Nearly forgot to post this one. Can we make it 5 on the trot is the big question. Well obviously we can but is this where the wheels come off and we grind to a halt? At least we know we won't get relegated this season. (I'm trying to do a plym and be half full). The Ref is another card happy chappie with loads of yellows and 3 reds so far. That's it I can't think of any more negatives so I'm just going to go for the win. COYG
Cambridge manager Mark Bonner has been sobbing about this game....saying he will be forced to make changes because of his...."walking wounded".....I think we've heard this one before....probably play the same eleven or maybe change only one....Schumacher I doubt will not fall for that one.....he isn't that green (sorry the pun) and be over confident of winning.
There home record is......16P...6W...6D...4L...21-19 Goals Diff..... Top Scorers. Ironside......13 Smith..........10 May...............5 Knibbs..........4 No one else has more than 2. Ironside last played on the 18th Jan.....haven't done too bad without him.
Cooper, Grant, Gillesphey, Bolton, Wilson, Broom, Mayor, Randell, Camara, Ennis, Jephcott. Subs Burton, Houghton, Hardie, Garrick, Sessegnon, Law, Crichlow. Broom in for Edwards.....Randell in for Houghton.....Sessegnon on the bench for the first time.
Poor game. Looks like 11 aside on a 5-a-side pitch. Argyle unable to find what little space there is. Poor defending from Bolton gifted Cambridge the 1st goal and the ref their 2nd, failing to penalise a trip on Conor Grant when Grant dilly-dallied when dealing with a long hoofed through ball from Cambridge. Scrappy crap I'm afraid.
A poor game on a poor pitch with a poor ref. First goal was fair enough as Cooper should have stayed on his line or come out from the starting gun. I think it was poor Keeping rather than the Defender but that's just my opinion. Second goal was a foul on Grant. At 2 - 0 against a side that had already started time wasting from 10 minutes it was always going to be an uphill struggle. I don't ever understand why clubs are allowed to trim a load of size off a pitch. Cambridge's pitch is tiny and you can see it has been reduced in size by the old markings and the space behind the goals. Any other sport pretty much has a standard size playing area. It didn't suit our game at all and we were never really in it and looking like scoring despite some pressure in patches. Nobody had a stand out game and there were several who just looked like they would prefer not to have been there at all. Camara had his worst game I've watched. The game wasn't played to any of his strengths though and more often than not the ball was just over his head. A bad day at the office and we must put it to one side and move on.
I forgot to add the extra time thing. Well so did the Ref to be honest. He came up with 4 minutes at the end. For starters there were 6 subs so at 30 seconds a sub that is 3 minutes on it's own. On that basis he allowed 1 minute for time wasting. He played 4 minutes and not a second more. Their time wasting was more than 4 minutes on it's own without the Subs and if he had added 10 minutes he might have been closer to the reality of the game. Having said that I am not sure we would have scored if he had added an hour but the point is Refs should not let Teams do what Cambridge did and make it an art form. You can see it's something they are well used to doing.
Reading the comments on pasoti it seemed as if Argyle didn't turn up and they were flat all over the pitch....Broom didn't come off playing away from midfield.....and Houghton was missed in midfield as well.....Camara was not his usual self....in fact only Cooper saved us from a bigger defeat. Maybe they are jaded from so much away travel....of the last 15 games....an incredible 12 have been away....quite an amazing number of games for a club that is always having to travel further than any other club in English football. At least their next game is at home...although I could have wished for an easier game than Rotherham who are steam rolling all before them at present.
Well I think an absent Argyle is a general opinion tonight plymborn but this side can beat any other side in this league top or not if they do turn up. I'm not saying they will beat Rotherham on Saturday but they will give them a good run if on song.
I don't think it was a lack of motivation. A small pitch in poor condition doesn't suit us. As the commentators said, Camara is about running power and the pitch was so congested, there was nowhere to run. I do blame our defending for both goals. Neither Bolton nor Grant were decisive in clearing the situations. Bolton seemed to be complaining to Wilson that he should have got around behind him but it was a very suddenly played ball from an unexpected area and I think Scarr would have cleared to whole lot out, ball, attacker and any bystanders within a 5 yard radius. Grant went down easily but then, doesn't everyone these days? 99.9% of refs would have given it as a foul. Infuriatingly, the ref gave a free kick against Hardie in an almost identical situation later on, so we lost a goal and a scoring chance to inconsistency. Broom didn't work at wing back and we missed Joe Edwards. On a slightly brighter note, Sessengon looked a live wire although by that time we were playing 2:5:3 so we haven't seen him defend yet. Everything about this game was poor and it was £10 wasted. We'll have to do an awful lot better on Saturday.
