An awful game of football between two sides, one of which should be doing much better and the other that is battling for their L2 status. The manager rang the changes from the disappointing reverse at Portsmouth and set out a side that could only play in an 8-2 formation........ Bobby Reid just doesn't seem right as the defensive midfielder but to be fair he had a much improved game than of late (not difficult) but him, Blizzard and Lee all seem so slow (physically and witted) and so powerpuff in the tackle that we may as well have just strung two banks of 4 at the edge of the area. Anyway, after kicking off 4 minutes late Argyle were ahead after 2 mins when O'conner rose to produce an excellent header from a long way out that looped past their keeper who will undoubtedly be disappointed that he didn't get close to it. 1-0 and we should have battered them 4 or 5. However what Mansfield lacked in ability they made up for with endevour and passion. Plenty of hard tackles and pressuring the ball-both of which are clearly off the agenda as far as the greens are concerned. Numerous misplaced passes resulted in a frustrating first 45 but at least we were still creating chances and went in in front at half time. 2nd half same as the first ('a little bit longer and a little bit worse') the lead was doubled by Mchugh/O'Conner (in dispute) after a period of play when Argyle could have scored 4 in the space of 2 mins. Unfortunately Mansfield pulled one back almost immediately resulting in an nervous but not too frantic final period. The 4 mins late start resulted in a 4.10 start to the 2nd half and a further 6 mins (justified) extra time meant we finished well after everyone else so there were plenty of celebrations as most of the other teams contrived to put us back into a strong position for finishing 7th. Obviously a great result and much needed 3 points , BUT, not very good fare and a number of poor performances - the most irritating thing though is the lack of physical commitment to the cause- it is fine to stand off and not challenge if you are putting silky passing moves together but when that isn't happening, you need to get stuck in. Lewis Allessandra my MOTM- as much for his endevour as the end result. Reuben needs a rest/injection of enthusiasm, Mellor is still struggling T H-D had a better game but still made plenty of mistakes, as did everyone else in Green. Main thing is the 3 points - bring on wimbledon.
Agree MOM and it was the same for me. I don't agree ref Bobby Reid though. I thought he was hopeless and to be honest he has had so many bad games now that I'm beginning to wish he was going home. Our midfield, if that's what you'd call it, is woeful and that's putting it mildly. Our passing, if that's what you'd call it, is worse than woeful. What do they practice from Monday to Friday for christ sake. Sheridan said that the points were more important than the performance before kick off today. Just as well I say because that performance was terrible. How did we win it is my question. No problem with your match description lyndhurst. Not much to say about it at all really. Can you honestly see this side in a play off let alone final? God help us.
How do you two cope with what is on offer.....getting to the play-offs is pointless.....if you can't do what's necessary to win the final. Thanks for your views.
To be fair it isn't pointless Plym. If we got to Wembley it would mean we had won the semi, probably in front of a crowd of 10000 plus at Home Park plus TV money = around £150k in total and then 40% of a Wembley crowd of about 45000 minimum plus TV money = £400k totalling a trousering of around £500k+. Even if we got there by a fluke and were totally pants it would still be worth while going. Think what we could do with an extra dollop next season.
and of course we can 'still turn on' performances on an occasional basis, Pompey at home Cheltenham away etc . Plenty of instances when the 7th placed team have been promoted. Now I have calmed down a bit, perhaps today's set up is all part of the Sheridan plan- In fairness we created enough chances today to win 6-0 but for the other 87 mins were rubbish-but it won the football match. A win on Tuesday and we will be very close to having enough points i.e probably only need 4 points from the last 3 games.
This is truely an awful league this term. I was going to say that we don't deserve to be in the playoffs anyway but on reflection, there have been so many bad games taking two to make it bad that none of the others, Bury the exception, deserve to be there anymore than us. I talk to some of the Pompey fans lyndhurst who think their lot are worse than terrible and lets face it Cheltenham aren't better than that are they so performances against that is not much of a recommendation. In truth nobody deserves to be in with a chance at the end of the season. The automatics deserve their places but the rest should just shut up shop and go home.
As all have said, 3 points were the main thing. Generally though, we've lost the balance we had when we had a really good run - just before Xmas wasn't it? We had penetration then from the wing-backs Kellett and Mellor and so trying to shoe-horn in some creativity from Bobby Reid wasn't so vital. We lost Kellett to the loan system, Mellor has lost form and Reid is not only not 100% but is being lumbered with defensive duties in CM when he's better as a free agent in the hole. Some hope was restored when Talbot was with us but again he was also lost to the loan system. It's frustrating and I'm not trying to make excuses for Sheridan but it does show the problems of managing at this level when the benefits of our relatively healthy gates are eroded by historic debts. I don't feel overconfident or confident at all really but if we can scrape through to the play-offs somehow then as Senisble has said, ay least there'll be a cash injection. Despite the fact that this sounds like another performance well short of the best we've seen this season, at least it's still in our hands with 3 winnable fixtures followed by a game against Shrewsbury who will by then already be promoted in all likelihood. It could be a lot worse.....
Excellent report Lyndhurst, from everything I've read it's clear we are struggling to regain our pre Christmas form but at this stage points are all that really matter, as you say, if we can grind out another win on Tuesday we'll be 3 parts there and if we do reach the play-offs form goes out of the window and we'll have as good a chance as the other three of promotion, failing that it'll be a bit of a financial boon. COYG!
"our relatively healthy gates are eroded by historical debt" Our relatively healthy gates could have been a whole lot healthier if we could have strung a few decent performances back to back and stayed up around the top. I would reckon that the inconsistency has cost us a minimum of 1500 average on home gates. If you say that one of those costs about £15 a go then that's a good £20k a match. Multiply that over the season and you are approaching £500k. With that in the bank then the historic debt doesn't seem that much of a hinderance and is enough for a couple of really decent players at this level with wages for the season. I don't think Sheridan has been starved of resources this term either way. I think he must take some responsibility and I believe he is not a very motivational person. I also don't think he is very tactically aware and sticks dogmatically to his way which is one way pretty much all of the time. I hear football people telling anyone who will listen that punters haven't a clue unless they've been professionals themselves. I think that's just bollox and their out card. People around me say all the time what is glaringly obviously wrong in a match which is not going to plan and often they are spot on. Sheridan is watching the same game yet stands there alone and does nothing. I don't see him out in his tech area waving frantically or shouting much. If his demeanour looks like it doesn't care then that translates onto the pitch in my book and the players don't respond. I'm not saying he doesn't care but that he doesn't look like he does.
I've just read a thread on pasoti where somebody has spelt out how the playoffs are not the money spinner we think it is. Contrary to what I believed we do not get home gate money plus tv and if we got to Wembley we do not get 40% plus tv money. We end up with twelve and half % of gates from a combination of all 4 matches and no tv money at all. Also same applies to Wembley money so if we had a home gate of 14000 for our first leg and took 35000+ to Wembley we would have to surrender most of the cash to the football league. What a crap carve up that is to sides with hardly any crowd to speak of. Why we should have to subsidise the football league I have no idea.
When I say football league Joe by that I mean the pot of money shared out between all clubs based on their finishing position. So we subsidise for example Burton who will probably finish top but only get around 3000 per home game through their gates. We get penalised for having a fan base twice the size because we have to give some of our gate away for the playoffs. We might make £100k out of it all. Whoopee!!!
