Another long ole poke up the motorway this weekend. Got a bit of travelling to do over these couple of weeks. If the same team turns up for this one that appeared last Tuesday then we have bollox chance of anything. COYG
Cooper, Watts, Opoku, Aimson, Fornah, Reeves, Edwards, Grant, Mayor, Ennis, Jephcott. Subs McCormick, Hardie, MacLeod, Moore, Lolos, Lewis, Camara. Reeves in Camara out....Woods serving a ban....three games?
1-0...H/T.....Anderson...7mins. Bostock fortunate not to be sent off....a cigarette paper away from a second yellow....argyle got spoken to not Bostick. PS....Northampton FOUR up at home to Portsmouth....no one predicted that......
2-1...F/T...Anderson...7mins...Bogle...47mins............Ennis 49mins. Argyle attacked well without luck.....Edwards missed from 5yds.....Bogle gets the second unmarked header.....Doncaster player in the 84 minute off-side but not given but luckily misses. Doncaster looked quite ordinary but Argyle looked more threatening on the attack but didn't get the breaks. I thought Ennis had a good game and deserved his goal....Jephcott didn't get into the game enough and needs resting. Mayor played well without showing that final moment of skill in front of goal. Argyle's momentum fizzled out when Lowe made a triple substitution and as usual are subs made no difference...MacLeod's rustiness showed in the first few minutes that he came on....luckily it didn't cost us. Edwards and Grant replaced...Why ? we have no thrust when that happens I'll give the MOTM to Ennis.
Thought as a spectacle it was a good game and very good advert for league one by both teams. No complaints about the final score although I thought with a bit of luck running our way we could have at least taken a point. They missed a couple as well so they sort of even themselves out. Our downfall was once again the first few minutes of the second half. Do they give them tranquilisers with their tea? They seem to go to sleep. Wasn't sure about the subs used and would not have taken Grant off who posed a threat all afternoon and his crosses were very good mostly. I would actually have given him MOM. Mayor did well and terrorised them a lot. Ennis was our brightest forward. Their player and the question mark over a red. I did not think it was anywhere near a red card and think the Ref was right. Disappointed at our players surrounding the Ref and begging for the decision. I do not like to see it even if it is done to us on a regular basis. It's just cheap and the Ref was again right to tell our Captain to cut it out. Thought the Ref did quite well all afternoon if honest. Bit disappointing in the end as we got nothing but can't be disappointed with the majority of the performance.
The majority of fans were asking the same question afterwards. How did we lose that? The answer is the same again. Poor defending in dead ball situations. You can't disagree with that analysis. Lowe said afterwards that they all know where they are supposed to be and who they are supposed to pick up but it's not working very well. We are going to have to live with the need for substitutions. You can't expect the same 11 to play 90 minutes twice a week, every week. We have decent quality in what we have got but there are not a lot of them. You can't help admiring Danny Mayor and not just for his skill. He must have played as many minutes as anyone and he's in one of those mobile roles that pile on the kilometres, unlike the strikers and CBs. Knock him down and he gets tight up. Wind him up and he runs all day.
I'm not sure replacing three players at the same time would do anything else but break up the rhythm of the team.....and then a few minutes later change two more just to make sure.
Reeves hasn't played 30 minutes for a long time, never mind 90. MacLeod is probably his first pick DM and needs game time after injury. Camara brings a lot of energy to deploy against tiring opponents. As noted, the WBs have to run their legs off and need some respite. Lewis and Moore are a more attacking duo than Grant and Edwards and we needed a goal. Lowe has said Jephcott is "out on his feet" and needs protection. That surprises me of a young man playing in that position but I don't suppose Lowe made it up. Each of these substitutions has logic behind it. Against Lincoln, fresh legs made the difference to come back from 2-3 to 4-3. In Lowe I trust.
