Yesterday was a time to realize how vunerable PAFC is to the loan market......three major first team regulars who are on loan where not available.......two had already returned to their parent clubs.... the other had picked up an injury before his last appearance. Peter Hartley has shown how we need him in the team.....his injury has shown how we depended on him being ever present.....one of the rocks that we now are missing dramatically. Throw in a sudden glut of injuries to others.....plus the injuries we picked up during the match as well.....and we can hardly field a team without using youngsters. Okay you can say that the football gods had dealt us a rough deal.......and all clubs go through such times during a season........but not all clubs react with the same result as we saw yesterday at Home Park. Where was the fight and leadership that we needed in this moment of need......maybe gone with those three loan players that helped to make us a half decent team in this basement division. Two of the best strikers in the division Reid and Alessandra are having bad spells at the same time.....and comments that they don't seem to be getting on together as well....is that so ? No pressure on them from the subs bench to chivvy them up......no other goalscores to take over and allow them to have a rest..........no other goal scores to bring in either from what Sheridan seems to be saying. The latest two loanees....Tom Flanagan and Olly Lee haven't got the same abilities of the three that we have just lost......Sheridan can't hit the bullseye everytime. Listening to Sheridan on GoS after the match didn't inspire me with hope.......made me feel that he has run his race at Argyle and wouldn't be to upset if he left.....but he knows and we know that sacking managers is not on James Brent's agenda.....remember how long we had to endure Fletcher.....not his fault, he was put in a ridicules situation as a brand new manager in a club that had just gone through administration......and I'm sure he his happier at Bournemouth looking after their very good youth squad. So.....if we could get all three loanees back and get Hartley fit.....and find another striker (who can score goals) to help our regular two out then.......we still might go to the ball. The rest of January is now very important.....will we get back on track.....or will we drift down the league....and hoping that Sheridan moves on.
Unusually for me I didn't see anything yesterday to give much hope for the rest of the season. All it proved was that when the team that was doing so well earlier in the season becomes unavailable (for whatever reason) there is no strength in depth in the squad. I think the only thing that might turn it round it to get at least 2 of the recently departed loanees back and bring in someone who could at least provide some competition to Reid and Allessandra (esp Reid). Still a very long way to go and 60 points to play for. We are in the lucky position of knowing we are not going to get relegated (barring a an almost impossible combination of results) so the management team need to get that into the players heads. We should be going all out to will every match but that needs determination passion and above all leadership on the pitch -3 things that were very obviously missing yesterday. This remains our best chance for some time to get out of the league. If we don't make it there will almost certainly be wholesale changes again next year. JS will probably not be here and the backbone of the team will end up being dismantled. e.g rumour has it that Nelson has already agreed a deal with a club at a higher level and Reid will also be off, so unless we can get a manager who can persuade some quality to come to the SW I fear we may well struggle for a while.
Hey Plym ...not get relegated, if it can be done Argyle can do it. LOL. Not really need another season in the basement but is JS the culprit or the team in general, would a change of manager benefit or is it too late for this? Whatever it needs to get us up is another miracle at the moment.
I can't see any point in a manager change now. If some one comes in it will be the same now as the transfer window is over half way, not much activity for us.. I agree we do need at least 3/4 players in..It needs fretting up.. somehow! We still have a chance as not all is lost, the players need to believe..
We need a load of players to come back from being recalled to their clubs and from the physio table. We are 13 points from the drop zone and the same I think from the promotion zone. It would be a bit harsh and shocking if we got involved in the bottom end and I don't think we will. 4 wins out of 20 matches is about all it will take and I'm sure we can get that. We still could get into the playoff places. That for me is well possible but only if we get the squad sorted that we had winning games. Might take a couple of weeks to do some of that. I'm not going to take either for granted of course but I'm not going to panic just yet. The pity is what looked like a promising season is falling apart and I suggest this will impact on gates which were getting quite good (8400 there yesterday). If they implode this season and finish limply then I believe a number of season ticket holders might begin to bail.. Less tickets equals less revenue and less revenue equals less budget. We all know where that leads.
One thing that was evident on Saturday......Paul Wotton was not named as a sub.....even though we only had four on the bench. Sheridan said that Paul is now coaching full time and isn't fit enough to play anymore.....so 490 odd games will be his final league career total.
Hartlepool are showing interest in a loan deal for Marvin Morgan.....Morgan who has had his share of injuries since arriving at PAFC in 2013 is rarely a starter for Argyle......when fit of course. Sheridan who has goal scoring problems with his understrength striking force anyrate.....and who has had a hard time reinforcing that area of his team......will be put in a awkward situation.....if he allows Morgan to go......on the otherhand he might be tempted to allow Morgan to go seeing that he is out of contract this summer.
You now have your answer ref Morgan plym. The runour about him and Hartlepool have been circulating for a while now. Unlike some people I think Morgan has been ok. That's it though and no better than ok. He does try when he gets a chance but can't ever see him being prolific. He does a lot of chasing down and works hard.
If I had to choose it would be O'Connor out of all of them but this is good news nonetheless. Maybe it's the boost we have been waiting for.
Apparently so Joe but it isn't as straight forward as him just not wanting to sign for us. He is out of contract in the summer so therefore wants to keep his options open. You can't blame him for that as he would be paid a signing on fee by a club signing him so earns some ackers. If he could guarantee us getting promoted then I think he would sign anyway but that is by no means a certainty is it. If however he signed as a loan that would still leave him free at the end of the season to do his own thing. His club want to get rid and get a fee so they aren't kean on him being loaned out for the duration. Ergo bit of a stalemate between them rather than it being anything to do with us. He said he would sign on loan himself so not like he doesn't want to be here.
I'm bumping this thread because we are just over a month on and we were a bit gloomy back then. Since the drop in performances and all the goings and no comings at that time, things have changed quite a lot so it might be interesting to hear views now. The people I wanted back here are back here and the ones on the treatment table are now fit and back in the team. What a transformation this last month has been and the doom I think most were feeling then has been lifted for now. I firmly believe this is down to the players returning and the reforming of the solid team we had. They go from strength to strength it seems and are improving each match. Hard to have predicted that not so long ago. It could of course go horribly wrong again and in football nothing is ever certain. But I think we are going to be there or there abouts for the rest of the season now. Whether we can quite make it to the automatic spots is still a bit of a long shot for me but play offs should be ok. We could make another Wembley trip and I'd love that if the outcome was the same as the last one. I also think the crowd will be well up next Saturday once again proving that if you give Janners a bit of success they will come. What do you think now having re-read your comments above from then?
The vulnerability of not being in control of your own future....when you have good loanees who's loan periods come to an end....or get called back to their mother club during a loan.....that hit Argyle hard during January........add to that two of your own major players getting injured....Nelson and Hartley for instance.....lets hope that is now behind us for the rest of the season......add to that your fair share of luck and who knows what might be the final outcome.
With all due respect that's a bit of a cop out to say "who knows what might be". Go on commit yourself to what you think will happen you know you want to. It's free and nobody gets put on the naughty step if it isn't right.
Ok you bully sensible......last July I predicted that we would come 5th and reach the play-off final.....that ain't looking too bad at present. In the thread I started recently..."Promotion Chances".....I had worked out the average points over the last ten years needed to....win the league 87.9 pts.....to gain automatic promotion 81.7 pts.....and to reach the play-offs 70.8 pts. I think that we will reach the play-offs with 73 pts. Burton and Shrewsbury will definately get promoted,plus Wycombe if they can stop their mini wobble..........the rest we can beat in the play-offs....assuming that currant form stays as it is. Now sensible stop sitting on the fence and give us your predictions for the end of the season.....it needs to be better than your match predictions for this season......seeing that your off the pace at present........
I have not changed my view.. i have always predicted that we will go up automatically.. no change.. the only thing now is we keep winning and the results seem to be going our way also for a change.. what do you think of Champions of League 2.. its worth a punt...
Think it will all depend on whether the recent starting 11 (apart from Lee) remain available for most of the season. If they do then automatic is a real possibility if not then I suspect we will finish 7th (as previously predicted!)
I haven't sat on the fence there plym and said in short automatic is a bit of a long shot still but play off is definately doable. As for predicting if it wasn't for the halfway league position I would be above you sir and you would be trailing in my wake...........(I only won last year due to the league position at the end and know my place and yes Joe I know you are second currently) The one player out of the squad I think we won't miss terribly is Lee. Not disrespecting him in any way or saying he is poor. However, there are several in the squad who could fill that position just as well. Norburn and Blizzard being 2. If we were to lose any then he is the one we could do without. As for automatic promotion, I would prefer that to anything if it were possible. Only because Wembley is a bit hit or miss and I would be gutted if it was miss although a day out there and hit would be ace. I can't see it personally but want to be wrong. There is a gap now even if we could close it with plenty of points on offer. Give it another 6 games or so and we could have this discussion again when it will be a bit clearer what is on and what isn't.
