You'll never be a poet Sensible. Don't know what to expect or what to say. Think I'll just close my eyes and pray.
Cooper, Aimson, Opoku, Watts, Fornah, Camara, Edwards, Grant, Mayor, Jephcott, Nouble. Subs McCormick, Wootton, Canavan, Moore, Reeves, Telford, Hardie
Much better half from Argyle. Admittedly should have conceded a penalty early on but it's a case of what's gone around in terms of previous bad luck coming around. Ipswich have had a lot of the ball but haven't been able to do much with it. Argyle have been reasonable value for 1-0.
1-0...Jephcott...14mins....H/T Some bad camera work early on.....left looking at an empty Ipswich half when play was down the other end.....Blurred camera movement and this was then followed by the wrong commentary....some other match for about two minutes.....so we missed all the commentary when Jephcott scored....amateur at least. Nailed on penalty for Ipswich after 6 minutes....ends up a free kick for Argyle.
Red card for Mayor. Must be the two softest yellow cards in history. Immediately 1-2 down. This season is going horribly wrong.
!-2...F/T.....thank you very Danny Mayor....two silly yellows.....first one for time wasting in the first half.....the second one a stupid trip...so unnecessary. 34% possession....two shots on target....If Jephcott didn't score regularly we'd be bottom of the league. With time running out...Lowe waste time bringing Telford on in the 90th minute. Aimson was my MoM.....saved a certain goal with his tackle in the first half on 6/7 minutes. Cooper did well in goal.
For me the whole game turned on one decision. Without that I do think we would have ended up winning that despite the possession stats. I find it frankly quite odd that Mayor got booked for time wasting. Does this Ref book players regularly for that then. He would have a notebook full of names by the end of the season if he did. The amount of time wasting I have seen from some teams has been ridiculous and Ipswich were not averse to it after they went in front and more than once. I can't say the Ref was wrong to issue the yellow for it but if you do it you have to be consistent all around. Mayor's second yellow was just stupid on his part and he should know better especially already being on a card. I thought there were a whole load of better performances out there today. None of them were bad if you discount the Red. For the game to turn in the blink of an eye like that was sickening. Ipswich are a good side but their play in the final third is not up to scratch so I think they will struggle to stay in contention if it doesn't improve. "Get rid of the dead wood" so how do they do that at this stage of the season hp? You can drop them from the team but you can't replace any of them because there is no scope to do it. Even when a window opens I don't see how they can either given the vast majority of any budget must have been spent by now.
Don't forget some are on short term loans, ending in January. They are not necessarily what I'd call "dead wood" but it does give the opportunity to ring the changes in a few areas at little or no added cost. I agree with you wholeheartedly on the first of Mayor's cards. He was trying to take a short corner, which we do regularly at all stages of the game. Ipswich are blocking that, very close if to, if not within the 10 yard exclusion zone and are delaying the thing as a result. Whose fault's that? Then Conor Grant makes a run behind those defenders and Mayor is distracted by the possibility of an alternative pass, which is not unreasonable. Very poor decision from the referee: from all the instances of timewasting and delaying tactics (e.g. kicking the ball away and blocking free kicks conceded, which seems to be endemic now), why pick on that one? I do agree Mayor should have been more careful, but for me that little trip really didn't justify a yellow card either. I still think this is more about strategy, tactics, and mindset than bad players. We knew we weren't going to set out to be hard to beat but to overload the opposition in their half and make a lot of chances from which hopefully we'd score a lot of goals, even if we did concede a few in the process. We can't afford to get one goal and sit back because we aren't equipped for that and were never intended to be. One thing that stops opposing teams getting at you in your half is by breaking quickly when you win the ball back in your own half. They get very worried that if they press forward, you'll get in behind them. It seems at times that unless we've made 50 consecutive passes, we don't feel entitled to go for goal. We need to mix it up and attack at pace now and then just to keep the other side on the backfoot. Do the unexpected now and then.
Mayor second yellow was for a deliberate foul where he stopped the Ipswich player from going anywhere on the break. Same as a pulled shirt etc that is going to get a yellow every time. He should have known he would be carded for that and not stuck his foot out. He isn't a teenager and should know better having been carded once already. Stills does not excuse the Ref for the feck up though.
Maybe Mayor's second yellow looked a little innocuous....a silly little trip....okay it did stop the Ipswich player breaking forward quickly....and this sort of foul happens a lot...resulting often with a quick free kick......but maybe Ipswich had at half-time a word about the blatant missed penalty after 6 minutes....and maybe he had seen video evidence of his wrong decision.....and balanced things up when the opportunity arose.
Referees are not allowed to view or listen to any media output during a game. I daresay things were said but officials must have heard so much of that as to be immune to it.
I hate that balancing up thing that is often spoken about. Instead of one mistake it then becomes two. However, the Ref would have had to be purposeful with his balancing. He booked Mayor twice so if you think this was an evening up then he would have had to have planned it and picked out a player to get. The absolute vast majority of "little trips" like the one Mayor did ends with a yellow. It is deliberately stopping a quick attack on the break and it's called taking one for the team. I do though agree with Lowe in that Mayor was asking for the Ipswich players to be made to move back before he took the corner. He was perfectly entitled to do that and the Ref should have enforced the rules. To book Mayor for the Refs own inefficiency is just a double insult. One booking totally wrong and the other one totally right. Once again though Mayor knew he was on a card already. To do what he did was just plain stupid and he should know better. He was the architect of his own downfall and must share some of the blame.
