The Real Dons Match Thread

Just saying if they played a side that was decent at finishing they would have been 4 nii down in that first 20mins and it would have been game over ..just saying but sort your defence out Del bhey

Elias wrote:

Victory will always feel positive

Especially over the phoneys right! 

RegGreen wrote:

Just saying if they played a side that was decent at finishing they would have been 4 nii down in that first 20mins and it would have been game over ..just saying but sort your defence out Del bhey

We defend okay during that spell or at least Nelson, Hartley and McHugh did. They just kept going at Mellor, who started really poor. Our distribution from the back was a bit sloppy and rushed, so we struggled to gain possession and push them back. But once we did settle and started to play as if it was a competitive match rather than preseason, then it became pretty easy (or at least we made it look as such) to contain them and their hopeful lumps up to Elliott or Akinfenwa. 

Indeed we can't afford to kick off against Pompey in the same manner, but I'm happy to strike it down to first game, new manager, 5 debutants and a change of formation. Very pleased with most of what I saw yesterday.

SwimWithTheTide wrote:

RegGreen wrote:

Just saying if they played a side that was decent at finishing they would have been 4 nii down in that first 20mins and it would have been game over ..just saying but sort your defence out Del bhey

We defend okay during that spell or at least Nelson, Hartley and McHugh did. They just kept going at Mellor, who started really poor. Our distribution from the back was a bit sloppy and rushed, so we struggled to gain possession and push them back. But once we did settle and started to play as if it was a competitive match rather than preseason, then it became pretty easy (or at least we made it look as such) to contain them and their hopeful lumps up to Elliott or Akinfenwa. 

Indeed we can't afford to kick off against Pompey in the same manner, but I'm happy to strike it down to first game, new manager, 5 debutants and a change of formation. Very pleased with most of what I saw yesterday.

just as i thought then we should have been 4-0 down then in that period

RegGreen wrote:

SwimWithTheTide wrote:

RegGreen wrote:

Just saying if they played a side that was decent at finishing they would have been 4 nii down in that first 20mins and it would have been game over ..just saying but sort your defence out Del bhey

We defend okay during that spell or at least Nelson, Hartley and McHugh did. They just kept going at Mellor, who started really poor. Our distribution from the back was a bit sloppy and rushed, so we struggled to gain possession and push them back. But once we did settle and started to play as if it was a competitive match rather than preseason, then it became pretty easy (or at least we made it look as such) to contain them and their hopeful lumps up to Elliott or Akinfenwa. 

Indeed we can't afford to kick off against Pompey in the same manner, but I'm happy to strike it down to first game, new manager, 5 debutants and a change of formation. Very pleased with most of what I saw yesterday.

just as i thought then we should have been 4-0 down then in that period

Well, it depends if you feel every opportunity SHOULD be a goal. If so then sure, but then we may have won the game 6 - 5... Doesn't really matter does it Reg 

I think Adams may well turn out to be a good manager, the danger is this will be spotted by an ambitious club who will offer him the backing that Budget Brent certainly wont.

The defence had to learn new tricks during the summer.....and obviously it showed during pre-season.....but they looked ok yesterday....soaked up the pressure well on a very hot summers day....Wimbledon couldn't keep it up and tailed off.....two goals either side of half-time finished them as a dangerous force.....they tried to raise the tempo near the end....but we where up to it and spent most of the last five minutes down their end.

Great we put in such a good performance, but also good that ALL three professional Devon teams opened their season with a win.

Great result, great goals, got my Pompey tickets, geddon Del and his bheys

SwimWithTheTide wrote:

Elias wrote:

Victory will always feel positive

Especially over the phoneys right! 

Putting the tree huggers in their place. Lovely

Good performance. Boateng is bloody brilliant. What a player! Carey is so composed on the ball, and his set pieces are fantastic, how great to have a genuine playmaker at last. Wylde very impressive, the ball is magnetised to his left foot and he can sprint from box to box leaving players for dead - also when he is closed down, he can play good instinctive passes. Jervis looks decent enough as a winger. Reuben also looks dangerous.

Derek Adams told PASALB he had a budget for 5 contracted players and three loans. So he's looking for one more loan. Personally I think Mellor needs a bit of competition. If not a utility player in the mould of Lee Hodges who can slot in and play well in 4 or 5 positions.

Good performance all in all, Wimbledon had an off day in their finishing but we played well and looked the better team. Atmosphere a bit flat, best chants were aimed at Pieface 'you're just a white Akinfenwa'.

The key for me is to see what happens when we concede the first goal. Holding onto leads is a useful trait to have, and we've been pretty good at that for a while, but when we're behind we hardly ever get a draw out of it, let alone a win. Does Adams have the ingenuity to get us out of a hole - unlike Sheridan?

Cornish Chris wrote:

The key for me is to see what happens when we concede the first goal. Holding onto leads is a useful trait to have, and we've been pretty good at that for a while, but when we're behind we hardly ever get a draw out of it, let alone a win. Does Adams have the ingenuity to get us out of a hole - unlike Sheridan?

I fear we'll be stuck in the muff for the foreseeable under Brent.

ejh wrote:

Good performance. Boateng is bloody brilliant. What a player! Carey is so composed on the ball, and his set pieces are fantastic, how great to have a genuine playmaker at last. Wylde very impressive, the ball is magnetised to his left foot and he can sprint from box to box leaving players for dead - also when he is closed down, he can play good instinctive passes. Jervis looks decent enough as a winger. Reuben also looks dangerous.

Derek Adams told PASALB he had a budget for 5 contracted players and three loans. So he's looking for one more loan. Personally I think Mellor needs a bit of competition. If not a utility player in the mould of Lee Hodges who can slot in and play well in 4 or 5 positions.

Good performance all in all, Wimbledon had an off day in their finishing but we played well and looked the better team. Atmosphere a bit flat, best chants were aimed at Pieface 'you're just a white Akinfenwa'.

Wow, sounds like a team full of Luke Youngs.

Iggy wrote:

ejh wrote:

Good performance. Boateng is bloody brilliant. What a player! Carey is so composed on the ball, and his set pieces are fantastic, how great to have a genuine playmaker at last. Wylde very impressive, the ball is magnetised to his left foot and he can sprint from box to box leaving players for dead - also when he is closed down, he can play good instinctive passes. Jervis looks decent enough as a winger. Reuben also looks dangerous.

Derek Adams told PASALB he had a budget for 5 contracted players and three loans. So he's looking for one more loan. Personally I think Mellor needs a bit of competition. If not a utility player in the mould of Lee Hodges who can slot in and play well in 4 or 5 positions.

Good performance all in all, Wimbledon had an off day in their finishing but we played well and looked the better team. Atmosphere a bit flat, best chants were aimed at Pieface 'you're just a white Akinfenwa'.

Wow, sounds like a team full of Luke Youngs.

I thought to myself that I'd leave it a while before doing a write-up on this match to see if it really would still seem so good in hindsight away from the heat of the moment. Occasionally I can alter and rectify my immediate thoughts with a few days reflection. Not on this occasion- it really was a very good performance. Yes it's only one game. Yes it doesn't mean anything. But nonetheless, it was far more good than it was bad and is a very promising platform to build upon. I didn't have the best of views from my position near the dugout but I'll give my views as best as I saw them.

Let's do it in chronological order and get the negatives out of the way first. That is to say, the first twenty minutes which weren't great at all. Wimbledon came at us from the off which you'd aspect from an energetic, direct side on their own pitch for the first day of the season but even so perhaps we sat back off them a little too much. Mellor's defensive weaknesses in pre-season continued into the match, with him making several naive decisions when it came to tracking his man and advancing out of position. Hiram Boateng too (as good as he became later in the game) was a little slow getting into it and left a lot of the defensive duties to Carl McHugh. During the brief breaks in play in the first half, I could see Hartley gesticulating towards him and telling him to get stuck in a bit more. Arguably we were lucky not to concede in this spell. The last ditch defending from Nelson, Hartley, McCormick and Sawyer during this period was as near as possible to pitch perfect in both their positioning and execution of challenges. This was especially difficult against Elliott and Akinfenwa when our defensive line was occasionally exposed and under persistent bombardment from an attacking side. Concerns about Nelson and McCormick following a below average pre-season from the pair of them have been wiped out with their strong displays here. All the same, Wimbledon did have a few too many chances than Adams would probably have wanted us to allow them.

But still, it's the first game and we were bound to be a bit nervy. And ultimately the Forest Green game indicated that if we had gone behind, we seem to have developed more mettle than we had last season. Once we settled into the game we were absolutely fine. We edged the rest of the first half and were becoming comfortably the better of the two teams as half-time drew nearer. The defensive stayed as solid and composed as ever. Boateng grew into the game a lot more and showed us that for him, attack is definitely the best form of defence with fantastic creativity and movement going forward. Carl McHugh was just as much of a revelation in central midfield. I'll admit that I thought he wasn't mobile enough to succeed there but I'm eating humble pie. What he lacks in the natural grace of turn, he more than makes up for in his determination and incredibly high stamina levels. He can certainly run a lot even if he can't run quick. His distribution remains as exceptional as ever with some very smart passes out to the front four.

Gregg Wylde eventually got the opening goal shortly before half-time and it was no more than he deserved for his general performance. I don't necessarily hold with the belief that you NEED proper wingers to make a success of this league but when you get a proper old fashioned down-the-touchline winger who's properly good at what he does, it is an immensely satisfying thing to watch. He has that knack of just getting the ball, keeping it glued to his feet with his excellent technique, getting his head down and either beating the full-back with his exceptional bursts of pace or creating a great chance for somebody else with a pinpoint cross. In this game he added something to his repertoire that we didn't see in pre-season: an excellent goal. It only took 3 minutes after the break before Graham Carey added a second with a fantastic, albeit deflected, strike. The deflection certainly helped it but he still had the gumption to hit it and it was going on target anyway. Carey's performance throughout the game was equally excellent. What I like so much about him is that he isn't your standard type of League Two playmaker. Wylde is a quick, nippy winger. Someone like Joe Bryan was used as much for his industry and energy as he was for his silky playmaking. Carey on the other hand is far more in the mould of a Mata or Cazorla type: incredibly good with the ball, superb distribution, nippy with a very low centre of gravity. He is best playing between the lines in a 4-2-3-1 and generally drifts around finding space and execution fantastic passes. He has the movement of a ballet dancer and the technique of someone from a far higher league. That's not to say he doesn't offer anything from a defensive or physical point of view. His pressing and tracking on Saturday was very good. But you could take that from him and he'd still be essentially the same player with his main attributes being technical. That's incredibly rare for League Two.

Reuben didn't get in on the goals but he was also excellent especially in the spell that followed. After 2-0, we had a 15 minute or so spell where we were absolutely so on fire that we really should have wrapped it up and got a couple more. His general play and ability to make himself an outlet was far more indicative of 2014 Reid than 2015 Reid. Jervis missed one of the chances that Reid set up for him but still on the whole put in a display that was more than satisfactory especially for someone still adapting to a wide position.

As time went on, the game began to become a bit flatter which suited Argyle fine. Adams's Argyle showed that we can do the ugly stuff of grinding out a win as well as the high octane attacking play. Adams brought on Purrington as a virtual second full-back to close the game out and stop Wimbledon pressing down our left hand side which was good management. Purrington is still not quite suited to a role higher up the pitch and gave the ball away a few times but the fact that he was there and used his defensive instincts made it a very sensible substitution. Tanner didn't quite get into the game enough but it wasn't really the kind of game most suited to the player he is especially when we switched to 4-4-2 in order to kill the game off even more. Brunt only got a few minutes but did the job he had to in the system. Finally, I'll add that Mellor had a much improved second half too and looked far more like the Mellor who first joined the club.

On the whole, a bit of everything was on display. The ability to defend astutely when under attack. The ability to play some truly fantastic football in which the off the ball forward runs, creativity, spacial awareness of teammates and risk-taking were far better than anything that we saw last season. And finally the ability to close a game off and secure a beautifully boring close to the game. Let's hope we can keep it up and hopefully add one or two more additions to the squad to allow for greater cover in the event of injuries, suspensions and so on.

Right, off to Home Park now for the Gillingham game tonight. More of the game please. Ratings:

McCormick-8

Mellor-6
Nelson-8
Hartley-8
Sawyer-7 (could have done more going forward)

McHugh-8 MOTM
Boateng-7

Jervis-6
Carey-8
Wydle-8

Reid-7 (near enough to an eight)

Purrington-6
Tanner-5
Brunt-5 (although basically N/A)

GreenSam wrote:

I thought to myself that I'd leave it a while before doing a write-up on this match to see if it really would still seem so good in hindsight away from the heat of the moment. Occasionally I can alter and rectify my immediate thoughts with a few days reflection. Not on this occasion- it really was a very good performance. Yes it's only one game. Yes it doesn't mean anything. But nonetheless, it was far more good than it was bad and is a very promising platform to build upon. I didn't have the best of views from my position near the dugout but I'll give my views as best as I saw them.

Let's do it in chronological order and get the negatives out of the way first. That is to say, the first twenty minutes which weren't great at all. Wimbledon came at us from the off which you'd aspect from an energetic, direct side on their own pitch for the first day of the season but even so perhaps we sat back off them a little too much. Mellor's defensive weaknesses in pre-season continued into the match, with him making several naive decisions when it came to tracking his man and advancing out of position. Hiram Boateng too (as good as he became later in the game) was a little slow getting into it and left a lot of the defensive duties to Carl McHugh. During the brief breaks in play in the first half, I could see Hartley gesticulating towards him and telling him to get stuck in a bit more. Arguably we were lucky not to concede in this spell. The last ditch defending from Nelson, Hartley, McCormick and Sawyer during this period was as near as possible to pitch perfect in both their positioning and execution of challenges. This was especially difficult against Elliott and Akinfenwa when our defensive line was occasionally exposed and under persistent bombardment from an attacking side. Concerns about Nelson and McCormick following a below average pre-season from the pair of them have been wiped out with their strong displays here. All the same, Wimbledon did have a few too many chances than Adams would probably have wanted us to allow them.

But still, it's the first game and we were bound to be a bit nervy. And ultimately the Forest Green game indicated that if we had gone behind, we seem to have developed more mettle than we had last season. Once we settled into the game we were absolutely fine. We edged the rest of the first half and were becoming comfortably the better of the two teams as half-time drew nearer. The defensive stayed as solid and composed as ever. Boateng grew into the game a lot more and showed us that for him, attack is definitely the best form of defence with fantastic creativity and movement going forward. Carl McHugh was just as much of a revelation in central midfield. I'll admit that I thought he wasn't mobile enough to succeed there but I'm eating humble pie. What he lacks in the natural grace of turn, he more than makes up for in his determination and incredibly high stamina levels. He can certainly run a lot even if he can't run quick. His distribution remains as exceptional as ever with some very smart passes out to the front four.

Gregg Wylde eventually got the opening goal shortly before half-time and it was no more than he deserved for his general performance. I don't necessarily hold with the belief that you NEED proper wingers to make a success of this league but when you get a proper old fashioned down-the-touchline winger who's properly good at what he does, it is an immensely satisfying thing to watch. He has that knack of just getting the ball, keeping it glued to his feet with his excellent technique, getting his head down and either beating the full-back with his exceptional bursts of pace or creating a great chance for somebody else with a pinpoint cross. In this game he added something to his repertoire that we didn't see in pre-season: an excellent goal. It only took 3 minutes after the break before Graham Carey added a second with a fantastic, albeit deflected, strike. The deflection certainly helped it but he still had the gumption to hit it and it was going on target anyway. Carey's performance throughout the game was equally excellent. What I like so much about him is that he isn't your standard type of League Two playmaker. Wylde is a quick, nippy winger. Someone like Joe Bryan was used as much for his industry and energy as he was for his silky playmaking. Carey on the other hand is far more in the mould of a Mata or Cazorla type: incredibly good with the ball, superb distribution, nippy with a very low centre of gravity. He is best playing between the lines in a 4-2-3-1 and generally drifts around finding space and execution fantastic passes. He has the movement of a ballet dancer and the technique of someone from a far higher league. That's not to say he doesn't offer anything from a defensive or physical point of view. His pressing and tracking on Saturday was very good. But you could take that from him and he'd still be essentially the same player with his main attributes being technical. That's incredibly rare for League Two.

Reuben didn't get in on the goals but he was also excellent especially in the spell that followed. After 2-0, we had a 15 minute or so spell where we were absolutely so on fire that we really should have wrapped it up and got a couple more. His general play and ability to make himself an outlet was far more indicative of 2014 Reid than 2015 Reid. Jervis missed one of the chances that Reid set up for him but still on the whole put in a display that was more than satisfactory especially for someone still adapting to a wide position.

As time went on, the game began to become a bit flatter which suited Argyle fine. Adams's Argyle showed that we can do the ugly stuff of grinding out a win as well as the high octane attacking play. Adams brought on Purrington as a virtual second full-back to close the game out and stop Wimbledon pressing down our left hand side which was good management. Purrington is still not quite suited to a role higher up the pitch and gave the ball away a few times but the fact that he was there and used his defensive instincts made it a very sensible substitution. Tanner didn't quite get into the game enough but it wasn't really the kind of game most suited to the player he is especially when we switched to 4-4-2 in order to kill the game off even more. Brunt only got a few minutes but did the job he had to in the system. Finally, I'll add that Mellor had a much improved second half too and looked far more like the Mellor who first joined the club.

On the whole, a bit of everything was on display. The ability to defend astutely when under attack. The ability to play some truly fantastic football in which the off the ball forward runs, creativity, spacial awareness of teammates and risk-taking were far better than anything that we saw last season. And finally the ability to close a game off and secure a beautifully boring close to the game. Let's hope we can keep it up and hopefully add one or two more additions to the squad to allow for greater cover in the event of injuries, suspensions and so on.

Right, off to Home Park now for the Gillingham game tonight. More of the game please. Ratings:

McCormick-8

Mellor-6
Nelson-8
Hartley-8
Sawyer-7 (could have done more going forward)

McHugh-8 MOTM
Boateng-7

Jervis-6
Carey-8
Wydle-8

Reid-7 (near enough to an eight)

Purrington-6
Tanner-5
Brunt-5 (although basically N/A)

Foreshore