Back from the game - Argyle

[hughsies no.1]

well what to say. one of the best performances away from home this season and very very unlucky not to come away with three points. second half they had one attack it seemed and scored a screamer. we were dominant and creating so many chances. if my maths are right we had three off the line and one off the bar, doyle through on goal twice. the result may not look good especially with the other two winning but it was encouraging and we were just desperatley unlucky. its beyond me how brum play shiite every week and win 1-0. picking out individuals, marek made some good through balls but must have passed the ball out of play 10 times. Doobs solid, Pearce solid. Long played one of the best games i have seen him in a reading shirt. hunt was woeful again and didnt wake up til final ten mins.
MOM armstrong, was brilliant and another great signing by coppell.

have faith, if we play like that and create chances in every game til the end of the season we WILL go up.

plymouth fans were absolute plebs!!

[AthleticoSpizz]

any chance of player ratings? (this game passed me by thanx to an extended workday

Caller on BBC Berks said Marek had a howler, and Pearcy should have had a hatrick

[hughsies no.1]

feds 8 - had nothing to do, only thing he had to do was probably collect two crosses and pick the ball out of the net twice

rosie 7 - not the best of games, at one point stretch came from left back to make a tackle for him. but when going forward he did well
stretch 9- was solid, both at the back and going forward, really impressive
doobs 8 - solid performance
pearce 8 - looked solid again, shame he had to go off with head injury

kebe 7 - quiet, but when he had the ball looked dangerous and had a few runs. and he SHOT and scored
hunt 5 - added nothing until final ten mins when he started throwing himself into tackles, gave the ball needlessly away to many times
cisse 8 - looks like a very established player in our team, hit the bar, made some great tackles
marek 6.5 - made some great through balls but he gave the ball away far to many times and if that was harps he would off got a slating

Long 8 (honestly!!) - looked good, strong, pacey, no reason why he shouldnt start on tues
doyle 7.5 - worked hard, should off scored when through on goal

[AthleticoSpizz]

thanx Hughsie

[hughsies no.1]

your a brave man trusting my judgement though mate. i thought hughsies passion to play for the club made him quality

[Rex]

I sat in my allocated seat in the first half and then moved for the second into a more lively atmosphere at the top of the stand. It was heartening to shut the Argles supporters and their bragging rights in the first half. Henry's goal coming in a few minutes after the opener from Argyle. Despite the opening goal i thought we looked the stronger team and it was good to see the team didn't drop.
The second half was a bit of a blur really. Some of that for necking beer down my throat. I thought in the second half we pushed with a little more urgency until that Mackie goal. What a screamer of a goal that was. Once again he opened up our midfield and took the goal in his stride. The speed and the pace left Fedders exposed with sod all chance of stopping that one.
I thought Long did really well all game. Fighting for the ball and feeding it down the left channel. Good to see him fighting for a start.
Doobs over ran a ball at one point which could have badly exposed the goal, only good fortune stayed with us there.
The fun at the back of the stand was marred by pathetic stewarding. The guys at the back were doing nothing in particular other than one individual banging on the cladding at the back of the stand. The whole row was then asked to vacate the row (the excuse being it hadn't been sold!!), so all the support were told to leave. Fair enough at that point though the excuses by the Stewards were lame to say the least. Then two Safety Stewards arrived and walked down the row and started to manhandle one individual. One safety steward (2) was dealing with the issue fine, the other i caught swinging a punch at the young supporter. Out of order. I spoke to this steward who had the individual forcibly in an arm lock and informed him about proportionate levels of force.
No one on the back row was damaging property belonging to the club. I spoke to Steward 2 after five minutes and he agreed that if a punch was thrown i could put a compliant into PAFC. He informed me it was on CCTV so i'm thinking seriously about pushing this.

And i missed Kebe's goal Good to (not) see him score that goal after all the waiting.

[Jobbo no.11]

Thats really good to hear about the chances created. The commentators of 107 seemed to just shout whenever we got a chance.
Just wondering how was the support today did we take many down really wanted to go to this one but work got in the way.

[AthleticoSpizz]

your a brave man trusting my judgement though mate. i thought hughsies passion to play for the club made him quality

better than most mate....better than most

[The whole year inn]

The fun at the back of the stand was marred by pathetic stewarding. The guys at the back were doing nothing in particular other than one individual banging on the cladding at the back of the stand. The whole row was then asked to vacate the row (the excuse being it hadn't been sold!!), so all the support were told to leave. Fair enough at that point though the excuses by the Stewards were lame to say the least. Then two Safety Stewards arrived and walked down the row and started to manhandle one individual. One safety steward (2) was dealing with the issue fine, the other i caught swinging a punch at the young supporter. Out of order. I spoke to this steward who had the individual forcibly in an arm lock and informed him about proportionate levels of force.

What the ...?

[Victor Meldrew]

I always look forward to Back from the game posts as they give you a feel of what happened and how people who were actually there saw the game.
I can't agree with the first poster and I am happy we came away with a draw.
We did put them under a lot of pressure in the last 20 minutes but the final ball was generally poor.
Pearce was outmuscled for their first goal but made up for it by scoring with a header very soon after,a goal from a set-piece that we have been waiting for him to score.
Their second came about because of our old habit of backing off and letting players shoot-we did it and got punished in The Premiership last season but less so this time because the forwards are obviously not as good.

Fortunately for us Gallagher went off at half-time and our subs weren't tactical but results of what looked either a knee or thigh injury to Cisse and a head wound for Pearce.
Unfortunately once again a team in the lower reaches of the division outpassed us.
With a bit more steadiness near goal we might have won the game but all-in-all there wasn't much between the two sides.
FWIW ratings:-
Fed 7
Rosenior 7
Duberry 6.5
Pearce 7
Armstrong 8
Kebe 7 (decent cool finish)
Marek 6 (very involved but lost possession too much and gave the ball away too often-is it that the others just aren't used to a passing game?)
Cisse 6.5
S Hunt 6.5 (poor first half but busier in the second-the crossing is still bad)
Doyle 6.5
Long 6.5
Both forwards worked as hard as ever chasing many lost causes but neither were sharp enough around the goal.

When they went 2-1 up it looked for a few minutes as though we might roll over but as it turned out we finished strongly which is encouraging although as a matter of perspective Plymouth have only won 2 in 15 or so games.
BTW totally unaware of any hassle and my views come from being sober having driven so I didn't miss Kebe's goal-you would not believe how confidently he took the chance after the embarrassments of the past week.n

[Ian Royal]

THanks Hughesie. and Vic

[AthleticoSpizz]

[quote="Victor Meldrew"]Marek 6 (very involved but lost possession too much and gave the ball away too often)sadly this seems to crop up too often

[Victor Meldrew]

Marek 6 (very involved but lost possession too much and gave the ball away too often)sadly this seems to crop up too often

It does Athletico but I do wonder if it's because the others have gone so long not playing one-twos and moving into space that they just can't read him.

[Dirk Gently]

Marek 6 (very involved but lost possession too much and gave the ball away too often)sadly this seems to crop up too often

I think Marek's footballing brain is far, far quicker than that of some of his colleagues. For example, there was one instance where he played a perfect ball into space for Stretch to run onto, but Stretch just wasn't on the same wavelength so the ball went out with no-one near it. Marek's fault or Armstrong's?

[AthleticoSpizz]

Marek 6 (very involved but lost possession too much and gave the ball away too often)sadly this seems to crop up too often

I think Marek's footballing brain is far, far quicker than that of some of his colleagues. For example, there was one instance where he played a perfect ball into space for Stretch to run onto, but Stretch just wasn't on the same wavelength so the ball went out with no-one near it. Marek's fault or Armstrong's?

Team game I suppose or is he just playing hopeful balls?

Seem to remember him doing the same thing last season in his cameo roles.

[Dirk Gently]

I think Marek's footballing brain is far, far quicker than that of some of his colleagues. For example, there was one instance where he played a perfect ball into space for Stretch to run onto, but Stretch just wasn't on the same wavelength so the ball went out with no-one near it. Marek's fault or Armstrong's?

Team game I suppose

Yep, but of course when Marek played a ball behind Harper which it was impossible for Harper to get it was Harper who got the criticism from those around me!

[cmonurz]

It's Marek's fault, mainly. Sorry, but it's not up to the rest of the team to work out where he wants to play football.

There's a famous quote, I think it was about Ray Wilkins, who was accused of playing 'another brilliant ball to no-one in particular'.

[hughsies no.1]

I think Marek's footballing brain is far, far quicker than that of some of his colleagues. For example, there was one instance where he played a perfect ball into space for Stretch to run onto, but Stretch just wasn't on the same wavelength so the ball went out with no-one near it. Marek's fault or Armstrong's?

Team game I suppose

Yep, but of course when Marek played a ball behind Harper which it was impossible for Harper to get it was Harper who got the criticism from those around me!

hit the nail on the head. if that was harps misplacing all those passes there will be about ten different threads on here saying how shiiite he is.. and people were groaning around me when he came on today

[AlexY25]

Federici - 6 - Didn't have to do too much today, couldn't really prevent the goals.

Rosenior - 6 - Did poor first half, but made 1 or 2 good runs in the second.
Doobs - 6 - Okay in the air, but he always ends up with the ball at his feet, cant kick well!
Pearce - 7 - Good header for his goal.
Armstrong - 6 - One of the best players this season but i felt he was poor today.

Kebe - 8 - Much better game from him. Looked very composed for his goal as well.
Marek - 7 - I thought he was great, cut their defence to pieces with some of his passes. Also his corners were 90% good. Set up the Pearce goal as well. Him and Cisse did well together i thought. Yes he lost the ball once or twice
Cisse - 7 - Good tackles, strong in the middle, although did lose the ball occasionally.
S.Hunt - 7 - Improved today, was very persistent and put in some good tackles, one or two better deliveries, 100% effort.

Doyle - 7 - Had a good game, but could of won us the game at the end but made a poor pass. I am liking him as captain.
Long - 8 - MOTM, thought he was excellent, chased everything, made some great runs, good in the air, very impressed.

Subs
Bikey - 6 - Didnt have much to do, great to see him back though.
Harper - 5 - Non existent when he came on.

[Dirk Gently]

.....
Pearce was outmuscled for their first goal but made up for it by scoring with a header very soon after,a goal from a set-piece that we have been waiting for him to score.
......

If by "outmuscled" you mean blatantly pushed in the back with two hands then I agree with you. The players were outraged by the goal being allowed - but sometimes this season I think they need to be outraged by something like that before they're motivated enough to start performing.