fan of, was forced upon us by the Larkerche injury otherwise I don't think he would have been used. As for Armstrong this really was not a game where he could exploit space and hustle using his pace as there simply was no space and only a brick wall to sprint into. All in all I am actually happy with the point because we were 2nd best before the sending off. We would have been full of praise for our players had the roles been reversed.
Richards was striipped and warming up ready to come on before Larkeche got injured, so he was coming on anyway.......no idea who was originally going to be replaced though.
I'm not a big fan of team rotation, but, as I understand it, Marti has a track record for doing it. Last night's team always looked a bit dodgy imo and I'll be very surprised if Clarke-Salter, Cannon and Smyth don't start on Saturday. I suppose we'll just have to trust him and his methods. Plus, this league demands a certain amount of rotation and fitness management. He's light years ahead of Ainsworth, so let's see where he can take us.
Agree. With so many games over so few days - I think it’s 5 in 17 days - there has to be rotation. This is where it’s clear how thin our squad is outside of maybe 13 or 14 players. Something we have to live with I’m afraid and understand this is where we may drop points. hopefully we’ll see Cannon, Clarke-Salter, Dixon-Bonner and Smyth all back as starters at the weekend.
Loved Marti’s disappointment. With this squad one loss in seven games is freakishly good, but we are way shy of resting on laurels time.
Seems like I didn’t miss much not going last night, watched brief highlights on Sky & it was brief! They could easily been 2 up early & we looked all over the place, still it’s a point with poor performance
The first link eventually directed me to a site called Stake.com (sports betting site) where I had to set up an account to proceed but did not deposit any money. I found our match but could not toggle from live text (live score details, betting odds etc) to live stream. I messaged the administrators of that site and they told me that they were not covering our match with a live stream that day. Anyway as I played Canasta with my partner I was able to keep abreast of the game with all the details, the red card etc. I noted that after the Plymouth red card the odds of them winning went from 2.75.to 6.00, then 9.00 in the 2nd half with only 1.45 odds for an R:s win, so they obviously fancied us with those odds!
Very disappointed and frustrated with last night. I totally understand the half time subs but I would have maybe kept Paal on. Kakay was having a mare, often doing 360's and getting totally lost. Feels like a loss but you don't get a point for a loss so it is what it is
So last night made me sick in my stomach. And I spent all night throwing up, just after I got home No idea why really....no I had nothing to drink, and just a bagel to eat I am definitely going to write it off as one of those night. I feel real ****
Thought Whittaker had Paal on toast first half and he got a dumb booking. Larkeche did ok until he had to go off but our insistence for the first 25 mins of the half to attack down our left probably helped.
Wish you a speedy recovery. I was there last night and I am still trying to warm up. Disappointing game but certainly one I think we’d have lost under GA.
A bit late to this pre Christmas party but I think there's a strong possibility we have the slowest team in the Football League right now. We played 65 minutes almost entirely in front of Plymouth's well organised defence, totally bereft of the pace needed to get in behind and with Field and then Dixon Bonner looking positively happy to play it sideways indefinitely. I noticed Armstrong stomping off in disgust at the end, no doubt underwhelmed at only being brought on in stoppage time in a game that was desperate for pace. I'm not enamoured with squad rotation.
Had you clicked back to the first page and out of the gambling site the game would have been on for you At least that's how it worked for me
Agree, we were crying out for Smyth and Armstrong's pace last night. Marti's subs were very odd and reminiscent of Ainsworth. I'd have brought them both on at the start of the 2nd half along with Cannon. Previously when Cannon came on as sub at home he marauder down the right flank to great affect, I just couldn't understand why he wasn't given the chance to do so again last night.
The fact that Plymouth were defending so deep meant that there was really no space to exploit Armstrong's pace. My beef in this game wasn't so much with our lack of physical pace, which remains a significant issue, but more with the fact that our build-up play was so slow - we just didn't move the ball quickly enough. There didn't seem to be sufficient urgency, with Dozzell the major culprit. During the Leicester game a few weeks ago, I commented on the fact that all Harry Winks seemed to do was take a pass and give it straight back where it came from, without any positive impact. Of course, he later curled one into the top corner from 20 yards. Last night Dozzell did the former without the latter.
