So here we go. For many it is the match most looked forward to when the fixtures comes out. Looking out of my living room window (about 5 mins walk from HP) I am happy to report that it is a fine , sunny but cold morning in Plymouth and rather breezy. Definitely 2 t shirt, fleece and coat football watching weather. Intel suggests about 1000 coming from Exeter and the home areas are pretty much sold out. Be interesting to see what the official attendance is. Official capacity is apparently 17150 - take 1200 off for segregation should mean you can get 16000 in, but even with a sell out I think the figure will be much closer to 14000. No idea where the missing seats are. what to do for the next 4 hours before we stroll up to the ground.....?
You have better weather than here in NW Kent.....1c....raining and sleetting.....plus a breeze as well.......I will rough it out..... keeping a check on the website and the telly.....cup of tea....and a nearby radiator.....it's tough I know....but someone has to do it.....come on you greens...play to your best ability and stuff them for the second time this season......any team news yet ?
not officially, but not expecting Luke, or Reuben to be fit and Hartley and Boateng also reported to be struggling to make it. Expect at least one of the loanees to start.
Match was declared all-ticket yesterday. I just had a quick look at the club website and the game is now sold out.
I know the ticket website indicates sold out, but they are now selling tickets for block 20 at the club . So blocks 22,23 for exeter fans; 21 segregation; 20 home fans; 19, family block (sold out); 1-18 home fans (sold out) Mayflower/grandstand (sold out) . This should mean a crowd of 16000+ -predicting official figure of 14500.
Seems that both Walton & Croll could be playing today.....Hartley seen on crutches.....I don't know how true any of that is.....will be a testing time if so.
A disappointing result on a curious day which despite the large crowd lacked much of the passion expected of an Argyle V Exeter match. To be fair, Argyle were missing 5 of the players that have served us very well thus far this season and it quickly became apparent that a team without Luke Mc, Carl McHugh, Boateng, Hartley and Reuben Reid wouldn't provide the same threat despite the replacements of Walton, Croll, Simpson/Thekland. jarvis etc. Exeter pressed well in the first 10 but argyle slowly established a foothold in the match and came closest first. Nelson picked the ball up in his own half and following another Franz Beckenbauer esk run from his own half found himself able to let loose with a left foot shot which the keeper pushed wide for a corner. Fairly even-stevens from then until Mellor upended their player for a nailed on penalty. Walton guessed the correct way and almost became an Argyle legend as he got a finger to it but it nestled into the corner. 0-1. Second goal came not long after - the inability of Argyle's second string to make a decent tackle was exposed and their attacker skipped his way past 3 or 4 defenders before slotting into the same corner that the penalty ended up. 2nd half was better (just) and the otherwise totally ineffectual Thekland pulled one back to give the subdued fans and players some hope. but, despite a screaming volley from Carey and a couple of half chances we never really looked like overcoming a workmanlike performance from the northerners. 14008 turned up to be disappointed, for reasons unknown it was a subdued atmosphere throughout and Exeter seemed more 'up for it' than us. The midfield was weak and attack lacked potency; oddly following a defeat the defence were the best department with Nelson the official MOTM, Croll on debut also had a very decent game. Still, we are top of the league, the most important thing is how we react on Tuesday.
I have to say I was not that surprised with today. I was sort of half expecting it before we even kicked off and it didn't take long to confirm the fears. You have it spot on lyndhurst and it is absolutely right that Exeter looked like they wanted it all day long more than us. The one factor that goes a little to excuse it is that any team with the whole of the spine of it taken out is going to struggle. For me the biggest miss of the day player wise was McHugh. I wasn't expecting him to be missing as well as the rest. He breaks so many moves up and there is no way the second goal would have happened if he had been there. He would have taken the player out if nothing else. The man was allowed to dance around for what seemed ages without anyone getting as much as a toe on the ball and the outcome was inevitable. The replacements were ok but the team was a whole lot weaker as a unit. Jervis is not a target man and that's not his fault. Reid holds the ball up but Jervis can't. Brunt was far better at that when he came on but he gets no protection from officials. Bad day at the office, Exeter deserved their victory and we move on to the next. We need to bounce back again like we have done before onTuesday. Hopefully one or two will be back.
Yes, should have specifically mentioned the absence of Mchugh. Going about his work fairly quietly i think he is probably our MVP (most valuable player)-not in terms of transfer fee but more the work he does as described above to disrupt the opposition attacks. lets hope he is back soon.
It's always a point of argument I know who is or isn't MOM each week but I'd argue that most weeks you could give it to McHugh. He isn't flash he's just very good at breaking up play and his distribution has improved no end as well. I hope most of them if not all are back soon. We absolutely missed them today. The newbies were on a hiding to nothing I thought having to get to grips with play as well as it being a local derby. At times the not knowing each other thing showed badly.
You two have summed it up: a very messy, disjointed game in which Exeter had our card marked from the start. Local derbies are often scrappy Exeter out-scrapped us with their Ryan Harley the MoM even without his goals. That emphasies just how much we missed McHugh with Harley often having the freedom of the area in front of our back 4. Our defence was poor, which I suppose is hadly surprising given the absence of McCormick, Hartley and McHugh. Even the usually excellent Curtis Nelson committing several mistakes, including holding on to the ball too long in dangerous areas. Croll looks accomplished, very like Nelson in fact, but I suspect the more traditional and robust Hartley is a better balanced pairing for Nelson. Croll only arrived in mid week, which is precious little time to make a centre-back partnership. It's a pity we have another tough game on Tuesday...
After the initial disappointment of losing....and even more so against Exeter....I have concluded that we took on quite a hard task whoever the opposition would have been yesterday. Five important players missing and all of them involved with the spine of the team or there about......plus two new players filling in that arrived mid-week onwards......something had to give.....we have had our share of luck at times this season generally at home.....so swings and roundabouts time yesterday......remember Exeter can scrap well when they are in the mood........weren't they the first team to beat Portsmouth and away from home as well......you could see the possibilities of an upset on the cards....and fate didn't let us down. The defence was missing it's talkers and main organizers....those left had not enough time to familiarise themselves with two newcomers to the team....so continuity and the customary understanding wasn't there.....having the security of McCormick behind you and his ability to read the game wasn't there.....I'm not saying that Christian Walton played badly....it's just the understanding that grows over time playing together wasn't there. Luke Croll played well seeing he knew less about Argyle than Walton did....but the understanding wasn't there....he'd only just learnt their names let alone knew his fellow defenders strengths and weaknesses.....that showed up with how easily Harley waltzed through Argyle's defence for his second goal......without McHugh or Hartley there the job was made simpler. Boateng's control we've missed since being out and his attacking power.....and finally the obvious missing piece to the team Reuben Reid....ok we've sneaked along without him , but this is what.... his sixth or is his eighth game that he has missed and we are definately desperate to get him back......that was brought to our attention today with him receiving his October Div2 player of the month award. Leyton Orient might be struggling to show there full potential at the moment....but it is unfortunate that that game comes so quick on Tuesday for us.....three home defeats in a row (Carlisle,Millwall,Exeter)....it can start to play mind games on quick flowing attacking football.....this game is now very important to win....Derek Adams now needs to start working his magic.....that we feel he has.....and will any of our injured players be back.
I see Mr Adams thinks we were "unlucky" to get nothing out of the game on Saturday. I know he was there because I saw him but can't help thinking he was looking elsewhere if that was what he saw. Also said he was not looking to make excuses that there were loads of injuries and then says we lacked "experienced players" or in other words we had loads of injuries. I think he must read the internet sites because it's quite spooky how he seems to answer the questions being put on them or says the same things they do.
