Having been unable to have a complete breakdown of match stats by the failure of the BBC match link and it seems the press in general to cover many matches for some reason....I can only judge Argyle by what the fans have said. Disappointment is rather obvious, Luke McCormick receiving 68% of the votes for man of the match says it all. The weakness of Argyles sub bench was rather worrying....Cole being the only non-teenager on it. With Wotton being forced off at half-time with a rib injury (trip to the hospital to be checked) meant that young Richards had to fill the gap,he did okay by what has been said........but it did emphasis that there was no game changing experience available if needed on the bench. The big worry seemed to be the complete lack of mid-field control.......fans mentioned that they were over-run by Southend's mid field......they couldn't keep the ball and couldn't give accurate passes without giving the ball back to Southend. The forwards therefore where starved of any decent service and had no shooting chances to score......hasn't that been obvious in pre-season even against some of our non-league tiddlers as well ? The bite of Branston in defence was missed,also the experience of Blanchard who is suspended for one more game was probably missed. Sheridan was upset by the lack of commitment by the team......wasn't this the first important game of the season......and a lack of commitment was noticeable....surely that can't be true ?.......on the contrary Southend looked up for it and it showed.....they have financial problems and a embargo on squad size and just had a enough players to fill their bench......which we didn't....having only six reserves available....why? With games coming up against Birmingham,Fleetwood and Cheltenham....we could be having a rough ride to start the season....and it could start a pattern of failure which we know all about during the last few seasons. Please lets hope that this is just glitch and things will improve next time out.......as pilgrim fans we might not be saying that with much enthusiasm !!!
Just been looking at the GoS photos........please get rid of of that awful light blue strip.....what was being thought of when that was selected. Southend playing in a dark blue, so both wearing blue !!!....green or yellow or a mixture of both would be more Argyle surely.
I blame the blue shirts for our performance yesterday, the players obviously have an identity crisis and can't remember which team they play for .... who the hell chose a blue away shirt !!
What stats there were suggested that we had decent possession - at least in the first half - of the order of 60:40 or better. But as we know, stats aren't everything. Not only didn't we score, it appears we didn't handle Southend's long ball game well at all, admittedly in the absence of Branston. We are going to see a lot of that in this division and it's no use if we can pass the ball if you lose 1-0. Nobody really wants hoof-ball but I'm afraid its the recipe for success down here. Fleetwood on Saturday and they're another agricultural team aren't they?
The stats are up to half-time notDistant......then the press wires ? go dead and there is nothing reported in the second half at all......some games showed info into early second half in Div2.........just worrying how little experience there is beyond the first eleven choice that Argyle have got. Hopefully Sheridan will try and cover that with loans soon.
According to the radio Argyle were not up for it in 2nd half and Southend deserved their win. Defence was poor and midfield not much better, we scored no goals because midfield didn't supply. Not a good start. Seems we haven't much to cover injuries/suspensions either... not to worry Sheridan will sort it out.
I have a confession to make. On the way to Kent on Friday I was sat outside the Membury Service Station when a coach pulled up. Out got.............the Argyle team. I was a bit surprised to see them to say the least. So, I gave them the benefit of my experience and a pep talk as they sauntered past. You know the sort of thing. "Geddon bheys easy 3 points tomorrow then". I told Mr Sheridan that "don't disappoint me now, I'm not going to know the score till Sunday morning so I expect to be happy when I do". They all smiled graciously and obviously forgot all about my pep talk within several minutes. Got up on Sunday morning and sneaked a look in somebodies newspaper. Shock of shocks it was a loss and Exeter had won with Torquay drawing. I was gutted which is putting it mildly. If I ever bump into them again in a Service Station I'm going to ignore them all and pretend I haven't even seen them.
Disappointing obviously but early days Sensible, let's try to stay positive at least until the kids go back to school! It was always going to a tough away game to start, Southend under Sturrock have been consistently in the top third of the table over the past couple of years depsite theur money problems. Confidence is everything, given we're trying to reverse a long slump; that's why I was disappointed by an away game to start. Still, with benefit of hindsight could have been worse - 0-1 home defeat would have been doubly bad!
