Black Wednesday

I’m writing this and wishing I was somewhere else. Anywhere with a telly and selling alcohol, ideally. But it wasn’t to be, and like many football fans I have found myself a victim of the grand overlords of Sky TV. This Saturday just gone, April 12th, I had originally intended to attend Plymouth Argyle’s scheduled match at Sheffield Wednesday, our 43rd Championship fixture of the season and potentially (certainly at the time of organising the trip) decisive in our play-off push. I booked my train tickets from my home in Gloucestershire four weeks in advance to avoid the ridiculous cost of on-the-day public transport, and waited for match tickets to go on sale. Alas, it was at this point that Rupert Murdoch’s media machine – generally about as interested in covering Argyle as a vegan is in eating veal – whirred into seemingly aimless action and had the game moved to Monday night for live transmission to subscribers. At the same time when my return travel, already purchased, was due to occur.

Thus here I am, tapping away on my laptop while almost anything could be happening at Hillsbrough. The bleddy train even went through Sheffield on the way down, but with it being nearly 9pm I considered jumping off, watching the rest of the game and spending the night in the station to be a little pointless, especially given recent events.

I’ve been somewhat absent from this site for a couple of weeks, for two reasons. Firstly, my University course has been rather more hectic and difficult than usual, but, far more pertinently, Argyle have managed almost entirely extinguish our greatest ever hopes of reaching the top flight of English football. First there was the embarrassing 3-1 loss at struggling Coventry, with the Greens 3-0 down before the much-maligned Steve McLean grabbed an admittedly impressive consolation. This left us needing, realistically, four wins from our last five matches going into the home tie with Charlton. I travelled down full of hope and expectation and, despite a dire showing by both teams, Jermaine Easter’s second-half goal looked likely to be the difference between them. Then Luke McCormick had one of those spells where everything goes wrong, twice fumbling in his own six-yard box and giving visiting striker Leroy Lita a pair of tap-ins. Heartbreaking.

Since then the crushing, numbing disappointment of losing to two poor sides has got the better of me, and I’ve attempted to hide from football – frequenting the BBC Sport website less often, shunning Focus and MOTD, skipping the sports pages. Still, the ‘beauty’ of the Argyle White Membership I have is you get six home match vouchers to use throughout the season, and I’ve got one left. So I’ll be there for the Preston game on Saturday, when Argyle will in all likelihood have little to play for but pride, and possibly a highest-ever league finish in my lifetime. That, at least, should whet the appetite for another crack next season.

RICH PARTINGTON

Who will be crowned best in the West?

Only last season Plymouth were regarded as the best team in the south west, which goes to show how quickly things can change in football. Argyle were in the Championship pushing for a play-off place while Bristol City were in League One fighting for automatic pro`motion. This season has seen the tables turn with City establishing themselves as surprise promotion contenders while Paul Strurrock’s side have struggled to stay in the play-offs. Only a few weeks ago, Argyle’s season looked to be over as they lay far adrift from the play-off places, yet a resurgent run of four straight wins in February took them back into the play-offs and had fans dreaming of the Premiership. But they have now lost three games in March and have slipped outside the top six so Saturday’s game is crucial for both teams.

City, on the other hand have maintained their place at the top of the league and have now gone eight games unbeaten. We have managed to take 16 points from eight games which is a fantastic return and certainly promotion form, and hopefully this will continue. But the Westcountry derby will not be an easy game for City as Plymouth will obviously be desperate to get back to winning ways and maintain their push for a top six finish.

In our last meeting in December, the game ended 1-1, with City scoring from a Krisztian Timar own goal. Plymouth goalkeeper Roman Larrieu had a fantastic game and was unlucky to concede a goal after he had made some fantastic saves. Fortunately for City, Larrieu is injured, as is his number two Luke McCormick, so Argyle have a keeper crisis and are looking at bringing in an emergency loan as they are left with only a youth team goalkeeper to stick between the posts. Hopefully, the headlines from this game aren’t ‘loanee goalkeeper makes fantastic save to win the game for Plymouth’!

The game is sure to be sell-out, which is two in a row at Ashton Gate, so the atmosphere should be fantastic. I am sure the game will also be entertaining with both sides wanting to play football instead of looking to kick the ball in the air, which has been the case in recent games at Ashton Gate. The swirling winds will hopefully have ceased so the players should find it easier to play football. On Tuesday, I became frustrated with the lack of football played by City and Watford, but walking away from the game I realised how bad the wind was which would have made play difficult for both sets of teams.

So who do you think will come out victorious on Saturday? Of course I am going to say City but Plymouth will no doubt create a hard game. With quality players like Peter Halmosi and Jermaine Easter, it promises to be an entertaining game. I expect City to make some changes to the side that played on Tuesday, with Lee Johnson looking doubtful and perhaps Ivan Sproule and Darren Byfield could be recalled. I was not happy, to say the least, with having Brian Wilson playing on the right wing against Watford and we looked a better side when Sproule replaced him in the last five minutes. I also have a bet with a Plymouth fan riding on this game, so a win would be all the sweeter.

ANDY DAVIES

Gutless. Witless. Pathetic.

One of the major problems with keeping a regular blog on your football team is that while it’s great fun to wax lyrical on famous victories and dazzling players, bringing yourself to write about those days when your heroes don’t quite cover themselves in glory isn’t quite as enjoyable.

So it is then that I’ve given myself a couple of days to recover from the farcical debacle of Tuesday night at Glanford Park, but the passing hours have barely dimmed how utterly appalled I am at Argyle’s performance in the 1-0 defeat against Scunthorpe United.

Admittedly, there were mitigating factors. The howling wind gusting off the Humber rendered anything but on-the-floor tactics impractical in the first half, and, under Paul Sturrock, this is not Argyle’s forte. But our brainless incompetence in adapting to this was still a site to behold, or rather, one I wish I hadn't. Once Scunthorpe – who were even worse than Argyle and comfortably the poorest side I’ve ever seen in the second tier of English professional football – managed to squeeze a rather fortunate effort past Luke McCormick early in the second half, referee Stuart Attwell appeared to decide that it would be easier, in such an awful game, for the team who scored first to win, and from there on in Argyle were the victims of a run of decisions almost as disgraceful as their performance.

The men in yellow were as awful as our luminous away kit. Lee Hodges, mystifyingly restored to left-back in place of the improving Gary Sawyer, insisted on hoofing the ball skywards every time he received it, despite the force of the wind curling every effort backwards. Hodges, who never had the technical gifts even for third level football but has often displayed enough grit and determination to disguise these failings, was on this occasion so bad that when McCormick was sent off on 71 minutes for handling the ball outside his area, Hodges replaced him and was actually better between the sticks than he had been outfield.

Steve McLean’s ridiculous ineptitude was almost funny, displaying an inability to complete one-yard passes or keep control of even the gentlest of loose balls. Argyle’s most expensive ever signing looked at best lost and at worst uninterested, and got absolutely nowhere near even having a shot at goal, let alone scoring. Lilian Nalis and Jimmy Abdou, in central midfield, were ineffectual to the extent that the only time they were noticed was when needlessly giving away the ball. Paul Connolly's primary achievement was managing to sky the white sphere high, over and out of the shack masquerading as a Championship football ground (which provoked such classics and "My garden shed is bigger than this...", and the more modern twist of "Is your ground from MFI?" from the Green Army) on three separate occasions.

The roll-call of villains in day-glo had a few notable exceptions. Jamie Mackie was given his first start at long last and was Argyle’s sole attacking threat, with the pace, energy, and desire lacking elsewhere. Picking up the ball and realising the rest of his team were going to be of little use, Mackie took on the Scunny defence single-handedly, beating defenders and causing havoc. Sturrock seemed to be mocking either Mackie, the fans, or perhaps even himself when choosing to withdraw the 22-year-old from Horsham for lost cause Rory Fallon. Luggy also refused to bring on Jermaine Easter, who had not even really deserved to be dropped, instead persevering with the hopeless McLean.

Gary Teale added more urgency when on as a sub for Chris Clark, who until this moment I had completely forgotten the existence of, such was his anonymity.

And Russell Anderson was generally able to neutralise what passed for a Scunthorpe attack, despite the goal.

Despite all of this, Argyle still should have won. Scunthorpe were a collective of clueless pub players with a dodgy keeper and a colander defence. On any other day the Greens should have won 7 or 8-0. It is laughable that Scunthorpe manager Nigel Adkins described his players as 'absolutely magnificent'. If that's true, I'd hate to see them on a bad day. No wonder there were less than 4000 home fans present.

It must be said that the 400 or so travelling supporters were, as usual, immense, providing faultless vocal encouragement for the majority of the game, until even the infinite stoicism which the average Argyle exile wears like a badge of honour began to disintegrate. The likes of Mackie and McCormick - the players that care - clearly appreciated this, and were not shy about showing it. A pumped fist from Mackie and a quick clap from Luke while play continued said it all. And the keeper gave the Green throng the best moment of the entire evening, clearing up a slack Connolly backpass with a nonchalant drag back and turn which left the advancing Scunny striker flailing.

The Argyle fans were certainly louder than their hosts. Even after scoring and at the final whistle, the Lincolnshire natives were largely silent, save for a dozen or so screeching kids immediately to our right. I have literally never encountered such an unenthusiastic home crowd, although as previously explained, their team provide little to shout about.

I’m struggling to decide whether the similarly poor results for Argyle’s playoff challengers – Hull, Ipswich, Charlton, and Wolves – in the last couple of days is a good or bad thing. On the one hand, we are still very much in the race - seventh, only a point away from the magical zone which will allow the extension of our season beyond 46 games. Had we beaten the Iron, as we really should have done, Argyle would be fifth on 58 points, two ahead of Charlton and Hull.

This is despite three defeats in four games, which really should have seen us left in the dirt. But the Championship is wildly unpredictable this season. I’d have said it was a poor league, but the FA Cup semi-final line-up, with three teams from the second tier present, somewhat contradicts this. And two of those, Barnsley (who have beaten two members of the ‘big four’, Liverpool and Chelsea, on their way to Wembley) and Cardiff, are nowhere near the playoffs.

So, in conclusion, if Argyle beat Bristol City at Ashton Gate on Saturday, which I doubt we will, then anything is possible. If we don’t, the playoff charge is definitely over. I’m sure of it. Maybe. Unless we then win a few games…

RICH PARTINGTON

'The Three Maccateers' continue Argyle revival

A week is a long time in…blah blah blah.

But how apt a phrase that is today. Six points, two clean sheets, and a pair of commanding performances on, the pessimism pervading Plymouth Argyle at the end of January has given way to renewed hopes of a Championship play-off punt.

Argyle sit just two points outside the top six after Tuesday’s comprehensive 3-0 success at home to ten-man Barnsley, Yorkshire’s best side this year, who beat us 3-2 at Oakwell in August. Indeed, at the final whistle the BBC Sport website – which, for me, is the definitive resource for all football matters – actually had the Pilgrims sat in sixth spot , before a win for Ipswich at Crystal Palace and Burnley’s Andy Cole-inspired comeback at QPR dropped us back down to eighth.

Still, after I’d all but given up on a real run at promotion after the home defeat to Hull a couple of weeks ago, the race is very much back on and I’m chewing away at my green-and-white hat.

Luke McCormick deserves a huge amount of credit for this. Romain Larrieu’s return from injury this season appears to have spurred ‘Super Luke’ on, and, with the Frenchman out of action again, Luke has assumed a commanding status in the Argyle goal. For the first time, as well, McCormick looks the club’s undisputed number one, whoever he is competing with.

The Coventry-born stopper’s lack of height has been a traditional weakness, from the very first time I saw him – away at Tranmere in 2002, when 85 minutes of inspired shot-stopping was undone by two late blunders which gave the home side victory. Under the returning Paul Sturrock, though, McCormick has learned to mask this with aerial confidence and an exemplary all-round game. His kicking has always been long and strong; he thinks quickly and often wins one-on-one contests with opposing attackers.

There were rumours of interest from Middlesbrough in January, but these came to nothing. Luke would probably leave if an offer like this came in, but so would most Championship players. For now he seems content at Home Park, enjoying the lack of national expectation and pressure which goes with a 'bigger' club and quietly guiding his side up the table.

From looking likely to leave the club several times in the last couple of months – first after seeming to back Ian Holloway’s departure in a press statement, and then in the aftermath of an admittedly reasonable declaration that there could only be one first-choice keeper at Argyle – McCormick has established himself as the goalkeeping future at Home Park.

This is arguably less than fair on Larrieu, an Argyle legend and fan favourite, who has been unlucky with injuries. The growth in his abdomen currently keeping the Frenchman out is the latest in a string of problems, with a serious knee injury and a cancer scare forcing lengthy lay-offs while at Home Park. At 31, he is in the prime of his goalkeeping life, and will not want to play second fiddle to his young English rival, but it would be a shame to lose him.

While McCormick kept Barnsley at bay on Tuesday night the other ‘Maccateers’ (and I’m copywriting that phrase, by the way) were making the difference at the other end.
Record-signing Steve McLean’s free-kick gave Argyle a fifth minute lead, and the Scottish striker his first goal in green. The wily forward has been settling well, delighting the Green Army with his cleverness, technique, and reading of the game. But he needed a goal, and while he will never be an arch-poacher like Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, who he replaced in the number nine shirt, his overall qualities are of greater value to the team. McLean reportedly loves his new home, and he could form a great partnership with another new arrival.

Jamie Mackie was not, for Pilgrim fans, initially the most exciting signing in our history. He came from Exeter, a club we treat with withering disdain, and had only bagged 11 goals this season in a league three levels lower than the Championship.

On as a sub for the hard-working, pacy Jermaine Easter, however, and he looked a man possessed. Only eleven seconds had passed when Mackie charged into the box, took a pass from Peter Halmosi and displayed tremendous strength and composure in shrugging off two defenders to score. His second goal was even better, receiving the ball down the right channel, teasing and twisting the defender and smashing home.

It was one of the most inspired and surprising cameos I’ve seen from a player in green. Here is a rough diamond, clearly tremendously talented but also oozing arrogance and self-regard, as his dancing celebration displayed – personal glory is obviously a major priority for the 22-year-old from Dorking. But if he plays like that every week he can have a statue outside the Devonport End for all I care. Mackie’s a showman, a superstar in his own head, and with the potential to become one on the pitch as well. If anyone's going to take over SEB's goalscoring mantle, he has staked a prime claim to be that man. It's a little harsh on Easter, who has performed well for Argyle without getting the breaks, or goals. But Mackie made his own opportunities against Barnsley, and sometime's that's the sign of a great player, as opposed to a good one.

And Paul Wotton’s back! What a week!

Roll on Southampton, and I’m getting a bit excited just at the thought of it.

RICH PARTINGTON

Halmosi and co could make Sturrock king again

Plymouth Argyle's 2-1 defeat against Championship strugglers Norwich City on Tuesday night may have continued an unspectacular start for returning manager Paul Sturrock, but the ingredients seem to be in place to suggest significant success is within reach.

Losing at home to an excellent West Brom outfit in Luggy’s first game back at Home Park was disappointing, but certainly no disgrace. And goals from Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, Krisztian Timar, and Nadjim Abdou chalked up the first points of the new regime in Saturday’s 3-0 home win over Scunthorpe.

Norwich seem somewhat revitalised under Glen Roeder, whose knack for making a notable initial impact at a new club continues. He did the same as Newcastle United caretaker in the latter part of the 2005-6 season, and was given the job full-time, eventually discovering St. James’s Park to be as much of a managerial graveyard as most of his predecessors.

Reduced-price ticket schemes for Tuesday’s match (shows what a big draw Plymouth are!) dragged more than 25,000 into Carrow Road, and the big crowd seemed to intimidate referee Paul Taylor, whose decision to award an 87th minute penalty for Paul Connolly’s clearly ball-winning challenge on Darren Huckerby was quite frankly shocking.

But, looking at the bigger picture, the playing staff currently present at Home Park look well-equipped for a Sturrock team.

A few are still there from his last reign, of course. Romain Larrieu and Luke McCormick continue to dispute the goalkeeping jersey, with the former deservedly holding sway at present.

Paul Connolly broke through from the youth ranks in Luggy’s last season and, after looking out of his depth in the second tier for the last few years, appears somewhat rejuvenated at right-back, his performance in the 1-0 win at Sheffield United on November 24 a particular highlight.

Lee Hodges has defied all predictions, and his own advancing years, to adapt admirably to a higher level, although again it has taken time, and those wearying legs have necessitated a move backwards from midfield.

David Norris, a Sturrock find, continues to work his arse off in midfield, and the old tendency to sprint down blind alleys appears to be waning. Paul Wotton, Mr. Plymouth Argyle and the club captain, remains also, and is approaching recovery from knee ligament damage sustained more than a year ago.

But whether he’ll break back into the side must be a moot point. For there is an abundance of talent elsewhere in the squad.

It has often been said of Sturrock that his talents are in the lower leagues; and promotions with Sheffield Wednesday, Swindon Town, and of course Plymouth (esentially twice) seem to support this. He is yet to achieve anything massive above the lower levels, unfairly sacked at Wednesday (they’ve not got any better since) and Southampton (they’ve got a lot worse).

At St. Mary’s Luggy bought Peter Crouch, who scored a hatful of goals and was sold on at a massive profit. Given only thirteen games, Sturrock won a respectable five, but was hounded out by negative media coverage, and, allegedly, a dressing room revolt involving the likes of Kevin Phillips and James Beattie, ‘star’ names who apparently objected to their managers fashion sense and strict changing regimes. Both have long since left the Saints, who have plummeted out of the Premier League and towards financial meltdown.

Sturrock, it seems, does not suffer fools, or big egos gladly. He’ll have been pleased to find a refreshing absence of those at Plymouth. Despite three nightclub-related arrests of Argyle players in the last eighteen months – Marcel Seip (twice) and Ebanks-Blake the culprits – these are a hard-working bunch with a similar team ethic to that instilled in the rampant 2001-2004 sides.

Seip is a rock at the back, magnificently consistent and an excellent reader of the game. Timar, who nicked his second goal in as many games at Norwich, in so doing recalled one Graham Coughlan – a monstrous figure arriving late in the box, splitting the defence, and delivering a powerful header.

The Gallic pairing of Abdou and the veteran Lilian Nalis reflect many of the qualities the David Friio-Steve Adams partnership brought in the centre of the Argyle midfield. Nalis is a vastly improved version of Adams, winning the ball constantly, and subtly orchestrating the midfield, albeit with the technical ability, shooting boots, and attacking thrust the Plymothian lacked. ‘Jimmy’, meanwhile, has some way to go to match Friio’s legendary status, but arriving late in the box and slotting home like he did on Saturday is a good way to go about it.

In attack Ebanks-Blake, Jermaine Easter, Barry Hayles, and Rory Fallon provide Sturrock with a far more competent stable of strikers than during his initial tenure, but the real gem is on the left hand side of midfield.

Hungarian international Peter Halmosi was Argyle’s record signing when joining from Debrecen for £400,000 in the summer, making permanent and impressive loan spell. His displays this season have raised the bar for every player at the club, a constant source of creation and invention. All three strikes against Scunthorpe were products of his assists, and Luggy is clearly a fan.

Halmosi’s humble yet fiercely determined nature – he has made it clear he wants to play in the Premiership – mark him out at the archetypal Paul Sturrock player. He’ll surely be in the top league next season, with or without Argyle.

RICH PARTINGTON