Reading 2 Argyle 0
By: Jim |
1 Comment
I hate the South East. I mean, I *really hate it. From the moment one of the infamous Reading FC stewards yelled “Oi! No cameras allowed!” while I was taking pictures (through the stupid extra netting they put up at the MadStad) of the flipping warm-up, you could sense that the afternoon was not going to be pleasant. Surrounded by ex-Prem opulence, corporate obsequience and above all damn *branding*, the entire ambience was of meekly sitting there while the money boys gave it to you good. It was a brutal experience.
To give Ibrahima Sonko the freedom of the six-yard box once may look like misfortune. To give it to him twice is not just careless, it’s criminally negligent. Rory may well have “held his hands up in the dressing room” - it’s still not bloody good enough. Kebe ripped Barker to bits all afternoon. Walton looked exhausted from the kick-off, three games in a week being understandably beyond him. Doumbe and Seip were calm and assured, for the most part. Summers was involved with most of our good stuff (all heralded, by the way, from the time when Steve MacLean came on and we actually began to play some football, pressurize the decidedly dodgy Reading midfield) but also had an alarming tendency to scuttle sideways, Ray Wilkins-like. Puncheon was our most creative player, happy to take on and beat three players at once. If MacLean had got more than a quiff on his exquisite cross with about 20 left, we might have seen some fireworks late on. As it was, Reading fairly quickly re-established the grip they had on the game and if Convey had not been so profligate in front of goal could easily have embarrassed us further.
Some points to ponder:
1) Mackie isn’t ready to start. Nowhere near. Not on the wing, not up front, not at all. Use him as a 15 minute impact sub by all means, but don’t start with him. Let him run at a tired defence that hes got more of a chance of beating. Ingimarsson and Sonko laughed at him all game.
2) MacLean must start. He’s our best player. Keeping him on the bench because some of our idiot fans have a downer on him just isn’t good enough.
3) Jermaine Easter looked absolutely fed up.
4) Puncheon is great, but he needs the ball so……..
5) buy a central midfielder this week. And a striker. Please.
Category: Team News
Reading v Argyle - preview
By: Jim | Add Comments
For reasons too complicated to go into here, I have failed to provide a full preview for tomorrow’s game at the Madjeski. Argyle’s creditable performance at home to Wolves on Saturday has been - at least in part- undone by their capitulation at the Kennel. It will be very interesting to see how they react. Reading were ordinary in their 0-0 borefest at the City ground - competent without being penetrative and will be desperate to launch their “Back To The Prem campaign. For Argyle McNamee and Sawyer continue to struggle; MacLean probably did enough on Tuesday to start; Puncheons wiles may well be needed from the off; Timar still looks a long way from being ready. So expect a side looking something like:
Stack;
Duguid
Seip
Cathcart
Barker;
Clark
Walton
Summerfield
Puncheon;
MacLean
Fallon
Subs:
Larrieu
Paterson
Doumbe
Mackie
Easter
COYG!
(full preview available at the podcast
Category: Team NewsLuton Town vs Argyle (Carling Cup) - preview
By: Jim | 1 Comment
Seven years ago, Luton came down to Home Park for a game that, some would say, was the catalyst for all the success the club has enjoyed in that period. Luton were expecting to take the division by storm and had set a cracking pace: Argyle had recovered after a shaky start and were looking to challenge for the play-offs. The Hatters’ then-manager, Joe Kinnear, had made a number of derisory and ill-conceived comments about the Greens, doing Sturrock’s team talk for him, and the rest, as they say, is history. Despite falling behind to a 13th minute Dean Crowe goal (Crowe had earlier that season rejected Argyle after only a few days’ trial), the Greens fought back and strikes by Martin Phillips and David Friio ensured we went in at half-time 2-1 up. 2-1 up, but a man down: Mickey Evans having been unjustly sent off for a supposed elbow on Luton centre back Russell Perrett. In the second half, Luton laid siege to the Argyle goal but a combination of heroic defending and a little bit of luck saw us home. That season was defined by the race for the title between the two sides, Argyle sneaking it by 5 points - 102 to 97.
Fast forward seven years. While both sides have been promoted to the Championship, only Argyle have managed to stay there. Luton’s demise has been dramatic and unpleasant, relegated two divisions in as many seasons and staring a third in the face due to an unprecedent points deduction, for a combination of illegal payments to agents and entering administration (again). They started their League Two campaign on Saturday on -30, and their defeat at home to Port Vale has kept them there.
Whilst even the hardest-hearted Pilgrim can sympathise with Luton’s plight, we need to keep focussed on the business in hand tonight. We could really do with a decent run in the Carling Cup, both as way of getting our signings familiar with each other, and to act as a filip for the fans (and for the money). To that extent, I hope Sturrock plays most of the first team tonight. Craig Cathcart is expected to get his first start; McNamee and Sawyer are still injured; Larrieu may well get the nod over Stack; Puncheon could do with starting; and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to give Yala Bolaisie a run-out. Rotate the strikers a little bit and you end up with a possible line up something like:
Larrieu
Duguid
Cathcart
Seip
Paterson
Clark
Walton
Summerfield
Puncheon
MacLean
Easter
——————-
Stack
Mackie
Folly
Doumbe
Barker
Fallon
Bolaisie
Passions will no doubt be running high. The Kennel is a tight little ground and the Hatters fans a passionate lot. Anyone expecting a walkover is likely in for a disappointment - Argyle will need to be at their most professional to get through this - anything less and a shock is very possible.
Category: Team NewsArgyle 2 Wolves 2
By: Jim | 2 Comments
A rumbustious, hammer-and-tongs, old-fashioned cracker of a match, with no quarter asked or given ended, probably on balance fairly, with a point apiece. If the conditions - blowing a gale and raining (as my daughter said) cats and dogs and pigs - weren’t ideal, then they in no way detracted from the commitment and the excitement on display, and in actual fact probably added to it.
Argyle’s starting line-up included a number of surprises: the choice of Stack over Larrieu between the sticks; the inclusion of new signing Chris Barker (having only put pen to paper that morning, the left back slotted in as if he’d spent all pre-season with his teammates, rather than only just having met them); the choice of Chris Clark over Jason Puncheon on the right hand side; no David McNamee despite his good pre-season (was he injured?) and an aggressive front three of Mackie, Easter and Fallon. Wolves started as predicted, with Stephen Ward on the left, Keogh and Ebanks-Blake up front, Kightly on the right and Karl Henry and David Jones in the midfield. New boy Richard Stearman partnered old hand Jody Craddock at the back with Timar nemesis George Elokobi and Kevin Foley as full backs.
Within three minutes, the busy, hard-working Easter had won a free-kick on the edge of the box (much to McCarthy’s disgust, an attitude he managed to keep for the full 90 minutes), but Simon Walton, impressive throughout, despite tiring towards the end, drove the setpiece into the wall. Four minutes later though, it was 1-0. A huge punt downfield from Stack caugh the wind and Rory Fallon was sharpest to react, lifting the ball delicately over Wayne Hennessy in a manner reminiscent of Nick Chadwick’s eleven-seconder against Palace a couple of years ago. For a minute or two, Argyle were rampant and forced the old gold back on their heels. But gradually they began to find their way back into the game and it was not a complete surprise when Foley eluded the out-of-position Barker (why are *all our left backs caught of position at least once every game?) and put the ball on a plate for Michael Kightly who reacted while Doumbe stood and watched.
Thereafter it was up and down, up and down. Jamie Mackie worked hard down the right hand side without ever troubling Elokobi; Chris Clark put a shift and a half in on the opposite side; Walton did the fetching and carrying with commendable aplomb - including one full-blooded challenge that made the whole grandstand shake. Kightly was the biggest thorn in our flesh, carving out chances for himself and for Ebay, who blazed over when in plenty of space and Andy Keogh was pulling Doumbe every which way. Summers - relishing the freedom that Walton’s work was allowing him - sprayed passes all over the park, most with pinpoint accuracy, a few not so, and almost sent the Greens in ahead again with one of his trademark delicious free kicks that Hennessey had to tip away. At the other end, Kightly repaid the compliment, with Stack just as equal to his effort.
With a slight lull in the conditions at the start of the second half, Wolves started the brighter and Stack had to be alert to deny Ebay twice. It would be a theme repeated often as the game reached a climax. But another corner won by the persistent (and often overlooked) Easter brought rich rewards. The ball was allowed to drop and while Stearman and Foley looked at each other, Seip fired home. Back came the rain - and back came Wolves. Four or five times it seemd they must, surely must, score as Kightly drifted inside in search of the ball and away from Barker’s close attentions, and suddenly found the room he needed to display his considerable talents. Ebanks-Blake, Elokobi, Craddock all had nailed-on chances which were thwarted partly by a rugged and seat-of-its-pantsish Argyle defence, but mainly by a display of heroics by Stack to match the one by Wolves keeper Matt Murray in the exact same fixture two years ago. He was, quite simply, immense.
McCarthy (still moaning about something, only the Lord and the fourth official know what) sent on Iwelumo for Keogh: Sturrock responded with Timar for Doumbe, who to be fair had not been at the races for much of the afternoon. Then, the decisive switch: Jarvis and Vokes for the ineffective Ward and Ebay, to the delight of the Green Army. A mistake in midfield; Iwelumo and Vokes cut through like a knife through butter with the silkiest of one-twos and Vokes’ finish had Stack beaten at last and McCarthy punching the air. Now we looked ragged and tired and the Grandstand Pessimists waited for Wolves to claim the win. In fact, it was the visitors who appeared to have settled for the point and Argyle who came closest, with sub Puncheon lighting up the dreary afternoon with several exquisite changes of pace, gliding past Elokobi as though he was just a shadow and providing a shot which nearly - oh, so nearly, beat Hennessey at the far post.
So it finished honours even, and a creditable point for the Greens. Stand-out performances from Stack, deservedly man-of-the-match; Seip; Walton; Chris Clark, who was tireless up and down the flanks; and Jermaine Easter who worked his socks off without really so much as a sniff - he was Argyle attitude personified. Chris Barker kept Kightly relatively quiet until the Wolves man drifted inside and he (Barker) began to visibly tire: Duguid was calm and collected at the back; Fallon a nuisance (and the target of much of McCarthy’s displeasure). Jamie Mackie is still very much work in progress, but nevertheless worked as hard as anyone. For Wolves, Michael Kightly was head and shoulders above anyone else on the pitch, in terms of talent on display; Richard Stearman looks a great improvement on Gary Breen and having four strikers of the quality of Iwelumo, Ebay, Vokes and Keogh ought to be enough on its own to keep them up there. David Jones was anonymous, or better, played off the park by Simon Walton and Craddock looks as though his legs have gone. But, all in all, it was a cracking game, a fair result and fitting start to the new season.
Category: Team NewsArgyle v Wolves - preview
By: Jim | Add Comments
The sense of excitement is palpable. Euro 08 is long past: even the doom and gloom of a less than ideal preseason pales on the doorstep of a new season and a new challenge. A new team, too: our starting line-up tomorrow will resemble the one of 12 months ago very little; and, of course, a new (old) manager. Few people would have predicted the course of events over last season: and there has been, perhaps understandably, rather more collective wound-licking on the part of the Green Army than one wold ordinarily like.
Now, though, we need to put all that behind us. Two signings this week, Simon Walton on Wednesday and today, Craig Cathcart on a six-month loan from Man Utd, have given a previously threadbare-looking squad some steel. Both will be in the squad for tomorrow: Walton, one presumes, will start; Cathcart probably on the bench. It’s still not clear whether Sturrock will play 4-4-2 or his 4-3-3/4-5-1 formation worked on in pre-season. The latter, of course, was an especial favourite of his for away fixtures last time. My hunch is that he will go 4-4-2 tomorrow, with Maclean partnering Jermaine Easter up front; a midfield of (left to right) Puncheon, Walton, Summerfield, Duguid; a back four of Paterson, Seip, Doumbe, McNamee and Romain Larrieu in goal. Whether that will be enough to see off a Wolves side including Ebanks-Blake (for whom an especially warm Green Army welcome is planned); Kightly; Keogh; and David Jones is open to question. Wolves are, quite rightly, expected to challenge this year and while their squad has yet to gel, their pre-season has been strong, including a particularly stylish 4-2 defeat of Blackburn Rovers. A point would probably be regarded as a result for the Greens: anything more would be a splendid start. Let battle commence!
Category: Team NewsWalton’s Mountain
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Simon Walton signed for Argyle today from QPR for an undisclosed fee, thought to be in the region of £450K, rising to £750K with add-ons. Although still only 20 years old he has already played for Leeds, Charlton, Ipswich, Cardiff and Hull as well as Rangers and is recently recovered from a badly broken leg. A combative central midfielder, who can also play at centre half, Paul Sturrock claimed at today’s press conference that he’d been tracking Walton for some considerable time and regarded him as exactly the sort of player he wanted here.
Despite his rather nomadic, not to say chequered, career, I’m delighted with this signing. We’ve been saying for a while that we lack some steel in the midfield and John-Boy, as I’m sure hes destined to be known, will certainly provide that. He’s tall, too - 6′2 - which helps. Fans of other clubs have been mixed in their reaction to him: there’s despondency on the Rs boards; Ipswich fans generally think he did well for them; Hull and Cardiff fans have been fairly robust in their criticism. He has had something of an attitude in the past, which I’m sure Luggy will beat out of him. Anyway, like all signings he deserves a fair crack of the whip and a chance to establish himself before being written off, as Argyle fans are sadly over-prone to doing. He’ll wear the 4 shirt and is likely to go straight into the team to play Wolves. Welcome Simon!
Category: Team NewsTo Boo, Or Not To Boo?
By: Jim | Add Comments
I can put my hand on my heart and say, with all truthfulness, that I have never booed an Argyle player, or an Argyle team either during a match or at the end of a game. I don’t dispute the right of the paying customer to vent their feelings - and, let’s be honest, given the current cost of going to watch football, fans deserve if nothing else eleven players busting a gut for the cause. I just don’t choose to boo them myself. The closest I have ever got was at the end of the abject, abject Carling Cup defeat at home to Walsall a couple of seasons ago, when on departing, and within his earshot, yelled at the directors’ box - “That’s a disgrace, Stapleton - get your wallet out!”.
I also have mixed feelings about booing ex-players. David Norris was apparently appalled at the treatment meted out to Tony Capaldi when he returned to HP with Cardiff - so much so that it is rumoured to have been part of the reason he chose to up sticks in January (though I imagine tripling his wages was probably the decisive factor). There’s no doubt, though, that sustained booing puts a player off his game - and if its an influential player then every advantage available ought to be used.
Argyle have several ex-player confrontations coming up: Norris at Ipswich; Paul Connolly at Derby; Ebanks-Blake at Wolves; Wotton at Southampton. Each of these present slightly different scenarios to those debating whether or not to boo. No-one - surely, no-one - could contemplate booing Paul Wotton, could contemplate anything other than sustained and sincere applause. Fans may disagree about his ability, about the extent to which he was or still might have been worth a place in the starting XI, but we all agree, don’t we, that as a servant of the club, as an Argyle hero, he deserves a place in the front rank. Norris too, although he ultimately left for the money and for a play-off rival at the worst possible time, will surely be the recipient of the Green Army’s generosity, rather than its wrath or derision. He gave us five solid years, never flinching a tackle, always offering over and above the 110% habitually required by football managers. Paul Connolly, too, deserves warm applause. Despite leaving on a Bosman (he apparently offered to leave earlier for a fee), he offered six years of service and deserved his chance to improve his financial position, if not necessarily his rack of appearances.
Ebanks-Blake is a different kettle of fish. Having had a flagging career rescued by Argyle; after a season of slow starts, he finally came good at the beginning of last term, only to jump ship at the first available opportunity for a club that only finished above Argyle thanks to a last-day meaningless victory at Molineux. Had he chosen to stay, even if only until the end of the season, I am convinced we would have made the top six. It was his departure, far more than Norris’ or even Holloway’s that killed us - and even if we had failed in May, the offers would surely have been there. SEB treated the club and its fans with contempt - and no amount of knocking on Cambridgeshire kids’ doors can make up for that. Besides, he’s their most important player, and if we can somehow put him off his stroke, so much the better. I urge all you Pilgrims out there to give him beans: to boo him at the earliest opportunity on Saturday. And lets rub his face in it by coming home with the points.
Category: Team NewsCountdown to Ecstasy
By: Jim | 1 Comment
Sorry its been a while. Hope you missed me.
I’ve done a club-by-club Championship Preview for those good people over at Greens On Screen: you can find it here. But for you folks at theoffside, well, you deserve something a little more measured, something a little more detailed, damn it, just something more. So here are some extended thoughts on how I see season 2008-09 for Paul Sturrock’s Green And White Army.
Cast around the various fansites, cast indeed around the plethora of pre-season previews and virtually all of them have us down among the dead men. Moderate pre-season form and a frustrating time in the transfer market have left the Home Park faithful fretful, jittery and ill at ease. Interviews for the club’s official website where wage demands, location, pregnant girlfriends, leylines, bad karma and slow progress on the new Ikea store in Hayle have all been blamed for Luggy’s inability to persuade sufficently high-calibre players to join us (ok, I made some of those up) don’t help. But, having just come back from camping, where scouring the skies for the slightest hint of blue was a major part of the holiday, I see plenty of reasons to be positive.
Category: Team NewsRumours
By: Jim | 2 Comments
Not the Fleetwood Mac album of blessed memory, but a round-up of where Argyle’s summer spending (and selling) spree has got to.
First the facts. No-one has been bought or sold. Paul Connolly will move to Derby on a Bosman transfer on July 1. Marcel Seip remains on the transfer list. The Argyle Board will discuss Luke McCormick’s future at their next meeting.
Hull manager Phil Brown is on the record as admitting an interest in left winger Peter Halmosi, but he is not prepared to pay the asking price, thought to be in the region of £3 million. In which case, why choose to discuss him in the national media? Brown is the Jim Magilton de nos jours.
Argyle are thought to be close to a deal with Barnet wide man Jason Puncheon, possibly around the £400K mark (OK, that’s a guess, based on the fact Leeds had a bid of £250K turned down). Team mates Joe Devera (right back) and Albert Adomoah (right wing) may also be in Sturrock’s sights.
Luggy is not interested in any more Scottish players.
Argyle are among half-a-dozen Championship clubs interested in Austrian international, Jurgen Sauemel.
Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
That’s it.
Category: Team NewsLuke McCormick
By: Jim | 5 Comments
You probably know by now that Argyle goalkeeper Luke McCormick has been charged on four counts relating to the tragic deaths yesterday morning of two boys aged 10 and 8 in a road accident near Keele Services on the M6.
There are no words capable of comprehending, let alone consoling, the terrible grief that the boys’ parents are feeling. As a parent myself, all I can say is, my heart goes out to them. Without the full knowledge of the facts of the case, which will take several months to come to light, it would be singularly inappropriate for this blog to comment further, so it shan’t. Luke will appear before magistrates tomorrow.
Category: Team News
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