Argyle 1 PNE 0

By: Jim | October 22nd, 2008

In the end, I suppose, the result was more important than the performance. Two games into a crazy, crazy period of five games in fourteen days (including a double trip to Sheffield – did the FA think we were going to *stay up there?), Argyle needed to bounce back from their undeserved defeat at Derby on Saturday. And thanks to a Rory Fallon goal from a Clark corner, God’s footballer stretching to loop his header over Lonergan when everyone assumed Clark had overhit it, bounce back they did.

That goal came at the end of easily the best period of the game – the first twenty minutes. Both sides had started like an express train: in fact, the opening period felt more like the last ten minutes. Passing was slick, movement slicker and gaps and spaces opened up and were exploited by both sides. It was hammer and tongs stuff, end to end, with Summers, Gallagher and Mackie in particular causing PNE all sorts of bother, while for the Lilywhites (in yellow) Ross Wallace, McKenna and Nicholson responded in kind. The game was aided by referee Andy Penn taking a liberal approach to challenges, though the one big decision he was called on to make – waving away Argyle claims for a penalty after Mackie went down – he got spot on.

Once Argyle scored, however, most of the sting went out of their play as they seemed to want to calm the game down and consolidate. And an ankle injury to Doumbe after twenty-five minutes seemed to finish them as a creative force. The Frenchman was replaced by Paterson, who went to central midfield and Duguid dropped into right back. This was hard to fathom: I’m not sure if Pato has *ever played central midfield, and the Duggie/Summers partnership in midfield has been the key to our revival in fortunes. They understand one another, play off each other and somehow Duggie gives Luke the confidence to play as we all (OK, some of us) know he can. All of a sudden, the confidence drained from the players: passes went astray, the simplest task of keeping possession became an impossibility, it was as though we were doing our level best to invite PNE back into a game we really should have put to bed. The forwards became detached from the midfield and from each other – at times we were so static it was like watching Acorn Antiques – and we waited for the inevitable equaliser.

Which never came. For a side who’d beaten Reading on Saturday, Preston were, not to put too fine a point on it, bloody awful. They barely threatened, beyond that first twenty-minute spell, and seemed singularly unwilling to take advantage of the opportunities Argyle were offering them to establish a foothold in the game. The Greens continued to create chances – mainly through the sheer dogged persistence of Mackie, who ran himself into the ground, and the occasional brilliant flash of Gallagher. Those moments were, however, the exception rather than the rule and as the game degenerated the crowd became more and more nervous. Sturrock chose not to freshen things up, when the game was crying out for MacLean’s wise head and link-up play, and as Argyle tired, referee Penn suddenly decided to blow for everything in the last ten minutes. Fallon was booked, after clearly winning the ball in a tackle with Sean St Ledger – who confirmed his status as the Championship’s biggest cheat by rolling around as though he’d been shot and during the totally unjustified four minutes of added time Penn gave another freekick for a perfectly legitimate tackle by Barker on the right hand edge of the Argyle area. The ball was swung in and met by Mawene: Larrieu’s instinctive reaction save won’t be bettered this season. The ball pinged around and fell to St Ledger five yards out – with the goal yawning he could only fire over. The PNE bench held their heads – justice, though, was done.

Seip and Larrieu stood out for Argyle: also young Cathcart, whose partnership with Seip is going from strength to strength. Fallon, despite his goal, looked leggy and lethargic; Gallagher off the pace somewhat. Summers was Summers, mixing the sublime with the occasional decidedly ropey. Paterson fought hard, but a central midfielder he is not and if Doumbe is out for a while we need a different solution from moving Duggy to RB, because we need him in the middle. Clark worked hard, but visibly tired towards the end. As for PNE, nothing in their play yesterday leads me to think they’ll be in the shake-up come the end of the season. To be honest, with a cheat like St Ledger in their ranks they don’t deserve to be.