Let's Not Do An Ex**er(Fylde Match Thread)

Charlie Wood wrote:

Well that's my annual attendance completed and I pity anybody that is content to watch that standard of football week in and week out. That's not the football club that has dragged at my heartstrings for nigh on 50* years. Disconnected...completely.

You should've saved yourself for the Pompey game next week Charlie, that'll be a different animal I'm sure.

That was the worst performance of the season.

I'm afraid to say I disagree with the views that we did a professional job against a poor team and that it was always going to be tough. Yes, it WAS always going to be tough but we made it a lot tougher in my mind than it needed to be. I don't think it was a solid performance- I think it was very shaky, lacking in defensive stability or imagination in our attacking play(Norburn aside). We jut weren't at the races at all. Most of our players didn't look like they had an understanding of eachother and too many individuals made schoolboy level errors both with the ball and without it.

If you think I'm being harsh on the lads, Sheridan agrees with me. His quotes in the post match said 'we need to play a lot better than that' and he has generally been very positive in his comments about the performances this season (even the losing ones). We didn't lose (in my mind) for two main reasons. For one, Fylde had nine or ten men behind the ball at 0-0 even when we were stuttering. If they'd have gone from us early on we may well have imploded. Secondly, when Fylde did start playing (some very good) football in an attacking sense at 1-0 they missed all their chances. Dress it up how you like, we let them have too many chances for a team two leagues below. They missed sitters and Luke saved well- that doesn't mean we defended well in my view. We're into the next round, but more by luck (luck and Luke) than judgement. I usually think the 'we got lucky' line is a lazy one to take but there are exceptions to every rule. It's perfectly legitimate today.

Kellett for me is a player with potential but is very, very raw. The amount of times their ginger number 10 had a lot of space down Kellett's side was far too many. Kellett has got a bit of unpredictability about him, his pace got us ten yards up the pitch a couple of times and his passing was better than most but I don't think he's a very good defender. All their chances came from our left hand side- even more so than when McHugh was left-back. He needs to get his act together and get a bit of defensive knowhow or else I think he'll struggle to keep his place. I'm surprised Hartley is getting high defensive numbers too. Usually he's so solid and secure at just getting rid of a ball that comes his way but he misjudged the location of far too many balls today and whilst he seemed very good at shouting at others, he wasn't so good at defending himself. Below par game in spite of his goal. McHugh had an absolute stinker and far from the assured player we're used to seeing since his move to centre-back. There wasn't one specific weakness- he just looked very nervous all game and gifted the ball to a Fylde player honestly I think about 6 times throughout. Talk about the manager of the month curse- I think McHugh had the player of the month curse even though he didn't win it. Nelse put in a solid performance but even he was far from his very best. Mellor was alright- most of our weaknesses was down our left-side or through the centre not the left. O'Connor on the other hand after he replaced an injured Mellor was distinctly patchy from first to last. He like many seemed to have lost all of his defensive stability and his legs for this one game seemed to be temporarily made of jelly. A condition endemic amongst most of our starters.

I have to say, as someone who 80% of the time is a defender of Tyler Harvey that I was really disappointed in how he played today. I don't think he's worthy of a 2 out of 10 at all- I just think that's an over-exaggeration but I do think he was a 4 out of 10 or a 5 at the most based on a slight improvement throughout the game. A 2 would either be someone who was completely anonymous or someone who got everything wrong. Tyler wasn't either of those but what he didn't do was nearly get in the game enough and was FAR too wasteful when he did. It's a real disappointment considering this was his chance to stake a claim to a place in the first team but he didn't do it. He improved a bit in the second half and got some discipline into the pressing and high defending side of his game but he had a poor match overall. What I disagree with is the assumption that this will be the norm when Bobby Reid departs. Tyler played/usually plays as a number 10, trequarista, in the hole, AMC...whatever you want to call it- different names for the same thing. The player who has usually played in that role in our league games is not Bobby Reid but Dom Blizzard...Bobby usually starts from deep and makes bursting runs forward so Tyler's performance isn't the be all and end all.

Reid and Morgan were also far from their best. Morgan's goal was illegitimate and for the first hour he didn't even do the harrying stuff that he's good at let alone the stuff he's always been bad at. Reuben had a quiet first half and in the second half almost everything he tried went wrong. Too many players below their par today which applied to the strikers as much as the defenders. Reid is still clearly carrying an injury which has stopped him performing quite to the standards that he was it before it. Let's give him a proper rest for the sake of his fitness and leave him on the bench for Wednesday.

I think that only two players put in a good performance out of the starters today: One of them was Cox. A performance from him that was as calming, assured and wise as ever. He's very good at moving to exactly where the ball is going to be, intercepting it and then making a pass that it both quick, sharp and well targeted. O'Connor is a good DM but I still just about think that Cox is an even better one. He's the perfect player to sweep up play at the base of the midfield and then churn it back out to our more creative players. Speaking of which, the other player who impressed me was Norburn. I've not been much of a fan of his in his early Argyle career but he did very well today. He was our best passer by a mile, he has the Luke Young knack of finding the pass out of nowhere that none of our other players will see. His off the ball work (though still imperfect) has also improved in my mind. He was one of our few players who got stuck in whilst Fylde players had the ball and won it in the tackle. And of course, two magnificent corners for the two goals that put those of Harvey and Kellett to shame. A special word for Lewi from the bench who gave us a little bit more spark (thought it would have been hard to have had less) and brought the most out of Morgan too. Thomas on the other hand was dross and in spite of his obvious enthusiasm had a poor game and ran the ball into trouble every time he picked it up.

On the whole, yes we won, I'm glad we're in round two but if we play like that in most League Two games then we will get thumped. A good defensive performance I have no problem with. But I disagree that's what that was and I disagree that we were under no threat. We need to seriously up our game. I can't decide if we were too nervous throughout or too complacent throughout- at times it looked like one, at times it looked like the other. Either way, the affect was not pretty. Give Cox and Norburn Wednesday night but the rest of the players should be more or less our standard league team- with a couple of them told to seriously shape it up or risk being dropped after two poor performances in a row.

McCormick- 7.

Nelson- 6.
McHugh- 3.
Hartley- 5.

Mellor-6.
Cox-7.
Norburn-7 MOTM.
Harvey-4.
Kellet-5.

Reid-5.
Morgan-5.

O'Connor-5.
Alessandra-7.
Thomas-3.

GreenSam wrote:

Dress it up how you like, we let them have too many chances for a team two leagues below. They missed sitters and Luke saved well- that doesn't mean we defended well in my view. We're into the next round, but more by luck (luck and Luke) than judgement. I usually think the 'we got lucky' line is a lazy one to take but there are exceptions to every rule. It's perfectly legitimate today.

On the whole, yes we won, I'm glad we're in round two but if we play like that in most League Two games then we will get thumped.

But they didn't score and its Luke's job to save shots.

if we play like that in most League Two games etc - but we havn't been and havn't been thumped.

I view today as ''money''. Get to round 3 and we could help the coffers with a plum draw.

Can we have the match reports with more detail

tigertony wrote:

GreenSam wrote:

Dress it up how you like, we let them have too many chances for a team two leagues below. They missed sitters and Luke saved well- that doesn't mean we defended well in my view. We're into the next round, but more by luck (luck and Luke) than judgement. I usually think the 'we got lucky' line is a lazy one to take but there are exceptions to every rule. It's perfectly legitimate today.

On the whole, yes we won, I'm glad we're in round two but if we play like that in most League Two games then we will get thumped.

But they didn't score and its Luke's job to save shots.

if we play like that in most League Two games etc - but we havn't been and havn't been thumped.

I view today as ''money''. Get to round 3 and we could help the coffers with a plum draw.

I generally agree with that point of view Tony and I'm not one to moan for the sake of moaning but today really was shoddy fare.

GreenSam wrote:

That was the worst performance of the season.

I'll take a few more two nils like that then!

Tell you what aswell that's a pearler of a pitch we managed to screw for free. After all the rain we've had recently and with it pissing down in Plymouth all night, they had the sprinklers on at half time.

tigertony wrote:

GreenSam wrote:

Dress it up how you like, we let them have too many chances for a team two leagues below. They missed sitters and Luke saved well- that doesn't mean we defended well in my view. We're into the next round, but more by luck (luck and Luke) than judgement. I usually think the 'we got lucky' line is a lazy one to take but there are exceptions to every rule. It's perfectly legitimate today.

On the whole, yes we won, I'm glad we're in round two but if we play like that in most League Two games then we will get thumped.

But they didn't score and its Luke's job to save shots.

if we play like that in most League Two games etc - but we havn't been and havn't been thumped.

I view today as ''money''. Get to round 3 and we could help the coffers with a plum draw.

Zactly.When Argyle got to the semi in 1984,in one of the earlier rounds they played Barking [who were playing at a lower level than yesterdays opposition] down here and struggled horribly against them before scraping through.Playing against non league teams bears no relationship to what happens in the league or indeed later rounds of the cup,absolutely none.Yesterday was a no win game for Argyle except in the most important aspect of the match result,which when push comes to shove,is the only thing that matters.It's another facet of Argyle which has improved under Sheridan-there are no longer disasters of the Stourbridge/Dorchester variety and long may that continue,certainly wouldn't have fancied Argyle's chances yesterday with Fletcher still in charge and the players of that awful era still in situ.

What a painful game to watch, Argyle really did not look interested. I suppose the job is done though and Argyle are in the hat for the second round draw.

AFC Fylde tried, but i thought Argyle were the better side in the end. 

Terrible atmosphere in the ground yesterday.

I thought this was an awful game matched by the shocking attitude the players showed towards Fylde. It was like watching a pre season game.