Match Day Thread versus Gillingham

Dreamland

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3-1 F/T.

 

Fantastic, totally dominant 1st half. Midfield excellent.

Foot off the gas a bit in the 2nd but could have been 4-0 up after 55 mins.

Terrific overall. Onward and upward.

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Hats off to the team tonight they were well worth the entry fee and the 3 points. MOM for me was Fox who I thought was immense throughout today. Not that any of them didn't play quite well in the first half especially. Thought Gillingham looked well second best in most departments and we really took it to them. Casey not troubled for the first 45.

Second half was not so dominant where there was a period they allowed Gillingham back in and started to give away free kicks in the usual places that they ought not to. For the Gills goal you could almost see it coming. However, Lameiras scores and at 3 - 0 Argyle did look comfortable and I don't think they looked like losing it even when Gillingham scored.

Clapped off at the end. There you go Adams, give the paying customer something to cheer about at Home Park and that's the response you get. It's about time. Argyle looked far more attacking which is what has been asked for previously and for ages now. Not rocket science that if you actually go forward and press then you score goals and win matches.

 

If ever there was a much needed win, this was it!

 

Ladapo is on a roll at moment!

 

Agree with Sensible about Mom. Fox was superb but allowed to play by Sarcevic and Ness chanrging about like young bulls.

I don't think anyone was worth less than a 7 or 8 last night and some of the passing was a joy to watch.

A note of caution though. Gillingham don't attack down he flanks much. How will Conor Grant fare at LB against a tricky winger?

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The end result last night was great a 3-1 victory.....a defeat would have been really dire against a team whose supporters are questioning even more than we have been questioning Argyle's relegation worries.

Interesting that Fox got MoM votes on here.....pasoti from a 108 votes cast overwhelmingly gave it to Ness 43%...then Ladapo 27% and third place went to Songo'o with 11%, comments that Fox and Sarcevic gave Ness the space to perform to his best last night and it was key to us running the show in midfield, which has been lacking for most of the season so far.

From my half-empty point of view of life I will inevitably ask the question.....did we play really well....or were they so bad that they made us look good....Gillingham fans felt that the first half was the worst that they had played all season.

How can you determine such a question, was it our quality that snuffed them out ...or was it their inept game that allowed us to play well.

Our defeats against Oxford and Burton we felt was missed opportunities against bottom half teams....but look at last night results....Oxford got a draw at Charlton and Burton drew with Portsmouth away having taken a 2-1 lead.....both unexpected results....so have we judged Argyle to harshly ?.....away to Scunthorpe next Saturday will be interesting....they started the season ok....but they have now lost four in a row....that surely is encouragement off our win last night to continuing are progress with something on Saturday.

Did Adams gambol last night with his team selection....eyebrows lifted when mid-fielder Conor Grant played left-back....and from reports did ok still managing to break forward at times...was that just luck or could it be a good move for the future.

Leaving out Peter Grant who since subbing at Charlton has been in the team every week, and hasn't really let the team down in a position that has turned into a dreaded position in the team....this got some wondering if Adams had made a mistakes and dropped the wrong member of the Grant clan.

Moving Songo'o away from his back-four protection spot to form a new CB link-up with Niall Canavan was a desperate move....or so it seemed before kick-off....but it worked...Canavan did a good job and Songo'o as usual gave a 110% effort yet again.

Lameiras on the bench was frowned on by some....but he eventually replaced Carey who it seems wasn't 100% fit (iffy stomach so it seems) and scored that important third goal.

Ladapo score two goals again.....the worry there is that someone will run off with him January and leave us in the lurch.....when Ryan Taylor is fit will he get back in the team....a good target man but has never scored goals like Ladapo is at the moment.

Ryan Edwards left completely out of the squad last night....I think he needs time away at present.....coming back from cancer as he did was very courages....but in hindsight has he been overplayed by Adams because of the teams CB nightmares....we'll see.

So again, did we excel because of the team choices...or was it because of the poor opposition ?

 

It's hard to say whether Adams picked what he thought was his best 11 or an 11 to beat Gillingham, who play in a rather unusual narrow style.

Presumably Edwards and Smith-Brown were dropped because of the nature of the goals conceded on Saturday.

Gillingham are on a bad run but they did win at Portsmouth this month.

I'd say we'd have given anyone problems playing as we did in the first half and in parts of the second.

Songo'o he done well but Ness and Sarcevic push further forward, making room for Fox.

This was the key point made in the series of articles I gave links for. It may be hard on Songo'o to lose his place but this is a better balanced three in midfield.


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Matt Macey, Argyle's 6ft 6in Arsenal loanee goalkeeper had to shake hands last night with one of the few opposition players who he has to look up to......Tomas Holy, Gillingham's Czech goalkeeper is an incredible 6ft 9in tall.

 

I don't agree with the Gillingham owner who was "embarrassed" last night. We played very well and they were not at all that bad. notdistant is right we would have given any side a problem last night in the first half especially. So many improved performances you wouldn't know where to start. As for pasoti and their MOM well Ness had a good game but I still say Fox was there for most of what was going on. Sarcevic was good but towards the end was knackered. Ladapo was good and looked a threat throughout. Towards the end he looked knackered. To be fair they all put in a shift so to tire was not surprising.

I don't get this don't attack down the flanks bit though notdistant. They targetted Taffiri Moore last night and made a beeline for him over and over again. They also got a fair few balls into the box by doing it. You could almost see the intent everytime they got the ball. He was a bit weak at times for me and I think they sussed that out.

This though was one match. It is no good being good in one game and then reverting to type for the next three. They need to keep this up and it matters not who the opposition is. They have Scunthorpe away, Sunderland at home and I think Fleetwood away in the next three. None of those are easy but they must get points out of them somehow. What that would do for their confidence would be immense. I will give Adams some credit in that he changed things. Remember last season when he changed things due in my opinion to pressure from the terraces. We started to win things. I think the changes last night were due a lot to the pressure from the fans once more. He needs to not be a cock and not be so rigid in his thinking in future. Not going to tell him who to pick or how to do his job but a bit of listening sometimes works wonders. It's making the same mistake a thousand times over that winds up the masses.

 

The reason I mentioned picking a side especially for Gillingham is that Adams was criticised in some quarters for picking the same very defensive side that got a result at Bristol City in the subsequent home league game.

Personally, I thought we looked good on Tuesday and certainly weren't defensive!

I see Edwards was "ill" on Tuesday. Hope it was just something minor but it does open the question of who plays at CB on Saturday and where Songo'o goes if it's not in the back 4. Sadly for him, I wouldn't any change in that midfield 3.

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I think it's plainly obvious why Edwards didn't play and it was the right decision. The bloke, notwithstanding his medical history, has not been on his game this season. I don't know if he came back too soon or it's that he isn't as good as we perhaps thought he was. Whatever the reason there is no room for sentiment in football. There is no reason for others to castigate anyone who calls it as they see it either as they did on pasoti recently.

Interesting conversation with somebody on Tuesday who has some contact with Threkeld still. The word was that he is only warming the bench in Holland and hasn't played a game in anger for his new club. He would come back to Plymouth in an instance if asked. I would take him if that would only be true.