For once lately I have to start with they owe us this time. We nicked it at their place early on in the season. I just looked back on the postings for that one and I wrote Argyle off at 2 - 0 down as game over. Cosgrove was introduced to the green army in that game and stole the show. So we are already 3 points up in playing Derby. This one though isn't going to be an easy ride and it is probably going to be bitter cold on Tuesday. We have improved on our televised offerings more recently mind as there was a time I wouldn't have given us a prayer in a televised game. I think Derby underestimated this league at the start and have suffered a few unexpected (by them) results over the season. Like all of the mighty they have had to learn it isn't the soft cake walk it's given credit for. So can we win this one and make it a double over them? I think we can if we play to our strengths. COYG
Burton, Gillesphey, Houghton, Wilson, Butcher, Edwards, Hardie, Mayor, Mumba, Azaz, Lonwijk. Subs Parkes, Bolton, Ennis, Miller, Waine, C Wright, Matete.
............................................................Burton ............Lonwijk...................................Wilson.....................................Gillesphey ...Edwards...................Houghton.....................Butcher.........................Mumba ..........................................Azaz...............................Mayor ............................................................Hardie Subs Parkes, Bolton, Ennis, Miller, Waine, C Wright, Matete.
2-1...F/T C Wright...59mins. Hardie...70mins (pen). Mendez-Laing...17mins. Now that is a great result.
As they say, a game of two halves. Schumacher rang the changes at half time, moving Lonwijk to the right behind the more supportive Joe Edwards with Gillesphy behind the flighty Mumba. Suddenly the tide had turned. Later, he went to 4 at the back, brought the all-action Matete and Callum Wright to cause a Derby melt-down. Wright scored with a deflected shot followed by a soft penalty as White dangled a foot and Azaz went down. Derby will feel aggrieved but who cares? We had a much better claim for a penalty early in the first half which was waved away and we got this one instead. They couldn’t handle Callum Wright and he got what he deserved. Hard won but well won. We’ve got options and Schumacher uses them well.
The first hallf is hardly worth talking about from an Argyle point of view. We passed the dball mainly to them. We hoofed the ball mainly to them. We were shockingly bad I thought. Their goal brought howls of protest from the Argyle fans as it did look like their player was a good 2 yards minimum offside with the through ball. I howled as loudly as the rest and gave the lino a right blast. He was however so far behind play often that he deserved a blasting. However, my son came back from his halftime ablutions and said he had seen it on the screen below several times and they proved it was onside. Just shows what little we know. Mind you the lino would not have known any of that and it wasn't a good call by him just a lucky escape because he was yards behind the play at the time. Second half was a different kettle of fish altogether. We suddenly improved out of all recognition. A couple of subs and we were away. Derby on the other hand went to sleep more and to be fair never looked like scoring again. Not sure this was a win due to good play or whether it was just a good win in the end. Whichever it was doesn't matter it's the 3 points that count and the record book as I always say never records who was good or bad. I was talking to a couple of Derby fans at the Hyde Park Social Club after the game and they were not that complimentary of Argyle. I couldn't argue too much until they said we were lucky to win. I did point out that apart from their one goal there was hardly any attempts on goal from them in the first half despite us being crap. That is hardly the stats of a team dominating and expecting to win. However badly we played they clearly were not that much better class wise.
Just watched the video.....the penalty did look soft......but the defender did stand on his foot....which brought him down. There goal looked well off-side at first glance.....didn't really get a good view to be able to judge how it was deemed on-side. Schumacher subbing was spot on.....they all brought something extra to the game....Bolton and Matete played well....C Wright did was was asked of him scoring......Miller and Ennis helped to see out the game. Derby did not have anything left to cause Argyle any worry at the end.
They were doing the look back at the game when I got to the Club House. They showed the goal Derby scored and stopped the move when he collected the ball. He was several feet onside for sure. I said before that I screamed blue murder at the Lino at the time because it looked a shocker but I was wrong. The Lino however was always not in line with play by at least a yard or more throughout so in my opinion would not have had a clue it was not offside. He got it right by default.
We watched it on TV and were sure it was offside by several yards when we saw it live. The replay showed that he was on without any doubt whatever. Going back to the penalty, what you can say is that the guy dandling his leg out like that DID put Azaz out of his stride to the point where he'd probably lost the ball. You can see Azaz try to move his left leg to the right to avoid contact. Of course, there used to be an indirect free kick offence called "Obstruction". Whatever happened to that?
The reason they don't give obstruction now is that players hit the floor by design or otherwise. The penalty decision was soft but nobody has mentioned something that really said he deserved to get a penalty. In the first half he weaved his way into the penalty area and was tripped by a Derby player. He stayed on his feet having stumbled slightly and got a pathetic shot away which had no chance of going in. Thing is he didn't go down by design when he could have. Had he fallen over then it would have been nailed on and there could be no complaints. I commened within my group and they all agreed he should have. Just shows that unless you exagerate something then you get nothing from Refs. So ask the question again why do players fall down so easily and there you have your answer.
That's right... there was what looked like a nailed on penalty very early on for which we got nothing. If we'd scored first, we might have romped home several to nil: that's often the way of it. So, in this case, justice was done all within the same match. I'll raise another point. In the second half, one of theirs ploughed into Jordan Houghton. You won't have seen it live, but on TV you can clearly see Houghton's knee flexing sideways. The ref gave a free kick to them for a very minor offence against their guy that had happened just seconds before. Houghton did get up and carried on but was subbed off not long after. I hope I'm wrong but I wouldn't be at all surprised if he doesn't make the squad on Saturday. Where's the justice in that?
Where I sit was right in line with the incident on Azaz and it was plain as day. I commented last night on the meeting with a couple of Derby fans after the game and their lucky comment. I had a look on their fans forum later just to see what the opinion was having read something on pasoti. There were a number of "lucky" type comments and certainly some uncomplimentary ones by the Derby faithful. It got me thinking about these so called "big clubs" and their attitude to this league. Sheff Wed, Ipswich, Portsmouth and Sunderland at one time and now Derby. All of them when they first dropped thought this was a pile of carp and they had no place in this league. Several others are a bit that way as well. They have short memories in thinking they don't belong here and can call the league what they like for me. However, they have all pretty much in their turn found out that this league full of rubbish other than themselves isn't this easy place. "They all raise their game when they play us" is another misconception they seem to hold. No we don't we play a game to try to win it as best we can and that is no matter who the opposition is. Inconsistant we may be but raise our game we don't. They are in this league for one of two reasons or a combination of both. Either their incompetent Board/Owners have put them there or the players who have not performed the previous season to keep them up. The fact they are in league one is because that is where they deserve to be and nothing else. The reason they stay in the league rather than do an immediate bounce is because of the same two factors and nothing else. There is not one Club who deserve to be any higher in the food chain than they are. We definately were not lucky last night. We played badly at first and then changed it up and played well. It's what we have done a number of times against a host of different clubs this season and I haven't noticed us raise our game due to the opposition ever. As for Derby we have taken all 6 points off them this season. Maybe they should have considered raising their game against us perhaps.
