PLYMOUTH ARGYLE V NORTHAMTON TOWN Tuesday Match day thread

Angry wrote:

BBC1 wrote:

Les Miserable wrote:

We were painful to watch. The playing of three little birds before and after the match just about sums up the whole event.

They're just a bunch of fucktards at the club.
Agree with your sentiments about that fecking song.
2 turnstiles open at the Devonport end, causing long queues to get in.
A refreshment operative who didn't have a fecking clue when I bought 5 items. And almost diddled me out of £10 change!
That half time 'interview' with Adrian Burrows! Questions straight out of smash hits (was expecting what's your favourite colour?)
Almost got run over after the match by some old codger trying to do a Lewis Hamilton impression to beat the traffic leaving the life centre. Had a 'little word' and did well not to add to my criminal record!
I better stop now or else

should have had the operative i had at the Yeovil game, she gave me £10 extra change lol i did give it back fwiw

I did have a bloke do that to me at an earlier game this season.
Bless them. They seem keen to work, but really are fecking useless.
Still, i'm sure the new Catering Manager will get it all sorted.
By next season probably.

Couldn't organise a piss up at a brewery, or a football match at a football stadium. The turnstiles issue just shows how much Brent thinks of his customers, 2 turnstiles open on the Demport which holds what 1600 fans (4 blocks of 400?) That's 800 fans each which even if processed in 15 seconds equates to 200 minutes in total to get everybody in. And that's forgetting the fact that most people will want to arrive at the ground between half an hour before kick off and the actual kick off and why the fook shouldn't they after paying twenty odd quid for the privilege? How much does it cost to hire ten more till bangers for a couple of hours. Typical Tory austerity bullshit which doesn't impact on the the prawn sandwiche delivery time foreshore.
Feck off Brent you incompetent twat. I told Porky that you weren't fit for purpose and he wouldn't have it shows what a twat he is as well. (That was after him baiting Damon with the nffp thing for being an ex director lol) happy daze.

eicophobic - fear of your home

I knew there was a word to describe our run of form at Home Park since November began.

Arrived at the ground at 7.30ish, fairly large queues outside the Lyndy but moving smoothly, took about 3 mins to get in.

Amsterdamage wrote:

Couldn't organise a piss up at a brewery, or a football match at a football stadium. The turnstiles issue just shows how much Brent thinks of his customers, 2 turnstiles open on the Demport which holds what 1600 fans (4 blocks of 400?) That's 800 fans each which even if processed in 15 seconds equates to 200 minutes in total to get everybody in. And that's forgetting the fact that most people will want to arrive at the ground between half an hour before kick off and the actual kick off and why the fook shouldn't they after paying twenty odd quid for the privilege? How much does it cost to hire ten more till bangers for a couple of hours. Typical Tory austerity bullshit which doesn't impact on the the prawn sandwiche delivery time foreshore.
Feck off Brent you incompetent twat. I told Porky that you weren't fit for purpose and he wouldn't have it shows what a twat he is as well. (That was after him baiting Damon with the nffp thing for being an ex director lol) happy daze.

Do you honestly think JB dictates how many turnstiles to open or which refreshment bars should be open. If you do then you are more of an incompetent village idiot than you sound already.

Good. 3 pints of Tribute in The Lord High Admiral then 2 minutes to get in through the cash turnstile.

Bad. Everything else, a soggy £3 pasty because all the Dewdneys (both) vans had sold out. Then another display making me scratch my head as to how on earth this team is top of the table. Glad I've got better things to do on Saturday.

Charlie Wood wrote:

Good. 3 pints of Tribute in The Lord High Admiral then 2 minutes to get in through the cash turnstile.

Bad. Everything else, a soggy £3 pasty because all the Dewdneys (both) vans had sold out. Then another display making me scratch my head as to how on earth this team is top of the table. Glad I've got better things to do on Saturday.

You are not alone.

Sometimes you just get nights where everything just pi**es you off. This was most definitely one of those. I know that my reviews have a tendency for people a bit too long for most people's tastes on here so I'll do my best to compartmentalise them so people can pick and choose the bits they want to read.

First half
Whilst I wouldn't go as far as Cobi in saying we generally played ok over the whole game, I would say that was certainly true of the majority of the first half. I think we generally played well for most of the first 45. Ok, we didn't dominate the game or brush teams aside like we have done against some of the lesser-weights. Against a top side like Northampton however who were determined to make it into a tough, physical contest, it was never going to be easy. It was never going to be a case of containing them as deftly as we did Hartlepool or coming onto them as easily as we did Newport. There was always going to be an element of us really having to step it up against a side who were bound to be both structured and (as it turned out) tough in the tackle.

I think for the vast majority of the first 45 and certainly until 1-0 we did that. We had a very clear shape of a 4-1-2-3 which allowed us to suck up a lot of play around the midfield, keep the game tight against a strong opposition and then begin to probe their defence. I think a lot of people are underestimating the first half in retrospect because of what a shambles the second half was (more of which I will write on later). But really, what did Northampton have up until their goal. Very little really. We had two clear headers from corners which Brunt and Nelson should have each done a lot better with. We also had Reid force Northampton keeper Smith into a sublime save with a good header from a sublime Sawyer cross. So the first 40 minutes of the game or so were pretty good. It was never going to be a performance like we've had against teams such as Hartlepool this season where we've been able to go at a slow tempo and know that any mistakes wouldn't get punished. It was never going to be a cakewalk, it was always going to be tight, attritional and nervy. But in that initial timeframe, we controlled the game as much as we could allowing the opposition little and creating three clear cut chances for ourselves which we really should have scored from at least one of them.

Then, one of the most appallingly conceded goals I have seen from us in my almost 14 years of regularly attending. To start with, it was a classic Mellor misjudgement when he hugely undersold McCormick with a terribly weak backpass. It was still enough for Luke to get to it in time. Then, McCormick tried his usual bit of skill where he tries to take it around a defender. I've seen him do it so many times and up until now it's never failed (except for Torquay in pre season where they somehow managed not to score from it) but it certainly failed this time. In safety first games such as these, he should have just put his laces through it and got rid of it. If you're gonna try and be fancy, you've GOT to get it right. Unfortunately he didn't and to his credit held up his hand in apology immediately after whilst also berating Mellor for his part in the error. Good leadership but shame about the cock-up in the first place.

Second half
As I've said, I think the first half was generally a controlled and composed performance except for that one schoolboy level error from Mellor and McCormick. Where I cannot agree with Cobi is on the vast majority of the second half which I thought was in the most part a disgrace. In complete contrast to our calm approach of the first half, we gave every appearance of completely bottling it on the big occasion. We panicked, treated the ball like a hot potato and there seemed to be absolutely no defensive communication. Mellor and Nelson went for the same ball too many times, as the new Oldham manager would say we were like 'a team of mutes'. The one time a player did noticeably get a shout from his keeper to leave a ball, Hartley decided to clear it anyway. He completely scuffed his clearance and it fell to Northampton feet who eventually got a shot away. It was a very tame shot but McCormick compounded Hartley's error by letting the ball slide through his legs. Omnishambles.

The way we played for the rest of the second half was very much in the same fashion. Mellor, Nelson and Hartley all reverted to shadows of their best selves after making mistakes. Whilst the three of them held their defensive positions fairly well, their marking and use of the ball when they got it was seriously off the boil. Sawyer was the best off the defensive four but that didn't really say much when he had his usual nosebleed every time he got past the halfway line. Something which was even more annoying after his great showing going forward in the first half.

Our attacking display in the second half was just as bad if not worse. We reverted to the worst of Sheridan last season. Playing more as a group of (albeit talented) individuals and less as a team. It wasn't as bad as the really dross games this season like Carlisle Cup, Dagenham and Cambridge where we didn't have any spark or energy at all. We did at least try to commit men forward and try to press occasionally. And unlike the worst of Sheridan, we were not completely lacking in basic awareness of how to move into space whilst keeping our shape as a team. We did have the odd glimmer here and there in the second half which I will give credit to Adams's general improvement of us as a team. But on the whole it wasn't the right standard. We treated the ball as though it were a bomb, generally looked panicked and flustered and we bottled shooting, passing and crossing opportunities for the whole half.

In general, I have never been a fan of the old 'Argyle always do poorly in front of a big crowd' mantra. It is a case of confirmation bias and it forgets the many occasions over the years where we have in fact been very good in front of a big crowd. But it seems to be more true this season than any other that we are chokers when it comes to the big occasion. Oxford away was a truly gutless performance where we were very lucky to only lose by the one goal. We seemed to move at about 5 miles per hour the whole game. Exeter home was the next big game after that and whilst we showed more desire than we did against Oxford and at least tried stuff, we looked like we were playing the game following having run the London Marathon. Mentally we showed more spark but we never got any energy or rhythm going. In this case, we had more desire and more energy but we still seemed to utterly cack ourselves whenever the chance came to do anything useful. The players seemed to Basically, the mentality amongst many of our players seemed to be this:

'It's a big occasion, we need to go for it, we need to score a goal for our title hopes, I don't like it too much pressure, best to pass backwards or hesitate too long rather than just go for it'.

We were really overthinking it for most of the half. The obvious thing was there to do and we were just passing up the opportunity to do it. You could add Pompey early in the season to our list of big game chokes too. To be clear, I don't think our chokes in big games are the be all and end all by any means. The 2013/14 PL season title race was mainly between Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool. City got 0 points from Chelsea and lost to Liverpool in a crucial April game but still won the league, because they were more consistent over 38 games and picked up more points. If we continue being good enough against the mid-table and low end teams, we WILL go up and maybe even win the league. Therefore, I am not catastrophising the fact of us being big game chokers at all- but it does seem to be a visible trend this season. It goes without saying that I'm still delighted with the job Adams has done overall.

I don't really agree with the analysis that Adams got his tactics that badly wrong. Who knows how we could have done if we were playing all out attack? Maybe better, maybe worse. But what I do think is that we were more than matching a good Northampton team for the first 40 minutes before we gave away two absolute criminal goals then retreated into our collective shells.This was undoubtedly a game of nuance but I think mentality was more the issue than tactics was.

A few other things that annoyed me:

Turnstyles:
I've been guilty as have a lot of people of ranting and raving about stuff online without knowing the full story. Often the internet makes us talk too soon and not weigh up all the options. However, I genuinely struggle to see who could have possibly thought it a good idea that we had LESS turnstyles open than usual when a far HIGHER gate was expected. Add that to the lack of people manning the food kiosks at half-time, the amount of people who just said 'sod it' and lost the club money was absolutely huge. For the cost it takes of employing a few extra part-time stuff, the club could make so much more money in food sales. People were having 15 minute or so waits to get in the ground from as early as 7.10 or so? Generally, good customer service keeps customers coming back. For those that aren't diehard fans, are they more likely to return or not if it's a mission to get into the ground for kick-off or if it's simple. I'm sure one of JB's hotels wouldn't cut back on the costs of the receptionists to save money if it meant people had a 30 minute wait to check in, so the same principle should not apply to a football match. I'd love to know who authorised this decision and why.

Refereeing.
I'm sorry, but refereeing standards in England are a joke. I'm aware that's somewhat of a meaningless statement when I have nothing objective to compare it against but Keith Stroud who is meant to be a decent level referee had an absolutely shocking game. Every 50/50 decision seemed to be swayed by the reaction of either players or the crowd. And he didn't give what must be one of the most blatant penalties I have ever seen fail to be awarded in my life. Jervis was quite literally rugby tackled to the ground and the ref looked right at it and ignored it. I know shirt tugs and holding go underpenalised but that took the biscuit to a new level.

We had other penalties shouts when Hartley and Brunt were held too. I suppose it's somewhat encouraging to know that even when we weren't at our best (like the Pompey game) we were still only a matter of very fine margins away from drawing or even winning the match.

Muppets
Two things done by idiots who claim to support this football club narked me off a treat during this match.

1) The ironic jeering of Reid as he got subbed off. I honestly think some Argyle fans are that small-minded, stupid and parochial that they'd rather we had Warren Feeney up front than Reuben Reid. Just because 'eeeee runs around a lot duneeeee'. So what. Seriously, so bloody what. If all it takes for you to like a player is for them to run around then play me up front, I'd do that. Doesn't mean I'd be any good. In the last two games before his injury, Reid won us the game with a goal and an excellent performance against Accrington and won us the game with two goals and the single best individual performance I have seen from an Argyle's player all season at Notts County. He was coming into a fantastic vein of form and then he got injured. Basically, people are too stupid to understand subtlety is my opinion. People are too stupid to see that just because Reid makes hold-up play and build-up play look easy, that doesn't mean it is easy. Just because he doesn't make a great display of holding off a defender like other target men, that doesn't mean he isn't being challenged, it just means his movement and composure is good enough to keep his distance from him. People praise Brunt as an outlet and link-up man but fail to notice that Reid does the exact same thing literally 5 to 10 games a game. He will pick up a long ball, hold off a defender, turn and distribute it literally all the time and people never notice it. On most football matters I gladly agree to disagree with people, but with Reid it literally is like I watch different games. People say he doesn't do these things like Brunt does but he....literally does, all the time. Thankfully, the more astute football observers on here tend to agree. Just because he sometimes conserves energy rather than running for every pointless ball (he is built like a sprinter, not a marathon runner) and because he makes hard stuff look easy, people think he doesn't do anything of any worth. He was poor in this game but he clearly was not matchfit in any way. He was bright in the first half-hour and then he looked knackered. This is still the same player who was excellent for us before his injury. This is still the same player who's proven his class for us (which actually wins football matches more than mindless running does) over two and a bit seasons. The same player who clearly has a great affinity for this club and will always have a place for us in his heart(God knows why considering the idiot supporters). For all those who ironically celebrated and jeered someone who's been so fantastic for this club off the pitch as though he was some common useless loanee in the Sacha Opinel or Richard Eckersley bracket, hang your heads in shame. To quote a friend of mine who gave this advice on twitter: first of all chuck your season tickets in the bin, second of all chuck yourselves in the bin. Especially the middle-aged, greying, obnoxious foul mouthed cockney-accented prat who stands at the top central of block 4 calling him a lazy tos**r and the like.

2) Ironically cheering a McCormick successful kick after his error. I don't even have any words that do the idiocy of this justice so I'll leave it at that and make it the shortest segment of my match report.

Ratings:

McCormick- 2. I think he's been an absolutely fantastic player this season and it was made clear how much we missed him when he was out injured. But even the best players have stinkers at times and this was resolutely one of his. Not only did he cock up for both of the goals (as described above) but he also had a nightmare of a game in general. His kicking was truly awful (sub-Walton level bad) and even his usually reliable handling was off, spilling two tame Northampton deliveries that he should easily have collected. Sometimes you just have to chalk it off that a usually good player has a shocking game, this was one of those times.

Mellor-4. As the last defender of Kelvin Mellor left in the Plymouth Argyle fanbase, I think I'm pretty much giving up on him now. Whilst he certainly has something to offer to a successful team (even in this game he had his good moments keeping solid in the first half and playing some good interchange with Jervis down the line), what he offers is simply not enough to make up for the multitude of mistakes that he brings to a team. Every game there will be a good 2 or 3 massive mistakes involving Mellor that have the capacity to lead to a serious opposition chance (plus a fair few smaller scale mistakes as well). He can be a more than capable player on his day who can on occasions pick up loose balls very well, attack well and even sometimes mark and tackle well. But these are outnumbered by not only his gaffes but his tendency to retreat into shell of low self-confidence whenever he makes such gaffes. On the whole, I think it's gonna have to be 'thanks for all you've done but let's get Forster in for the duration'.
Nelson-5. He's had an absolutely fantastic season so far but this was far from his best game. Nelson has now pretty much ironed out all of the major flaws from his game such as ariel crosses and lapses in concentration but we still have a tendency to get the minor errors from him such as slightly misjudging the amount of space he has between him and an attacker. And indeed failing to shout for a ball meaning both he and Mellor end up going for it. Both of these little flaws emerged more often than they should have albeit he wasn't dreadful by any means. Unconvincing 5.
Hartley-4. When Hartley is on his very best form, I think he is not just our best defender but probably the second best player at the club. But whilst I rate him higher than Nelse and McHugh on his best days, he has a few too many days like this for him to really secure being worthy of that judgement. When he's on it, he is THE complete centre-back but he wasn't on it against Northampton. His distribution (which I generally rate more than most do) was below average and like the other two defenders mentioned so far, retreated into panic mode when he first made a defensive error.
Sawyer-6. Very good first half and in the second half was still the best of the back line but too many typical moments of Sawyer cautiousness annoyed the hell out of me. For example, a free-kick late in the second half. We're losing 2-1? Do you boot it into the box? Nah, you play it short to Hartley who is pressured into playing it short to Mellor who has to put it back to McCormick. Unbelievable. He also had his halfway line nosebleed come back in the second half which to be fair he has slightly shed in recent weeks.

McHugh-7. Man of the match out of a less than great bunch. Commanded the midfield very well, picked up lots of loose balls and his distribution was generally good against a difficult and high pressing opposition team. Very nearly an 8.
Threlkeld-7. Outstanding for the first half-hour, absolutely everywhere winning every ball. A little less good after that but still more than competent. A bit unlucky to be subbed off over Simpson who was having a poor game.
Simpson-4. I'm generally a big fan of Josh Simpson's but he had a shocker in this one. How can it be the same player who came on and almost single-handedly changed the game against Newport. He buzzed around, picking up loose balls, nicking them from people's feet and making play. He did the same thing on a slightly lesser scale at Carlisle but he still had a very good game. In this one however, he had an absolutely dire game. He never got into the game at all, barely saw him on the ball game and made very few attempts to press the opposition like he does at his best. There's definitely a player in there but he doesn't quite produce it as often as he could or should. The only reason he gets as high as a 4 is because he was half-decent with the ball on the rare occasions he got it.

Jervis- 7. I'm not quite seeing him as anonymous to be honest. I thought he was one of our better players, always making the Northampton full-back move out of position to track him when he made his runs inside and was one of the less wasteful players with the ball when he did get it. I think he may have seemed more anonymous because of the poor service he got for most of the second half. Decent enough game compared to the rest of them.
Reid-5. In spite of my impassioned defence of him earlier in the post, I won't pretend he was great today. First 25-30 he was good but after that he was scarily out of it. Match fitness I think. Ho hum, let's hope it comes back to him soon.
Brunt-6. I don't think he was as good as his loyalists say he was today, but I don't think he was as bad as his fiercest critics say he was either. He set up the goal well with a great cross (symptomatic of his improved distribution this season) and got to the ball well putting pressure on Northampton defenders for much of the game with his clever judgement of the flight of the ball, smart runs and his use of space. That's the sort of stuff he has always been and continues to be good at. Unlike recent games however, his general use of the ball (the assist aside) was poor and he really should have done better with a free header in the first half. His flick-ons in particular were below-par, seeming to be directed at precisely nobody. Mixed game from him.

Tanner-4. Er, was he even playing until the last 5 minutes or so? Not that I noticed. He put in much improved performances against Newport and Carlisle but he was another one of many who looked frighteningly off the boil in the second half.
Wylde-7. Good performance from him off the bench as ever and a well-taken goal. Lively performance in the main- now can he please score one whilst we're winning?!

On the whole, a disappointment. We didn't make the most of a generally good first half performance and in the second half we bottled it on the big occasion as we have done in many big games this season.

That said, it was still a matter of fine margins. We were probably playing against our toughest opposition in the league and they still only scored because we gave them two goals on a plate. If Brunt or Nelson had hit their free headers goalbound in the first half it could have been a very different game. We weren't at our best level but we still could and arguably even should have got a point out of it.

So yes, we bottled it a bit, yes there are questions to be asked about our big game mentality. But having seen some people on this thread seriously calling us a mediocre team and expecting to be taken seriously? We aren't here by accident. Our performances and results away from home this season have been absolutely sublime. Our home results have not been quite so good but they've still been the 5th best in the league. Not nearly as bad as the doom-mongers will have you believe. We are still top of the league because we've been a good team over a season at getting results through either genuinely stylish performances in some cases and through grinding out results in others. So yes, whilst games like this are annoying, we could still easily do a Man City 13/14 and win the league through being the most solidly reliable team in our other games. Or at the very least, go up that way. Ignore the hysteria-merchants who say play-offs is the best we can hope for now. I can only assume they aren't very good in a crisis. Not a good night in many ways- but we're still top, still doing the business and I'm still delighted with Adams this season for coming in and turning a collection of talented individuals into a good team. And I still think we're yet to see the very best.

cheers for your report sam..

Careful Sam....you used the terms "doom-mongers" and "hysteria merchants"!

But in all seriousness, great write-up. I don't sing and dance about Reid and am one of those who'd like to see him move more, but you've given a good counter to that. Something for me at least to ponder over. Nice one

tigertony wrote:

Amsterdamage wrote:

Couldn't organise a piss up at a brewery, or a football match at a football stadium. The turnstiles issue just shows how much Brent thinks of his customers, 2 turnstiles open on the Demport which holds what 1600 fans (4 blocks of 400?) That's 800 fans each which even if processed in 15 seconds equates to 200 minutes in total to get everybody in. And that's forgetting the fact that most people will want to arrive at the ground between half an hour before kick off and the actual kick off and why the fook shouldn't they after paying twenty odd quid for the privilege? How much does it cost to hire ten more till bangers for a couple of hours. Typical Tory austerity bullshit which doesn't impact on the the prawn sandwiche delivery time foreshore.
Feck off Brent you incompetent twat. I told Porky that you weren't fit for purpose and he wouldn't have it shows what a twat he is as well. (That was after him baiting Damon with the nffp thing for being an ex director lol) happy daze.

Do you honestly think JB dictates how many turnstiles to open or which refreshment bars should be open. If you do then you are more of an incompetent village idiot than you sound already.

Course he does you prick, he say to Merkin, "I want staff costs kept to this amount" and Merkin implements it. It's how all businesses work, not that I'd expect anybody thats been payed monthly by the state to have a scooby about any of that, now feck off and go back to be hilarious wanker.

My finger is tired from scrolling down Sams post, let alone set aside a morning to read it.

Czarcasm wrote:

My finger is tired from scrolling down Sams post, let alone set aside a morning to read it.

You need to book half a day off work to read Sam's match reports.

Sorry Sam, I've got the car tax to pay this month.

tigertony wrote:

Amsterdamage wrote:

Couldn't organise a piss up at a brewery, or a football match at a football stadium. The turnstiles issue just shows how much Brent thinks of his customers, 2 turnstiles open on the Demport which holds what 1600 fans (4 blocks of 400?) That's 800 fans each which even if processed in 15 seconds equates to 200 minutes in total to get everybody in. And that's forgetting the fact that most people will want to arrive at the ground between half an hour before kick off and the actual kick off and why the fook shouldn't they after paying twenty odd quid for the privilege? How much does it cost to hire ten more till bangers for a couple of hours. Typical Tory austerity bullshit which doesn't impact on the the prawn sandwiche delivery time foreshore.
Feck off Brent you incompetent twat. I told Porky that you weren't fit for purpose and he wouldn't have it shows what a twat he is as well. (That was after him baiting Damon with the nffp thing for being an ex director lol) happy daze.

Do you honestly think JB dictates how many turnstiles to open or which refreshment bars should be open. If you do then you are more of an incompetent village idiot than you sound already.

Not but he should be delegating that responsibility to someone with something other than an Unclassified In Commerce. The fact that this event happens with regularity suggests they didn't even obtain that.

We got in without any problems, five minutes tops. Lyndhurst block 10.