Back from the game - Plymouth (H)

[papereyes]

We're currently sat nicely in midtable (OK midtable consists of about 20 clubs this season !) and even Newcastle showed last night that they are beatable and I recall WBA struggling once or twice.

CHRIST

Gotcha !!!

In points terms we are midtable, it's a very compact league.

We just need to win the next couple and then our actual place in the table will look very different.

However if we are say 12th and only 2 points off 20th it won;t change a huge amount.

Some of you do actually need to a) take yourselves less seriously and b) once in a while be a little positive !!

CHRIST

[Vision]

Griffin MoM for me

They guy oozes calm and always looks up before playing the ball forward, invariably finding a really nice pass through to the forwards. Two fantastic bits of defending where he came across to block/cover/tackle almost at left back

It's his decision making that impresses me. he just seems to take the correct option pretty much all the time. A very significant acquisition for us.

[Mr Optimist]

Love all the we outsung you and library stuff, enjoy being a relatively big fish in the Division 1 pond!!

Away fans singing loudly in an important game shock...

I'm not being biased, BUT, now I am going to be. Obviously being a passionate Plymouth fan you are going to be biased, nothing wrong with that!

Both teams are not great at the moment that is why they are in the bottom three. As for the "non penalty" if it had been the other way around at Home Park are you saying you would still not think it was a penalty.

As for cheering on West Brom, you would be better off cheering us on so we stay in the cup and are league form suffers from the distraction factor.

That is all, and good luck for the rest of the season!

[Scarface]

well happy with 3 points, and like others I'm really impressed with Griffin, he looks the solid, definately the business. In fact I'd drop Inga, play Kisha and Mills and make Griffin captain, but that won't happen.

However we're still in the bottom 3 and we still look very dodgy defending balls into the box. It doesn't help when Kebe comes on as we end up playing with 10 men when we haven't got the ball.

Make changes Saturday please Brian and give Griffin, Jobi, Bryn and Long a rest as Palace away is much more important.

[facaldaqui]

Make changes Saturday please Brian and give Griffin, Jobi, Bryn and Long a rest as Palace away is much more important.

I think it's better to play the first team, because it gives them more time together. Arguably, the games against Liverpool and Burnley helped give us momentum, and it's important to keep that going.

[Mad Dog's Ghost]

Great win, average team performance .. but special praise to Long, Griffin and Kissdanishwilly.

The referee and blind assistants were dreadful.Started as they meant to go on by giving goal kick instead of a corner to Reading. However ... he got the most important decision of the evening right. HRK was too fast and strong for a tiring Plymouth defence and he shrugged off two nibbles before finally being upended by a clumsy, late challenge.

Howard – can't make my mind up on him. Good ball for 1st goal, moment of magic to put in Long for the chance that he fired just wide of the post ... but a lot of very average too.

Kebe – please have a word with Michael Gilkes on how to make the most of your pace and limited ability. Just push it past the full-back and bloody well run.

Oh, good luck to the very friendly Plymouth fans we chatted to in the Guineas post match. They must have been gutted.

[RobRoyal]

Fcuk me, some people have lost all sort of perspective on here.

3 wins on the bounce but we're stuck in 106 point pergatory as far as I can see - and we ain't ever going to get out of that.

Honest assesments that we're not very good? No shit. Us and at least 11 other Championship teams from what I can see.

Well said. People come on here and build themselves up as martyrs - "the RTGs will have a go at me again, but..."

We're not very good. If we were, we wouldn't be in the bottom three. However, we've just beaten three other poor sides in a row. Anyone still dismissing our chances of staying up needs to have a think about how QPR, Scunny or Donny fans are feeling. There are a lot of sides in the sh*t, as evidenced by the fact that rubbish old Reading are only 5 points off midtable. Supposing we're only about as bad as the teams around us, then you can pick one from 6 or so to go down. We probably won't go down.

One of our biggest failings this season has been dropping points when we've taken the lead. Last three games, we've taken the lead and ultimately won (twice when it looked unlikely). Being the right side of those tiny margins makes a world of difference.

[Franchise FC]

as an Argyle supporter that was a devastating result.

Come on West Brom Sorry, but we need all the help we can get now!!!

GREEN ARMY!!!

Impressive - West Brom beating us in the cup is going to help you how ?

[ZacNaloen]

I thought we played reasonably well, nothing much happened that left me thinking we wouldn't win.. even when they got their goal. Even now there is definite room for improvement even within this group of players though. For example Karacan needs to sort his consistency out and he'd be a fantastic midfielder. At the moment he's just a good young player.


My main gripe from last night is... what happened to the foul throw rule!? Arnesen ended up with his foot on the pitch and still moving after every throw in. No way his feet were planted.

[Franchise FC]

I thought we played reasonably well, nothing much happened that left me thinking we wouldn't win.. even when they got their goal. Even now there is definite room for improvement even within this group of players though. For example Karacan needs to sort his consistency out and he'd be a fantastic midfielder. At the moment he's just a good young player.


My main gripe from last night is... what happened to the foul throw rule!? Arnesen ended up with his foot on the pitch and still moving after every throw in. No way his feet were planted.

Extract from the FA Laws of the Game

At the moment of delivering the ball, the thrower:
• faces the field of play
• has part of each foot either on the touch line or on the ground outside the
touch line
• holds the ball with both hands
• delivers the ball from behind and over his head
• delivers the ball from the point where it left the fi eld of play

Planted ? Not necessary.

[ZacNaloen]

You need to have two feet on the ground, and not be on the pitch. He ended up on the pitch and can't of had two feet on the ground unless he was dragging it (which he wasn't)

[andrew1957]

as an Argyle supporter that was a devastating result.

Personally I disagree with some of the comments on here - the ref for example... He did give some odd decisions, and the linesman was a joke, how slow must his reactions be??? That flag took an age to come up!!

The ref gave you something everytime you fell or dived over.. Yet your bloke had his arms around our players neck in the box...lucky boys... Our tall forwards get penalised when they jump because your guys deliberately pull back/fall over, and even though our guy doesnt have his hands on you, gets a foul against him...
He just gave everything to you (pretty much) and jack all to us. Total homer. Can't believe a guy with three championship games experience took 'charge' of such an important match. As for your 'penalty' the guy was barely clipped, and was quite happy to take it...looked like he had been shot with a rifle.

I thought you played well first half - wondered how you were where you are, and now Long has found form you will probably be okay.

I don't think we were as poor as some people made out - not in the second half. In the first half we kept trying the long ball, but in the second half Noone and Mackie had a good go at you, and were guaranteed a goal had it not been for that annoying flag which came up..eventually. Not sure on some of the offsides, but I dont have the benefit of a replay so will live with it. Thought at times we had the beating of you, but your speed undid all our hard work. You had chances..as did we...if we had buried the Fallon header just before half time I think it would have been a different game.

Your support - shocking to be honest. start off loud, as expected, but went very quiet. Only one section near us were loud, and until your goal went in, were rather quiet. Then the usual winning singing...before we equalise and it turns into a Reading library.... Then lo and behold you get a penalty and the whole place comes alive again... I tell you what did you lot seem nervous when we equalised!! You could feel it in the air. Thought we outsang you at times, even though the occasion seemed to stifle our support. Not as loud or for as long periods as usual, which was a shame. If we had, we would have rocked the place, you were so quiet.

As for singing the song 'how sh*t must you be....', you were very lucky, we could easily have snatched it in the last few minutes, I thought if anyone would it would be us, and the penalty was pathetic.. How sh*t must you have been before when we beat you 4-1 at home then. We can't win there let alone score 4 Your pace on the counter attack and your diving are what won you that game...

The end was absolutely heartbreaking for me, and I think that is the end now. Almost seems like revenge for our winner late on in the first game of the season of your promotion winning season..but with bigger consequences. That late goal felt amazing, this felt like someone had punched me in the gut.

Not being biased, I really did think the ref was poor and gave you far too much and not much doing for us. We only had to blow on your ear for you to get something, we would have had to be shoulder barged, knocked to the ground and whacked around the head before we could get anything! The pen was a joke and either we aren't as bad as you say, or you aren't as good as you want to think. You had plenty of possession at times but couldn't finish, or were thwarted by a battling defence, one which isn't even a settled back four. When we did have the ball we looked dangerous in the second half, but we just didn't get enough of it to capitalise.

As for Kebe, my boyfriend remarked that he made a big difference to you and played really well...so there is an unbiased viewpoint for you

As I said I think you will be okay, but you are reliant on Long. Your midfield seemed easily bypassed at times, and with a bigger attacking threat of a team against you, you will probably struggle. Your counter attack is your biggest threat.

Come on West Brom Sorry, but we need all the help we can get now!!!

GREEN ARMY!!!

Interesting to see a view from the other side and I do feel sorry for you as it must have been gutting to lose in the last minute or two. We would have felt the same if it happened to us.

My view was that Plymouth are actually not a bad side. You offered much more threat than Scunthorpe and Barnsley have recently. I think your problem is that you just don't have good enough forwards so don't score enough - which has also been our problem as well until recently.

As for the ref I honestly thought RFC were hard done by. Several Plymouth challenges were agricultural to say the least and I thought several were yellow card offences but went uinpunished. Apart from that most of the problems were with the linesman as you say.

The penalty looked nailed on to me - and I was a lot nearer than you were in the South Stand - you really cannot make a comment on it from where you were as it is just too far away and I did not think the Plymouth players really protested that much so I think they knew it was a penalty.

You are right about our support - it was very quiet last night BUT to be fair we have won so few games at home in the last year that we do get nervous - even when we are winning. But to be fair to Reading fans we keep turning up in good numbers every match - even though we have had little to cheer. I think that both the players and the fans will become more confident as the season goes on - providing we keep winning.

Finally I do hope you survive - as long as it is not at our expense. I lived near Plymouth for 4 years a long time ago and like the place, so I do have a soft spot for you and would rather you did not go down, so good luck for the rest of the season.

[RobRoyal]

As for singing the song 'how sh*t must you be....', you were very lucky, we could easily have snatched it in the last few minutes, I thought if anyone would it would be us, and the penalty was pathetic.. How sh*t must you have been before when we beat you 4-1 at home then. We can't win there let alone score 4

Thanks for your report, always interesting to hear the opposition's viewpoint.

That song, though, is really taking the mick out of ourselves as much as the opposition. Of course we were awful at your place, we're pretty bad most of the time. That''s the whole point of signing "how sh*t must you be" - we're not making out that we're any better!

[greenbloodedgirl]

as an Argyle supporter that was a devastating result.

Personally I disagree with some of the comments on here - the ref for example... He did give some odd decisions, and the linesman was a joke, how slow must his reactions be??? That flag took an age to come up!!

The ref gave you something everytime you fell or dived over.. Yet your bloke had his arms around our players neck in the box...lucky boys... Our tall forwards get penalised when they jump because your guys deliberately pull back/fall over, and even though our guy doesnt have his hands on you, gets a foul against him...
He just gave everything to you (pretty much) and jack all to us. Total homer. Can't believe a guy with three championship games experience took 'charge' of such an important match. As for your 'penalty' the guy was barely clipped, and was quite happy to take it...looked like he had been shot with a rifle.

I thought you played well first half - wondered how you were where you are, and now Long has found form you will probably be okay.

I don't think we were as poor as some people made out - not in the second half. In the first half we kept trying the long ball, but in the second half Noone and Mackie had a good go at you, and were guaranteed a goal had it not been for that annoying flag which came up..eventually. Not sure on some of the offsides, but I dont have the benefit of a replay so will live with it. Thought at times we had the beating of you, but your speed undid all our hard work. You had chances..as did we...if we had buried the Fallon header just before half time I think it would have been a different game.

Your support - shocking to be honest. start off loud, as expected, but went very quiet. Only one section near us were loud, and until your goal went in, were rather quiet. Then the usual winning singing...before we equalise and it turns into a Reading library.... Then lo and behold you get a penalty and the whole place comes alive again... I tell you what did you lot seem nervous when we equalised!! You could feel it in the air. Thought we outsang you at times, even though the occasion seemed to stifle our support. Not as loud or for as long periods as usual, which was a shame. If we had, we would have rocked the place, you were so quiet.

As for singing the song 'how sh*t must you be....', you were very lucky, we could easily have snatched it in the last few minutes, I thought if anyone would it would be us, and the penalty was pathetic.. How sh*t must you have been before when we beat you 4-1 at home then. We can't win there let alone score 4 Your pace on the counter attack and your diving are what won you that game...

The end was absolutely heartbreaking for me, and I think that is the end now. Almost seems like revenge for our winner late on in the first game of the season of your promotion winning season..but with bigger consequences. That late goal felt amazing, this felt like someone had punched me in the gut.

Not being biased, I really did think the ref was poor and gave you far too much and not much doing for us. We only had to blow on your ear for you to get something, we would have had to be shoulder barged, knocked to the ground and whacked around the head before we could get anything! The pen was a joke and either we aren't as bad as you say, or you aren't as good as you want to think. You had plenty of possession at times but couldn't finish, or were thwarted by a battling defence, one which isn't even a settled back four. When we did have the ball we looked dangerous in the second half, but we just didn't get enough of it to capitalise.

As for Kebe, my boyfriend remarked that he made a big difference to you and played really well...so there is an unbiased viewpoint for you

As I said I think you will be okay, but you are reliant on Long. Your midfield seemed easily bypassed at times, and with a bigger attacking threat of a team against you, you will probably struggle. Your counter attack is your biggest threat.

Come on West Brom Sorry, but we need all the help we can get now!!!

GREEN ARMY!!!

Interesting to see a view from the other side and I do feel sorry for you as it must have been gutting to lose in the last minute or two. We would have felt the same if it happened to us.

My view was that Plymouth are actually not a bad side. You offered much more threat than Scunthorpe and Barnsley have recently. I think your problem is that you just don't have good enough forwards so don't score enough - which has also been our problem as well until recently.

As for the ref I honestly thought RFC were hard done by. Several Plymouth challenges were agricultural to say the least and I thought several were yellow card offences but went uinpunished. Apart from that most of the problems were with the linesman as you say.

The penalty looked nailed on to me - and I was a lot nearer than you were in the South Stand - you really cannot make a comment on it from where you were as it is just too far away and I did not think the Plymouth players really protested that much so I think they knew it was a penalty.

You are right about our support - it was very quiet last night BUT to be fair we have won so few games at home in the last year that we do get nervous - even when we are winning. But to be fair to Reading fans we keep turning up in good numbers every match - even though we have had little to cheer. I think that both the players and the fans will become more confident as the season goes on - providing we keep winning.

Finally I do hope you survive - as long as it is not at our expense. I lived near Plymouth for 4 years a long time ago and like the place, so I do have a soft spot for you and would rather you did not go down, so good luck for the rest of the season.

Thanks it's quite nice to actually hear the opposition not insult you entirely. I found the defeat harder to take due to the fact I live in this area lol.

As for the pen I based it on the replay rather than live. I accepted it as I had no hope of seeing from where we were. Just think even if you say it is a pen it wouldnt have been given the other end. Being a rubbish ref is one thing, but inconsistency is even worse.

For selfish reasons I hope if we go you go with us, only because it is a 'home' game for me, living nearby!! Other than that I hope we can both stay up...but not looking likely now (for us). You have got yourselves back into a good position. If you can keep up your current form you will be safe midtableish come the end of the season.

Good luck and thanks for those who had a few kind words, tea and sympathy! lol

robRoyal - I know it's a mickey take too, but when you lose in the last minute or so of the match hearing the roar of that song is gut-wrenching. I can still hear it now!!

Actually a clever chant...although I hate it right now!!!!

[Dirk Gently]

Griffin MoM for me

They guy oozes calm and always looks up before playing the ball forward, invariably finding a really nice pass through to the forwards. Two fantastic bits of defending where he came across to block/cover/tackle almost at left back

It's his decision making that impresses me. he just seems to take the correct option pretty much all the time. A very significant acquisition for us.

And disguises his pass very well. That my one big criticism of Gunnarsson - you can alway tell exactly who he's going to pass to; very little guile!

[Focher]

Greenbloodegirl, do you mind if i ask what you're wearing?

[Thaumagurist*]

Greenbloodegirl, do you mind if i ask what you're wearing?

Probably a florid green dress.

[floyd__streete]

Someone tell me how Church and Karacan were "poor"?

Because Church is sluggish in front of goal and rarely even succeeds in making the keeper work whilst Karacan gives the ball away basically every time he makes a forward pass.

[floyd__streete]

I don't think we were as poor as some people made out

I thought you were dog-sh*t to be honest. Not that I am smug though because we're going down with you.

[Focher]

Agree with Church he was utter rubbish last night.

It was no coincidence the midfield fell apart defensively when Karacan came off, however bad his passing was, his energy, tackling and doggedness kept Plymouth at bay.

Karacan- Yes
Church- No