Bit early for the match day thread I know but this is the big one for me. We do not want to lose this one for sure. I don't think it's one of those 6 pointers or that the lack of gaining a point at this stage is fatal to our promotion place. I think with the couple of injuries and result on Tuesday it is the psychological effect of losing this one that will hurt most. Win this one and it will give the whole squad a boost. I think we desperately need somebody in on loan now. We are on the bones of our arse player wise even if the players we have still are a decent quality. Good news about Forster at least and not losing him for the rest of the season. We could do with something to give us all a lift I think and a resounding result this weekend would do nicely.
A win would be brilliant.....but I fear that will be very hard to achieve.....we have become vunerable at home....especially if the opposition score early.....we huff and puff when we get to the final third of the pitch and have no clinical ability to turn our possession into goals......we depend far to much on our defence to not concede. If we manage a draw against Oxford then I feel we have done well.......Oxford have a better away record than we have (Northampton as well) they haven't lost away for a long time......they are riding high.....we are rocking a bit.....and injuries have returned.......we never really recovered well from the last bout of injuries....no sign of re-enforcements coming in at the moment......it is down to Reid to get his mojo back......(where ever it has gone)......if not that then Nardiello needs more game time and a bit of luck to show why Adams brought him in.
First home match (when in the country) that I will have missed for years -will be driving back from reading uni with No2. Not sure what would be the most stressful, being at the match, or not being there!
Weakened team today and a pretty thin subs bench. Besides Brunt and Forster being out we have Threlkeld joining McHugh on the injury list. McCormick, Mellor, Nelson, Hartley, Sawyer, Simpson, Purrington, Jervis, Carey, Wylde, Reid. Subs.....Nardiello, Harvey, Bittner, Rooney, Tanner & Bentley..........only six subs ? What a time to play inform Oxford......a point would be a bonus personally.
Ends 2-2.......was that a good point in the end with an understrength side .....or did we drop two points.....the stats suggest we should have won......waiting for sensible to come back from the pub for his opinion........hope Lindy was concentrating on his driving on the way home from Reading.
Briefly, we saw promotion football today: from Oxford. We started well but conceding yet another goal from a corner knocked the stuffing out for quite a while. Having got it back to 1-1, we gave the ball away we a hopeful 50 yard cross field pass in the opposition half that went wrong and Oxford smashed in their second. Good spirit to haul it back once again but in the end, they deserved their point more than we ours. An entertaining game with teams all out to win unlike certain other teams in the M4 corridor (yes, you Wycombe). We can still go up but we aren't dominating, certainly not strong, compact, effective sides like Oxford.
Set off back from Reading just about on kick off and managed to keep in touch via 5 Live as is was one of their featured matches (although they only had about four reports from HP) . Seems from what I have read it was a hard fought point and I would certainly have taken that prior to kick off. Same result against Accrington will be v handy. Incidentally, having dropped No2 at Reading UNI and being informed that parents werent required, Mrs Lindy decided it would be good for me to drive her to the Wembley IKEA store where we duly spent 3 hours with the masses ,and spent a couple of hundred pounds on things we don't need before driving back to pick up the boy from Reading. A loss for Argyle would have topped off the perfect day, but as it is I am feeling a bit happier with life than I might of!
Well where would you start with this one. First of all it was definately an entertaining game. Both teams went for the win and there was little in the way of time wasting. To their credit even Oxford went for more even when they were winnning and at no time did they sit back on their lead. Oxford are a very good side and very strong. Physically they dominated Argyle in most quarters. They took the lead from a cock up corner. Hartley hit it in at the back post when if he had left it alone it would have gone out for a throw in as there was nobody behind him to make him play it. Luke went up for the ball and missed it and I think that's what fooled Hartley into playing the balll. Shame because we looked on top at that stage. We equalized fairly quickly with a decent corner of our own and a god header from Nelson. We then seemed to go to sleep and be second best to most things. We went 2 - 1 down with Oxfords only shot in the first half. Strange thing to say but I cannot remember them having another one despite their possession and play. We on the other hand could have had a couple. Second half saw Hartley off with an injury and Tanner coming on. There wasn't anyone esle to bring on so thin is the squad. Second half was same as the first really. They looked solid but weren't creating loads of chances. We looked suspect but had a few. Reid was unlucky with one. He hit the crossbar with a header which looked in all the way and then had the rebound cleared off the line. He tried so hard today but nothing wanted to go for him. Nelson made one tackle which was a repeat of earlier in the season. The Oxford player was in on goal one on one and looked all set to let fly. Nelson somehow made up the ground and put in a great tackle. Nelson was the MOM for me closely followed by Mellor. Mellor got a lot of stick from people sat around me which I thought was unfair. He didn't have a bad game and people need to remember he was injured last saturday and since played a game and three quarters. He is always going to lose the ball sometimes but he kept at it today and some things were very good. Carey was a passenger and bleddy awful. His passing was generally poor and he is not up to speed. Where has the player gone who was with us for the first half of the season. He had no impact on the game in any positive way today. Make no mistake despite the chances we had and made, today was a point gained rather than 2 lost. Accrington drew as well so no ground lost. Good game for the neutral but a bit of an edge of the seat for the faithful. Special mention for the officials today. Both Refs were very good and even the lino on the Lyndhurst was not bad most of the time. Nobody got booked. We are dreadfully thin on the ground player wise and I'm preaying that Hartley is not out for any period. We desperately need a couple in.
No idea lyndhurst but he did hobble off very slowly at halftime supported by the physio. Just keeping fingers crossed right now. I've just been around a couple of sites to see what they were saying about the players and game. One site seems not to have anything positive to say at all despite the people writing purporting to have been at the game. Some commenting who weren't even there and stating they saved the money. Them I just discount completely because they are just pandering to the common theme with no basis at all. It hacks me off where people are just negative about players for the sake of it. Take Purrington for example. One thinks he was a waste of space. No idea what they were watching but he did very little wrong all afternooon and was even better considering he hasn't played for a while. Jervis was beter than he has been. Mellor was blamed for almost everything yet not praised for things he did right. Nelson was very good as were most of the defence despite being up against a decent counter attacking team. Carey as said was poor for him but the rest did ok most of the time. I have no idea what some people were watching but it wasn't the same game as me for sure. Maybe I shouldn't read the comments of the bitter and twisted as they are only ever going to post bitter and twisted comments. Bash them when it's deserved but for christ sake don't just do it to follow an agenda.
With a weakened squad....I am surprised that Nardiello didn't come on until the 90th minute......that's the action of a manager running the clock down for a draw.
At that stage it wasn't the wrong thing to do Plym. The irony is that he was almost played in for a one on one with the keeper in his 2 minute cameo. What a master stroke him coming on would have seemed had that come off. It was one of those games which could have gone either way but in the end a draw was acceptable to both I suspect. What nobody seems to have picked up on is the fact that we were playing a weaker team than we would have hoped for in that we have those injuries but despite that we put up a decent show. That augers well if you think on the positive side. If we can play a side like Oxford without those players then they should be less of a miss when we play teams who aren't as good as Oxford are. We also should have most of them back in a few weeks at most. Mind you, for some there is never anything good to say whatever the results and even if we do make promotion.
Barnet 1-3 Hartlepool..........how do we explain that result after our 1-0 defeat there......so ridiculous to try and predict nearly anything in this league.
That game was a real bad loss, hope it doesn't haunt us in weeks to come. A pt. yesterday ok I suppose. ...
Having read Sensible's report (as compared to my initial thoughts sent from my phone), I thought I should back up what he says in case you read contrary opinions elsewhere. We weren't bad at all in spells and, having started well, if hadn't we cocked up defending yet another corner, things might have been different. It wasn't all Hartley's fault although his name's on the score sheet: every side seems to know we're vulnerable to dead balls slung in right under the crossbar and they all make sure McCormick's boxed in to stop him getting to the near post. I don't know what can be done about it but it's a real weakness, the classic example being Wycombe's goal a few weeks back. We've conceded several of these lately: the total distance they've been scored from probbaly doesn't exceed 10 yards in all! Carey can do things none of the others can and there were a few examples yesterday. However, he can be a liability if he tries extravagant manoeuvres too close to our goal. He lost the ball in awkward places several times. In a 4:3:3, he's in that position more often and he needs to be further forward where he can damage the oppposition and not us. Purrington is a 19yo defender with a handful of games under his belt asked to play in midfield. On that basis he did pretty well and continued that after he moved to left back when Hartley went off. His distribution in midfield was a bit wayward now and then, what do you expect in an unfamiliar role, but he snapped into the tackle and I think he can be well satisfied with his days work. So would fans who have any sense. Reid worked hard and could have scored. In a nice touch, he brought Ryan Brunt's shirt out at the final whistle and had it displayed to the Devonport End, who cheered it very warmly. I spoke to an Oxford fan before the game and he for one openly said he'd be happy with a draw. He also thought both clubs would go up automatically, so let's hope he's right on the second bit as well as the first! I can't help saying that having seen Oxford, I fancy their chances more than I do ours. Big, strong and with strong, hard running forwards in their 4:3:3. Reid is built like a prize bull but our 3 are spread right across the width of the pitch, whereas the Oxford front three attacked as a pack. That's my theme, compactness, and I'm sticking to it. Never mind "take every game as it comes", next Saturday is crucial. Let's hope Hartley, McHugh and Threlkeld are a available because that gives Adams the chance to pick a side to put Carey where he needs to be and make us robust at the back (including corners hopefully).
Plym, have you learned nothing from doing the prediction league? In this league anyone, and I mean anyone can beat anyone else. Barnet played Argyle and that was one set of circumstances and one match and then played Hartlepool on a completely different day. The question of why we lost and Hartlepool didn't is totally irrelevant. There simply is no answer,
I saw this article in the Daily Social Worker courtesy of Cobi Budge on Twitter. Nice to see kind and encouraging words.... http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/mar/06/plymouth-oxford-football-league-two?CMP=share_btn_tw
I read that yesterday but can't do these linky things being a bit techno blind. I'm surprised at you calling it the Daily Social Worker given it is really nice about that wonderful Banker type and Argo saviour. But it is a nice read nonetheless. As a matter of interest, well to me anyway, I haven't bought a paper in years and certainly haven't read one from back to front past the sports pages if there has been one lying around. They are all crap these days.
Would be lost without my daily paper delivery.......although at weekends 70% of it goes straight into the recycling bin.
