The VERY slow loading but functioning Argyle v Oxford match thread... quicker on your phone

You took the words right out of my mouth GS. I would say Argyle deliver in front of a "big crowd" 50% of the time. I just can't be bothered to respond to fans who come out with the old nonsense that Argyle always fail in the "big games".

As for the Sky sports thing not being shown at HP, sounds like bills haven't been paid, or subscriptions have been cancelled. Reminiscent of the infamous wet power socket ruse that stopped the players being paid on time just before you know what.

I'm still on my boycott of this Ridsdale created disaster of a situation, so it was nice to hear Sturrock on the radio commentary. He did a good job, and pointed out a few realistic home truths, which could basically be summed up with "most teams win one then lose one, that's football"
Argyle are obviously not good enough for play offs, let alone promotion out of this pretty poor basement division. It will only get worse under this financially challenged club, the financial challenge that Brent happily agreed to, as long as he got his pop at his property wheeze.

Edited to add: anyone experiencing difficulties on loading ATD today would be advised to turn their lappy etc off, and then restart, to clear the glitch that has irritated a lot of folk including me.

This season we have lost all our big games, where we are the favourites, have home advantage, good numbers in the crowd, and with an important result at stake.

It is a worrying trend and you have to look pre-Sheridan to find examples of us not messing up like this.

Currently we are not dealing well with the expectation that goes with being favourites, and the demand for a performance that goes with important season defining games.

Couldn't agree more WG.

The ongoing real fan involvement at HP is reaching epidemic proportions . Ex players being are being paraded at every Avivafest and any other opportunity . Some seem to becoming almost permanent fixtures. The big kids with the keys to the train set are really enjoying living in the past, whilst the reluctant one remains untouchable and is playing them for parochial fools.
Meanwhile, the present is amateur at best and the future doesn't bear thinking about.

Even potential opposition to the self indulgent tragedy being played out before our very eyes, seems more intent on joining the fest than confronting this sad state of affairs. Charitable acts and nostalgia abound. If you can't beat 'em , join 'em, seems to be the watchword.


More buckets than brains and more personal positioning than honesty and vision, the lot of them.

That was bloody awful. We really don't deserve to be in the play-offs as Oxford are a play off team and they're a league above us. The referee was terrible but we could have had me refereeing and we'd still have lost.

Paul Wotton, please, give up.

Quite frankly we're shit from front to back.

Tringreen wrote:

Couldn't agree more WG.

The ongoing real fan involvement at HP is reaching epidemic proportions . Ex players being are being paraded at every Avivafest and any other opportunity . Some seem to becoming almost permanent fixtures. The big kids with the keys to the train set are really enjoying living in the past, whilst the reluctant one remains untouchable and is playing them for parochial fools.
Meanwhile, the present is amateur at best and the future doesn't bear thinking about.

Even potential opposition to the self indulgent tragedy being played out before our very eyes, seems more intent on joining the fest than confronting this sad state of affairs. Charitable acts and nostalgia abound. If you can't beat 'em , join 'em, seems to be the watchword.


More buckets than brains and more personal positioning than honesty and vision, the lot of them.

Saw the poster for the ' 1984 reunion', it was in yellow and black so thought might be a couple of ex Watford players along. Obviously not it was same old people that always turn up to these things

Embarrassing failure.

Brent out now !!!!

The BGB would benefit from some pedalling, rather than bucket rattling ............ photo 35

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8,000 was all that could be mustered as expected. More proof that Argyle are a ghetto these days, even at the business end of the season and a so called play off push. Still, at least even St James can budget properly with unchanging statistics, can't he ?
Interesting comments from Sturrock, as he inferred Reid wouldn't be in any team of his.
I wonder who will be the first to say Argyle are still in with a shout, and so make yet another virtue of blind loyalty to a dodgy regime. Home Park. Home of false piety without end. Yuk.

Awful performance and why play 5-3-2 at home against one striker? We should have changed the formation in the first half/half time. Blanchard was awful even before his sending off and our midfield just kept losing the ball. Nothing worked for Reid and Alessandra offered little in attack. Oxford were a good side, despite some of the TomDaley impressions from their players.

We allowed their better players far too much space. Kitson went unmarked for all of the second half and he ran the game. Their big number 9 had the freedom of Home Park. Again, we defended far too deeply. Blanchard's red didn't make that much difference as Oxford were dominant throughout. Their wide players had so much room a d they passed and moved through the midfield with Harvey looking lost, Wotton completely off the pace and Hourihane who ended up being frustrated with so much to do.
Cole had little chance with their second but I can't recall him coming for a single cross. He was fairly poor. Gurrieri was poor, Thomas was anonymous, Reid had nobody running off him. Alesanda looked fit although he was also fighting a losing battle.
Decent crowd and we went out with a whimper. Oxford were very good and I expect them to be play off contenders.

hairy j wrote:

We allowed their better players far too much space. Kitson went unmarked for all of the second half and he ran the game. Their big number 9 had the freedom of Home Park. Again, we defended far too deeply. Blanchard's red didn't make that much difference as Oxford were dominant throughout. Their wide players had so much room a d they passed and moved through the midfield with Harvey looking lost, Wotton completely off the pace and Hourihane who ended up being frustrated with so much to do.
Cole had little chance with their second but I can't recall him coming for a single cross. He was fairly poor. Gurrieri was poor, Thomas was anonymous, Reid had nobody running off him. Alesanda looked fit although he was also fighting a losing battle.
Decent crowd and we went out with a whimper. Oxford were very good and I expect them to be play off contenders.

But, other than that, how did we play?

John Sheridan has his say.

Tringreen wrote:

The BGB would benefit from some pedalling, rather than bucket rattling ............ photo 35

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ejh wrote:

This season we have lost all our big games, where we are the favourites, have home advantage, good numbers in the crowd, and with an important result at stake.It is a worrying trend and you have to look pre-Sheridan to find examples of us not messing up like this.

Currently we are not dealing well with the expectation that goes with being favourites, and the demand for a performance that goes with important season defining games.

Not true.Argyle beat Torquay and Bristol Rovers in front of similar or bigger crowds than yesterdays.

They weren't 'big games'. Just alleged 'derbies' that were given convenient bank holiday fixture slots.

When the 3 points have been vital and we are expected to win according to table and/or form, we don't turn up.

EJ, you don't half flog a lot of dead horses to no good effect  

Only good teams turn up on a regular basis. That's how sport is. It's nothing special, although it could conceivably be the tritium in the Tamar, but that's a long shot.

Oh Well. Same time, same place next year then ??.

Now that the Play-Off push is finally over in theory (but not in a math way), i just hope that we do not get a press release in the coming days and/or weeks on the lines of :-

''Firstly, it is with great regret that Plymouth Argyle Football Club have had to enter administration for a second time. We assure supporters that all is being done to assure that the football club continues in its present form'' -   Blah-Blah-Blah.

Finally, we would like to thank the manager and the playing staff of Plymouth Argyle Football Club for their superb effort in trying to reach the Play-Offs. A mammoth effort which has sadly not come to fruition'' - Blah-Blah-Blah.

I have spoken to a few Argyle fans who believe the above could may well be on the back-burner, but may now be brought forward. Perhaps there was an urgency to clinch a PO spot (more than what we know).

As for yesterday, typical Argyle again. Win at Newport County and all is well, then bang/crash, back to earth again..

VillageGreen wrote:

Oh Well. Same time, same place next year then ??.

Now that the Pay-Off push is finally over in theory (but not in a math way), i just hope that we do not get a press release in the coming days and/or weeks on the lines of :-

''Firstly, it is with great regret that Plymouth Argyle Football Club have had to enter administration for a second time. We assure supporters that all is being done to assure that the football club continues in its present form'' -   Blah-Blah-Blah.

Finally, we would like to thank the manager and the playing staff of Plymouth Argyle Football Club for their superb effort in trying to reach the Play-Offs. A mammoth effort which has sadly not come to fruition'' - Blah-Blah-Blah.

I have spoken to a few Argyle fans who believe the above could may well be on the back-burner, but may now be brought forward.

Interesting. (Rubs chin)!  

All streaks come to an end. A streak of good results brings in supporters. Losing the Big Game in front of the Big Crowd is not inevitable but it does become ever-more likely. All good teams do is manage to delay the end of the streak of good results longer than poor teams do.

Sturrock's lot beat QPR; Sheridan's lost to Oxford. Sturrock's team was one of legends; Sheridan's isn't. Losing 3 out of 4 home games during the season run-in just doesn't cut it.

Yesterday was awful. From the off they made hay down the right wing for about 10 minutes and then did the same down the left. I'd say now, just as I did at the time, we needed a change of formation because whatever the hell our plan was it was clear from 20 mins onwards that it was failing badly, that 3CBs weren't required but 2 full backs were.

Despite chasing shadows for much of the game we could easily have gone in at HT 1-1 but for a poor header, was it Thomas who headed far too downwards?, and a brilliant save.

I think a change was about to be made to formation at the start of the 2nd half when Blanchard was sent off thus screwing up the new plan and then for 10 minutes or so we had our best spell of the game.

Their 2nd goal was a screamer and their goalie made another brilliant save... And then it was all over.

We could have very undeservedly scraped a 2-2 in this game but did not.

Now we need to go WWWW to stand a chance of getting a play-off spot and we might do that. We might still emerge victorious from the play-offs. I don't think we will though and I've been sceptical all season that we could. The truth is, even in a very poor division, we just haven't looked either good enough or solid enough to be a serious promotion contender. We need to start dominating games.

Still we've just had our best season in 6 years, which is more a verdict on how bad the last 5 years have been than how good the 6th has been, and for that we should be pleased, I suppose.

It doesn't feel like much though.

ejh wrote:

Argyle only deliver against the odds.

When we know we are the favourites, when we have won and have form going into a big game, when we have the chance to puff out our chests and play with a bit of confidence, when the fans turn up in their thousands, we play like a bunch of tossers.

In the FA Cup v part timers on national tv, against Exeter at home who hadn't won in about 15 games, against Oxford who are bang out of form, we bottle it every fecking time!

So angry and disappointed, beyond words.

Agreed, at least the last year or two it's been the case.

We will beat Bury on Friday cause the odds are against and then we'll muck up at home to Wimbledon.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

All streaks come to an end. A streak of good results brings in supporters. Losing the Big Game in front of the Big Crowd is not inevitable but it does become ever-more likely. All good teams do is manage to delay the end of the streak of good results longer than poor teams do.

Sturrock's lot beat QPR; Sheridan's lost to Oxford. Sturrock's team was one of legends; Sheridan's isn't. Losing 3 out of 4 home games during the season run-in just doesn't cut it.

Yesterday was awful. From the off they made hay down the right wing for about 10 minutes and then did the same down the left. I'd say now, just as I did at the time, we needed a change of formation  because whatever the hell our plan was it was clear from 20 mins onwards that it was failing badly, that 3CBs weren't required but 2 full backs were.

Despite chasing shadows for much of the game we could easily have gone in at HT 1-1 but for a poor header, was it Thomas who headed far too downwards?, and a brilliant save.

I think a change was about to be made to formation at the start of the 2nd half when Blanchard was sent off thus screwing up the new plan and then for 10 minutes or so we had our best spell of the game.

Their 2nd goal was a screamer and their goalie made another brilliant save... And then it was all over.

We could have very undeservedly scraped a 2-2 in this game but did not.

Now we need to go WWWW to stand a chance of getting a play-off spot and we might do that. We might still emerge victorious from the play-offs. I don't think we will though and I've been sceptical all season that we could. The truth is, even in a very poor division, we just haven't looked either good enough or solid enough to be a serious promotion contender. We need to start dominating games.

Still we've just had our best season in 6 years, which is more a verdict on how bad the last 5 years have been than how good the 6th has been, and for that we should be pleased, I suppose.

It doesn't feel like much though.

You've got it bad. Stop drinking the water ffs !

Guest wrote:

EJ, you don't half flog a lot of dead horses to no good effect  

Only good teams turn up on a regular basis. That's how sport is. It's nothing special, although it could conceivably be the tritium in the Tamar, but that's a long shot.

Guest?!?! Another poster gone.

He said he was going to take another sabbatical weeks ago.

Enjoy Penz !

GreenSam wrote:

ejh wrote:

Argyle only deliver against the odds.

When we know we are the favourites, when we have won and have form going into a big game, when we have the chance to puff out our chests and play with a bit of confidence, when the fans turn up in their thousands, we play like a bunch of tossers.

In the FA Cup v part timers on national tv, against Exeter at home who hadn't won in about 15 games, against Oxford who are bang out of form, we bottle it every fecking time!

So angry and disappointed, beyond words.

Agreed, at least the last year or two it's been the case.

We will beat Bury on Friday cause the odds are against and then we'll muck up at home to Wimbledon.

The phoney wimbledon aaaarrrggghhhhh !!!!

Bury not far behind us now. Two wins from last 4 games best we can get

hairy j wrote:

Guest wrote:

EJ, you don't half flog a lot of dead horses to no good effect  

Only good teams turn up on a regular basis. That's how sport is. It's nothing special, although it could conceivably be the tritium in the Tamar, but that's a long shot.

Guest?!?! Another poster gone.

Wintergreen/Penz comes & goes with the seasons. he's what you'd call a poor weather poster.