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Simon Hallett came along at the right moment.....and as a genuine supporter has done Argyle proud......sinking over £12 million of his own money into the club.....to soften the fall from Championship pay-outs in a relegation year.....most of it into infrastructure which he says will be there long after his days in charge.......he is still trying to find the right investors to help the club.....his wealth is not a bottomless pit and to ask more of him is not on.
 
I've been having a think about our prospects.
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The maximum number of points we could reach by winning all our remaining games is 76. We could therefore theoretically overtake everyone up to and including Bradford City.

Below us, AFC Wimbledon, and all the teams above them, need to make 57 points, one point more than Exeter City could make if the won all their remaining games to be completely safe.

Unfortunately, all of out remaining games involve teams either having a chance of promotion i.e. Bradford City or trying to avoid relegation, namely AFC Wimbledon, Northampton Town and Port Vale.

What's worse, the games are in the wrong order. Our next game is at AFC Wimbledon. Even if they beat Stockport on Tuesday, they still need 4 points to be absolutely safe when we play them on the 18th. Exeter, who are creating that 57 point safety target, don't play again until Saturday.

After that, we go to Bradford City. They need 76 points to be absolutely sure of being in the play-offs, and worse, it's us creating that target as Huddersfield can only make a maximum of 74 points. Bradford City go to Barnsley on the 18th but even if they win, they'll still be on 74 points and we will still be a threat if we beat Wimbledon.

Northampton are likely to be to be dead-and-gone by the time we go there on the last day but Port Vale could still be in with a chance of survival on the 25th April, as their long tail of fixtures unwinds. It's unlikely though.

Not impossible of course so let's just enjoy the ride.
 
Got quite stressed reading all that........I think it is all over for us...............If Cleverley is still with us next season let us hope he will be more savvy than he is now..............still not sure if he is the right man for the job.....must admit his learning curve has been hampered by our injury list over a whole season.

Do we need to improve our backroom staff regarding training and injuries.....all seems rather iffy at times.....ridicules recovery times might suggest inexperienced staff have got it wrong.
 
On reflection, what I should say about these numbers is that they are maxima not predictions. They give a very rough indicator of how other teams will perceive their relative risk or opportunity when they play us, not targets to be a achieved

After the Exeter game, Tom Cleverley expressed his disappointment with the result - obviously it would have been one they expected to win. He also said though that he thought the play-offs could still be achieved with 72 points.

I assume they’ve looked at all the relevant games for all the teams around us individually - who’ll beat who - to arrive at a likely outcome, not the maximum achievable. Obviously not all the teams can take maximum points because at times they’ll be playing each other.

So that means we now need to win three out of our four remaining games. Draws won’t do. Two out of the four teams (Northampton and Port Vale) may well be relegated by the time we get to play them. With the best will in the world, winning at Bradford City is a tall order.

Realistically then we must beat AFC Wimbledon next Saturday. They play Stockport, who need points to achieve promotion, tonight. It may help us if Stockport succeed in that.

Or then again, if they lose, maybe they’ll just be more motivated for Saturday…….. but that IS the crucial game I think.

All is not lost. We have to remember Argyle have had not one season but two half-seasons. We’d have been relegated in the first but would already be promoted in the second. Our form is better than our position suggests and a win at Bradford isn’t entirely out of the question, just tougher than we’d like.
 
Rotherham are relegated but Port Vale hang on for a 0-0 draw

Cardiff equalise in the 95th minute for a 1-1 draw at Huddersfield. That puts both Huddersfield and Argyle on 63 points but Argyle have a game in hand.
 
Northampton are as good as relegated...because of there poor goal difference to Wimbledon.....would need a 12 goal swing.
 
Luton 2-1 winners over Northampton....means that they have overtaken Argyle by 1pt on the same amount of games.....dropping Argyle down to 9th.

Also confirming Northampton to relegation,.
 
I see that Plymouth City Council will be “consulting” on introducing residents only parking in the streets around Home Park on match days. Consulting is a local government term meaning “talking to people who will tell me what I want hear”.

This is another blow in their “everyone must use the buses campaign and we’ll paint bus lanes everywhere until they do”

Of course, one of the problems is that the club is now taking up nearly half of the Home Park car park for VIP parking.
 
There are rumours all over social media already. He’s merely closing them down for the time being. Of course, being able to offer Championship football would help.

I watched the extended highlights of the Wimbledon game this afternoon and the subsequent interviews with Tom Cleverley and Laurent Tolaj. The latter is obviously happy at Argyle although he bemoans his injuries which he says have prevented him from scoring 30 goals plus already!

He’s in a 2 and a half year contract I believe so if he does go, Argyle do have a negotiating position.
 
Also, Alex Mitchell would consider a permanent contract.

www.bbc.co.uk

Alex Mitchell would consider permanent Plymouth Argyle switch

On-loan centre-back Alex Mitchell says he would consider a permanent move to Plymouth Argyle in the summer.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

I've read the whole thing in the WMN. He's absolutely gushing with his praise of the club and its fans. He describes Argyle as "a League 1 club with a Premier League following".
 
Now the seasons over....promotion/relegation sorted.....we can see that our "local derby's " will be.......roll of drums please.......Oxford (170/180 miles)...Reading (160/170 miles) & Wycombe (170/175 miles).

So just down the road then.......has it ever been further ?
 
So 47pts from our last 23 games.....a strong second half to the season.....it gives us encouragement for the future.....but hold on a minute the coming summer could see all that change.

Cleverley's recovery from bottom of the league before Christmas will probably have been noticed in various places....a good player in his time....is he now turning into a manager with a bright future.....will he be enticed away with a bigger wage and also a bigger budget (which wouldn't be hard) to a more northern club nearer his home roots......that is problem No1.

Secondly Argyles' scoring record since the new year is nearly the best in the league.....certainly very good away......and that is down to Tolaj and surprisingly Pepple who has come on in leaps and bounds.....and at an important time when Tolaj was out injured.......the talk is that we are bound to lose both of them.....that would be a blow to the solar plexus for us....and would put us in the market place straight away to replace them.....if that does happen we must make sure that we get a strong price for them.....no stupid Argyle rate that seems to happen to often.........that is problem No2.

Let us also hope that we can do at least a couple of deals to bring in at least two of our successful loan players from this season.......problem No3.

AND FINALLY.....Keepers....we need TWO new goalkeepers for next season....neither keepers at present give you great confidence......maybe we were spoilt with Cooper.......that is problem No4.
 
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