My look on last night...

Sorry for the delay, I didn't get back to Plymouth until 4 in the morning on the travel coaches so I have been sleeping most of the day.

Anyway...

Coaches left home park at 12, and there was a real sense of optimism among the fans (including me), songs were sung on the coach and the banter was good, surely it couldn't get worse than saturday? Stopped at services and got chatting to some friendly Bristol City fans who wish us the best for the coming season.

Dagenham, hmmm, if you've not been there I am sure you've heard about the place. The ground is a fair way in to the town which meant a rather long drive through one of the most run down areas I have ever had the misfortune of entering. About 15 of us on the coach enjoyed some banter as we stopped outside a macdonalds and there was a 'rough' looking lad kissing 2 girls at once and there was some funny exchanges there. You wouldn't notice the ground until your up alongside it and even then, you had to walk through a small park (in which you could have been mugged at any time) to get to the ground itself. With 45 minutes until the gates opened we met with some Dagenham fans who took us to the high street, which was basically a downgraded version of Union street, but 33 pence for a can of coke, can't go wrong there and in fairness, the locals seemed very friendly.

The away end at the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham stadium (or victoria road) is excellent, it's fairly steep and you have a fantastic view of the pitch at the back of the stand. From about 7 15 onwards the green army were in good voice as we towered over the other 3 stands, well, if you can call them stands that is. The food and drink, the less said the better, 2 quid for a plastic cup of coke drunk in 2 sips, yeah the standard at football grounds these days. The stewards and general staff seemed excellent though.

Right then, the first half. The opening 10 minutes or so were terrible and it was a matter of hoof it up the pitch for both teams, the first chance fell to Chadwick but he could only send his header high over the crossbar. Moments later and a hoof up pitch caught Blanchard out and the Dagenham striker raced through on goal, but Jake Cole came to the rescue produced a fantastic 1 handed stop to push it over the crossbar. 4 minutes later and Dagenham were at it again, Blanchard was caught out for the second time, and a free header at the back post from point blank range was expertly saved by Cole. Just before half time Dagenham missed a wonderful chance but the striker was unable to get his head on the ball from 3 yards out. There was to be one final chance of the half, Gurrieri made the perfect pass to lecointe who took on the shot from the edge of the area but missed by a whisker.

Quick note, the Dagenham announcer made me laugh, he had no idea what he was doing and numerous times he mumbled things like "whats next Julie" or "do we have the scores".

Second half, and Paris Cowan Hall replaced Lecointe (who had not had a fantastic game). Argyle had the first move in the second half, but Wotton could only fire his shot into row Z after some good play by Luke Young. After that though, it was one way traffic. Dagenham pumped in ball after ball, they missed 2 open goals (again players not getting their head on the ball from a couple of yards out) and surely it was just a matter of time before they took the lead, but they couldn't. For the last 10 minutes, it was clear Mr Clueless (fletcher) was going for the draw as we passed the ball around in defence and he brought on Feeney to hold the ball in the corner, despite the anger of the away fans. Gorman came on and provided a little spark but this decision should have been made much earlier. Young had a chance to shoot but for some reason Feeney decided to be a defender and blocked Young's shot. Wotton had the left effort but could only blast his free kick into the wall.

That little report there probably sounded a little more exciting than the game actually was, we were awful, Dagenham were awful but still better than us.

The Green Army were 545 strong last night and didn't stop singing throughout the match, the Daggers tried to raise some noise but none of their stands can create an atmosphere at all.

Cole - 8
Nelson - 3
Purse - 5
Blanchard - 3
Bhasera - 3
Young - 5
Wotton - 5
Hourihane - 4
Gurrieri - 4
Chadwick - 1
Lecointe - 4

Gorman - 5
Feeney - 3
Cowan Hall - 7

Cole was by far MOTM but PCH did look rather sharp when he came on.

Going to be a long season.

Thanks Cobi Pitbull

We thought you had been snapped up to appear in TOWIE for a while.

Utter shit could sum it all up then?

Why take 8 paragraph's when one word will do.Having said that you want to post this on the Herald website so that a wider audience could read it.It's wasted on here.

exclusive for you guys.

Any other club would just cancel chadwick's contract

You'll skip Dagenham when you're older, nice report all the same.

Thanks Pitbull, always enjoy you're outlook on things

Someone sould post this on Pasoti because it sh*ts all over Mark Pedlars 'Brief synopsis'!

Should*

All together now "taxi for Fletcher".

no he can bloody well walk.

better be careful going up outland road then.they got speed camera up there you know.

GreenWhiteBlack wrote:

Thanks Pitbull, always enjoy you're outlook on things

Someone sould post this on Pasoti because it sh*ts all over Mark Pedlars 'Brief synopsis'!

Thanks GreenWhiteBlack, appreciated.

Ah Mark isn't to bad, although his constant slating of Robbie Williams annoys me, he's gonna do it 'for eternity'

Pitbull...
Your James Brent - what would you do?

Who would you hire to replace CF is you sacked him?

ilovegreen wrote:

Pitbull...
Your James Brent - what would you do?

Who would you hire to replace CF is you sacked him?

In my opinion, the best available manager who we will be able to get is Paul Ince, and I think he would do well here.

Pitbull wrote:

ilovegreen wrote:

Pitbull...
Your James Brent - what would you do?

Who would you hire to replace CF is you sacked him?

In my opinion, the best available manager who we will be able to get is Paul Ince, and I think he would do well here.

I don't think his ego would allow him to join a little club like Plymouth.

Remember when he played at Home Park with Wolves, got called a wanker by the Devonport and Friio bobbed his head along to the tune.

There was a guy called Peter Reid but he ran off with a pen.

GOB wrote:

There was a guy called Peter Reid but he ran off with a pen.

Did he get a t-shirt saying:

I came all the way to Plymouth, and all I got was this shitty pen.

I'm not sure, there may have been an auction

Auction....or "i'm gonna pretend it's an auction but really some rich bloke will just buy it for stupid amounts either way"

To think the poor fella auctioned a medal along with other gifts to the club. Badly treated and never forgotten.

I clearly wasn't a fan of Peter Reid but right now I'd have him back anytime over carl the clueless

As we are in to the "we could have had" debate, I think the club missed a golden opportunity to get Gary Johnson when he left Northampton and after six seasons at Bristol City, at the same time Peter Reid left HP. I reckon he would have seriously considered coming to HP at the time. But no as usual we farted around "fat gary" went back to Yeovil and from where I'm sitting he is doing some good things there. Oh I despair I really do!

akagreengull wrote:

As we are in to the "we could have had" debate, I think the club missed a golden opportunity to get Gary Johnson when he left Northampton and after six seasons at Bristol City, at the same time Peter Reid left HP. I reckon he would have seriously considered coming to HP at the time. But no as usual we farted around "fat gary" went back to Yeovil and from where I'm sitting he is doing some good things there. Oh I despair I really do!

I think the biggest mistake was not taking Sean O'Driscoll when we had the chance.

Frank Bullitt wrote:

akagreengull wrote:

As we are in to the "we could have had" debate, I think the club missed a golden opportunity to get Gary Johnson when he left Northampton and after six seasons at Bristol City, at the same time Peter Reid left HP. I reckon he would have seriously considered coming to HP at the time. But no as usual we farted around "fat gary" went back to Yeovil and from where I'm sitting he is doing some good things there. Oh I despair I really do!

I think the biggest mistake was not taking Sean O'Driscoll when we had the chance.

Both were missed opportunities, but O'Driscoll was already here with us! He could've been approached at any time, maybe he was, and said no? But tying him up to any kind of contract would have helped I reckon. If we had got him to sign a contract until the end of the season with the remit to keep us up with Fletcher, then offer him to role full-time, promising him a blank canvass and the necessary funds to build his own side. It might have tempted him, but these kind of things never happen when you have no experience in football.

Then of course Warnock became available, and somebody started a thread on Pasoti with messages from the fans to Warnock, while Fletcher was still manager, can't remember who it was