Match Day Thread versus Oxford

Here we are at the business end of the season and we are still in there pitching. I have read some talking about this being a possible must win game. I'm not in that camp and to be honest I'm not in that camp for any of our remaining games. Whatever happens from here on in I think we have already had a successful season. I don't want us to dip out on the play off games but if that were to be the case I still wouldn't see it as failure. We are where we are as Mr Hallett says on merit. There has been no luck involved in it we have played our way into the reckoning. There are games we might have lost where we have won, games we have drawn which we might have either won or lost and games we have lost we might have won. Luck doesn't really come into that just goals on the day.

I think we have nothing to fear so we can win this one.


COYG

 

I don't want to appear negative but as I said a week or two back, we're still on the long road back to sustainability after the horrors of 2011. We're playing good football and signing good players. The fans are back in numbers and the new hospitality facilities are in place, which were hoped to yield £1m p.a.

We lost a year of that recovery to Covid however. No gate receipts and hospitality closed. Mr. Hallett had to put more money in just to keep the ship afloat, which wouldn't have been the case otherwise.

We're back to a full ground now - the Oxford game is sold out - and you can't get a match day place in hospitality; it's been completely sold out for the season. I don't suppose non match day use is what was hoped - the culture of big conferences has been dented by the pandemic.

So, financially we are a year at least behind where we might have been but the team is perhaps further forward than might have been expected. As Sensible says, whatever happens, this has been a good season. If the fans stick with it, which there's every sign they will, and the money keeps rolling in, then we can only get stronger.

 

Financial hits is not being negative. That's just reality although I do think the season ticket holders did a lot to help when the revenue was zero. The outlook does look a lot rosier now than a few years back that's for sure. Negative is when you are writing off the team results before the ball has been kicked. Negative is thinking every other club virtually is bigger or better than ours when our league position says otherwise. On our day we are as good as any other team in this league and more often than not better than a lot of them.

 

Oh and I nearly forgot. I will be there on Saturday because I'm cured..............

 

Unfortunately we will be missing Hardie....possibly another fortnight before he is available.

Bolton... probably out as well....but hopefully Scarr might be able to start this week.

Grant ...I think is 50/50 to be available.

Jephcott...a scare that he wasn't going to be available...but he might be fit to play now.

4th playing 5th.....a good game to win to cement our play-off spot.

 

I wasn't being negative: quite the reverse. The main point is that the football side of the operation has done better than you might have expected given where we are financially, as impacted by the 2011 crisis plus Covid.

And I hadn't forgotten the season ticket holders generosity but it's still the case that people like me who go regularly, but not to every game, couldn't buy tickets, plus of course the loss of beer and pasty sales to the whole crowd. Also, part of the retained season ticket income which helped keep the club afloat in the depths of the crisis was rightly given back in the form of well deserved discounts this year.

As Simon Hallett says:

"I felt that we kind of ended up seventh almost by accident whereas I feel that we have got the structure in place throughout the club, including on the football side, where we plan things.

"It just doesn't feel an accident. This is all part of the programme, and I'm hesitant to say that because there is so much luck and randomness in football.

"You are never quite sure whether things are the result of planning or just the tide of fortune. I do feel that our success on and off the pitch is at least in part because we are very structured, we are very process oriented.

"We have got policies in place, we have got structures in place and this is the result of good planning as well as good execution.

"That kind of makes it even more rewarding. I don't feel that it's random that we are going to end up wherever we end up this season.

"If we don't get promoted this season I fully expect us to be challenging again next season whereas before I didn't feel that.

"In fact, we challenged one season and got relegated the next. I think that randomness has been reduced. You can never eliminate in it in football but I think it has been reduced at Argyle."

 

Winning this will take immense pressure off them and line us up for the next hopefully getting near the 18K+ capacity for once, unless the capacity has been reduced?

 

Probably 1,000 lost to segregation and we don't know how many they will bring.

I think there's quite a few not being sold in the grandstand owing to seating "not meeting comfort expectations ".

Portsmouth was 16 000 wasn't it?

 

Cooper, Edwards, Bolton, Wilson, Gillesphey, Law, Camara, Houghton, Mayor, Ennis, Garrick.

Subs
Burton, Broom, Randell, Jephcott, Crichlow, Halls, Issaka.

Little understrength today....certainly a weaker subs bench.

A bit of confusion....talk of Scarr being back...but actually he isn't even on the bench.

 

Scarr playing....Bolton out.

 

0-0...H/T.

 

1-0...Edwards...56mins.

 

1-0...F/T.

That is a big win.....only 3pts off the top ?

 

I think just less than 15K.....

 

It's so annoying when say sold out but not true....club needs to expand ground if so!

 

Would loved to gone to Pompey game from Malta but said sellout lol!

 

Well what a game that was. Tense or what?

Oxford are a decent side and will feel unlucky not to gave gone in at half time in the lead. Cooper made two notable saves, one that looked to be in the miraculous category. The ref awarded Oxford a penalty after a mix up by the back 3 left Law with little option to trip their striker. Then the lino raised his flag fashionably late. Offside.

In the second half, Argyle asserted their authority and began to dominate. Edwards scored with a very tricky volley that came to him knee high and by the end Oxford looked demoralised.

I'm sure my watch stopped but we got there the end.

I'll leave Sensible to deal with the referee. He'll have plenty to say.

 

Worth getting up early for this one.
Two good teams playing good exciting football.
Looking forward to getting up early again for the Burton game.
Oh yes, Canada are in the World Cup...how good is that.

 

I'll just say the /ref was absolutely crap. Not sure what he was doing most of the time and how he kept his cards in his pocket for so long was something else. The lino on the Lyndhurst side was absolute pants as well to start with but, with credit grew into the match and didn't get much wrong for most of it.

Lets say this was a very good performance by Argyle and there was no fluke about any of it. The result was the right one and we deserved to win without luck playing any part. MOM for me was Cooper who did pull off several very good stops. Of the out players they all pretty much ran themselves into the ground for the cause. A massive performance from a massively good side and a well deserved win. I keep saying this but will say it again. We should not fear any side. We are as good as any of them and better than some.

 

Hard to pick a man of the match from such a brilliant team performance.

What has happened to Danny Mayor though? He's still a privilege to watch but he's become something of a beast. Bullet shots, crunching tackles... either somebody's putting something in his corn flakes or Stephen Schumacher has had a word in his ear that Ryan Lowe never did. I think it's the latter.

I'd go for Ryan Law I think, just because I still can't quite believe we can produce good youngsters but he played like a seasoned pro, going forward and back.

I know refs have been told to let the game flow but he was far too easy going. There were one or two things I thought were seriously bad challenges for which he didn't even give a free kick. He runs the risk of the whole thing getting out of hand.