Plymouth Argyle v Southampton – preview
By: Jim | January 18th, 2008If ever Argyle needed a win it’s tomorrow. Still shell-shocked after the defection of Ebanks-Blake to Wolves, still haunted by the spectre of play-off rivals circling around our remaining best players and still to gain a single League point in 2008, Argyle need desperately to put their last two desperate away showings (at Cardiff and Burnley) behind them and turn it on for the Home Park faithful.
New arrival Chris Clark (from Aberdeen) is likely to battle it out for one of the central midfield berths with Yoann Folly, to sit alongside Nalis. David Norris returns from suspension to put speculation behind him – how we could do with a trademark barnstormer from Chuck tomorrow! - on the right wing and Halmosi will dazzle as usual down the left. Sturrock’s choices up front are limited, especially given the additional news this morning that Nick Chadwick needs a cartliage operation. It will be two from Jermaine Easter, the youthful and on-loan Lucas Jutkiewicz and the out-of-favour Rory Fallon. None of these is yet an established Championship striker: the chances of Argyle bagging their first four-goal haul since March 2005 are slim indeed. The back four will depend on the fitness of Krizstian Timar: if he’s still unavailable, Gary Sawyer will continue to deputise; if he is fit, Sawyer may well displace the dependable but now past-it Lee Hodges at left-back.
As for the Saints, well they have problems of their own. Manager George Burley is currently one of a four-man shortlist for the Scotland job, which will inevitably be something of a distraction for him and his team. (Do you get the impression I’m clutching at straws here?!) Jhon (sic) Viafara is suspended and Youssef Safri at the African Cup of Nations for a month, so the midfield is likely to depend on the cultured but youthful Drew Surman and the talented but flakey Rudi Skacel. Marek Saganowski, so crucial to Saints play-off push last season, is still several weeks from returning to fitness, so the line will be led by Bradley Wright-Phillips (brother of Shaun) and want-away Pole Gregorz Rasiak, who has a tedious habit of scoring against us.
There’s additional animus about this fixture. Argyle manager Paul Sturrock left the Pilgrims on the verge of promotion to the Championship for Southampton, who were then an established Premiership side. Controversially sacked after only eleven games at the behest of some of the more primadonnaish players, who didn’t take kindly to Sturrock’s insistence on team building, the Saints went into freefall. suffered relegation and a high turnover of both managers and Board members. They are currently in some danger of going into administration, losing at the last count £500,000 a month. While their mantle as favoured bete noire of the Green Army has been surrendered to Leicester, Saints are certainly disliked and I imagine that will be reflected tomorrow.
On a more personal note, tomorrow promises to be extra-special. After sitting patiently on the waiting list for two years, my oldest daughter is the mascot for tomorrow’s game and will have the honour of leading the team out and kicking around in the warm-up with the team. Expect several photos in the match report. COYG!
Category: Team News
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