Brief Synopsis

Yes watched Final Score, Mildly entertaining after a early struggle i eventually sorted out my arse groove on the sofa. Cup of tea, ( PGtips) Good solid cup of tea no nonsense performance 7. Plain Digestives (two) ever dependable the plain digestive strikes up a good partnership with a cup of tea excellent throughout 8. Sofa, big dominant yet comfortable display never Buckled 8. Over all a good team effort nothing flash, but a decent afternoons entertainment.

My alcohol intake was sadly lacking so I was able to analyse a bit more than usual.

Strange sort of game I thought. Argyle played like the away side for most of the game. Shrewsbury seemed to dominate possession for long periods and looked strong going forward. But when Argyle countered we could have easily scored a few more on the break. Reid junior looked really bright and will be an asset on todays showing.

It just brought it all home to me today that you only have to be halfway decent to get out of this league. We've been pretty awful in a few games this season yet sit 8th in the table. Our whole season could hinge on keeping Reuben (in January) AND keeping him fit.

Luckily my alcohol intake wasn't lacking so a very brief Synopsis it will be. Watching all but one of the home games so I can honestly say apart from the Exeter performance which was excellent we've been pretty uninspiring and at times tedious to watch, that said I'm always happy when we get 3 points so if we continue to play shite at home all season but win all our games I'll settle for it.

PS............I won't be there on Tuesday, Asti out.

Saved today by Luke in my opinion a 1-0 win could have been a 3-1 defeat although in fairness Allesandra and Smalley should have scored on breakaways. The central midfield looked weak and at times we couldn't retain the ball or get their foot on the ball.
I was impressed with Bobby Reid's crossing and ability to run with the ball at his feet. Maybe worth a try on the right wing with Thomas on the left as Allesandra; Morgan and especially Smalley seemed so ineffective. I would also stiffen up the centre midfield with Cox and Norburn with O'connor sitting behind. Let them guys do all the donkey work with the two Reid's and Thomas as our attacking options.
On the bright side another three points and 8th in the league.

If we could start picking up away points and maintain our home form even if it isn't great football it will be enough to put us in the mix at the end of the season. You don't need to be world beaters to get out of this dogshit league. #itsallcomingtogethernicelynow

Oh and I forgot to mention the OP, brilliant Suffered

If it wasn't for some good saves by Luke (and Mellor I think for one of the shots in the first half) we could of easily lost 4-1. The majority of the second half we spent in our own half. Woods controlled the game for them even though he was dirty at times (and with some other refs he may of been given 2 yellows).

Match stats;
Possession;
42% Argyle 58% Shrewsbury

Shots;
8 Argyle 9 Shrewsbury

Shots on target;
3 Argyle 4 Shrewsbury

Corners;
5 Argyle 8 Shrewsbury

Fouls;
8 Argyle 11 Shrewsbury

Players booked;
Woods

Attendance: 6,229

Les Miserable wrote:

If we could start picking up away points and maintain our home form even if it isn't great football it will be enough to put us in the mix at the end of the season. You don't need to be world beaters to get out of this dogshit league.  #itsallcomingtogethernicelynow

exactly its getting the W thats important.

Les Miserable wrote:

If we could start picking up away points and maintain our home form even if it isn't great football it will be enough to put us in the mix at the end of the season. You don't need to be world beaters to get out of this dogshit league.  #itsallcomingtogethernicelynow

They say you need to aim for 2 points a game. We have done better than that (2.16 points per game- 13 points from 18)

And away, 3 points from 15 is it?

Awful performance in which one or two players bailed us out. An undeserved win. Shrewsbury didn't deserve all three points but they deserved one and if pushed they were the better of the two sides- and the worrying thing was that they weren't even very good but they still bossed us. It wasn't even (as some have said) a very good performance from us as a defensive unit to my mind. Some very good, very effective last ditch defending was done from McCormick, Hartley and Nelson. Our defending from both wide and centrally in the final third was not good enough and we let Shrewsbury have far too many serious chances in and around our six yard box. Our performance as a defensive unit stopping them from having clear cut chances was crap- our last line of defence however was good.

Going forward we were generally pretty poor. Bobby Reid was the best of our forward players but even he turned into a passenger when we were off the ball. Blizzard again had some good passing moves going forward but off the ball didn't quite do enough. We missed Cox today, again who I feel would have won us a lot more possession. The front three were all poor with the goal being Reuben's only contribution- but I won't complain at that. Alessandra needs a serious kick up the backside now. He's been a poor player for us for longer than he's been a good player for us. Like Banton, the talent he has in his locker when he's on form cannot be doubted. Also like Banton, his lack of consistency however is so awful as to make that utterly irrelevant. Smalley by the way really is utterly atrocious. From what I've seen so far he's almost down there with the Chadwick, Soukouna, Blackman, Hayes and Reckord school of awful in terms of how utterly abject he's been whilst wearing an Argyle shirt.

In spite of what was an unorganised performance, I still can't help but feel that we'll win the majority of home games if we play like that which shows how awful this league is. McCormick and Hartley (also Nelson) are too good for this league and even if we're sh1te as we were today, those three will bail us out and keep enough clean sheets that we only need to score a goal to win. We are bad at coming from behind but we are VERY good at holding onto leads. That is thanks in no small part to having such excellent CBs and keeper. Mellor we can usually rely on too but he had a real off day today especially in his defending. Left-back is a weak spot. Purrington is promising but raw. McHugh is quite simply a fish out of water.

Not great. Sheridan's tactics, organisation and game plan still weren't good enough. But he's signed two players and brought through the youth one who will keep us untold clean sheets and thus will win us games. Still very doubtful about him though and still think we need to improve our all round game and not just rely on good players if we're to pick up away points as well as just home ones. Serious improvement needed for Tuesday night or we could get humped.

Player by player:

McCormick: Amazing as I said. Didn't just do the saves right (though he did them very well) he also made himself very large and plucked crosses out of the air supremely. 8/10 MOTM

Mellor: Had a solid game going forward and nearly set up Alessandra for a goal that would have been a replica of his Southend one but Lewi bottled it. Defensively however, Kelvin was very iffy and allowed Shrewsbury far too much time by half. Didn't do the simple things well which was concerning. 5/10.
Nelson: Dealt with almost everything that came his way. Felt he was unfairly fouled a few times. Some pitch perfect interceptions to stop their men going one on one with Luke. 8/10.
Hartley: What a defender, what a communicator. He if anything is the main reason we've gone from having a solid defence last season to a very good one this season. Today he also effectively dealt with his main weakness which is ariel crosses, heading most of them clear. 8/10.
McHugh: THIS MAN IS NOT A LEFT-BACK. We need to sign one in the loan market ASAP because this is a serious weak spot we've got here. He played some good forward balls down the line to Morgan and is a threat from set pieces going forward but he's a textbook guide of how not to be a full-back whilst defending. He never intercepts crosses and never shows his man away from goal. He always either lets the winger saunter past him or cross a ball easily in. He seems to be a very good centre back for this league but left-back: no. 5/10.

O'Connor: After initially raving about him when he first joined the club, I'm now beginning to back down from my viewpoint a little bit. He's a good defensive midfielder but to be a truly fantastic one he needs to start making more interceptions than what he's currently making. His passing was surprisingly decent today I though as was his pressing and positioning. But unlike Cox and Hourihane, he hasn't quite been plucking up the loose balls to the level you need to to be a seriously good DM for this league. Hopefully he'll pick up his form a bit cause at the moment he's been competent but not the undroppable player he was for his first month at Argyle. 6/10.
Bobby Reid: A nasty case of the Nathan Thomas's. He's very exciting on the ball which is enough to make him enjoyable to watch but when we're without the ball he offers very little. Doesn't do enough or position himself well enough to win it back. He needs to work on that but with the ball he looks very composed and very gifted technically. Was crying out for him to be subbed off for Cox by the end. 6/10.
Blizzard: Was Blizzard. Creative at times and a good eye for a pass but is so weak and so slow that he can never press effectively or win the ball back. He's got the mind, he's got the feet, but he hasn't even remotely got the body. Still has got at least one quality pass in him a game though, if not more than that. 6/10.

Alessandra: Can I be frank here? In spite of all that he's regarded as one of our better players, he's now been crap for us for a longer period of time than he's been good for us. He's been one of our worst players this season by a long way and he has been ever since he's come back from injury. Has he got it inside him to be better? Yes he does. Is that any use to us unless he starts to show it? No it isn't. His game today was summed up by two moments. His awful hesitation when Mellor played him into a golden position to score as mentioned earlier, also his shot on the break from an impossible angle when Reid was in a position where he'd easily have scored. He needs confidence and very soon. No-one should be undroppable. 4/10.
Reuben Reid: Didn't do much apart from the goal but I'll take that all day long if he gets a goal a game. Nowhere near the useful presence goals aside as we saw against Luton though. 6/10.
Morgan: Tries hard, shows for the ball, loses the ball. Repeat ad nauseum. 4/10.

Smalley- Not being funny but how the heck has this guy won League Two scoring 12 goals. Literally everything he tries goes wrong- he can't control the ball, he can't pass it, he can't score from open play. Utterly awful in every regard. His saving grace is he tries but that isn't nearly enough. 3/10.

I imagine we'll see a mixed ability team for Tuesday. Wouldn't be surprised if Reuben and Lewi were to be given a rest. Bobby is not allowed to play. Expect Cox, Thomas and maybe Harvey to come in and start.

After reading the above it looks like my afternoon surfing the sofa was far more enjoyable than forking out my hard earned to watch shezza's shite at HP.

Thanks Sam - a good read as always, keep up all the good work.

Agree with most of Sam post, but Mellor played better and Hartley were sometime missing.
Nice meeting you Sam, pity you ran out of fanzine.

Yeah I thought Mellor was solid today too.

Tbh after Sams appraisal I feel like a FFCCA. (Fully Fledged Card Carrying Aviva)

Tgwu wrote:

Agree with most of Sam post, but Mellor played better and Hartley were sometime missing.
Nice meeting you Sam, pity you ran out of fanzine.

Did you buy one in the end?

Sorry, I can't remember who was who. Did you come to us before we ran out of them?

You sold twenty fanzine today and you should take a look at my Avatar.

I used to like digestives, when they didn't quite fit inside the mug and you had to nibble a bit... oh we played Shrews, gedon

McCormick: Amazing as I said. Didn't just do the saves right (though he did them very well) he also made himself very large and plucked crosses out of the air supremely. 8/10 MOTM


As the great Brian Clough said ''thats why I pay him''

Tgwu wrote:

You sold twenty fanzine today and you should take a look at my Avatar.

26 it was in the end. There are more to come for the next home game.

My God, that was a terrible game. Only thing worth of note was the goal and cross that led to the goal..And i fell asleep during the 2nd half..


Someone said to me yesterday that JS has got until Christmas to make a mark in the top half ??. So i suppose lying in 8th position and two off the Play-Offs is ok....considering the bargain bucket side.