HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our readers and everyone in league one. The way we give points away it should be for most of you. COYG
Oh dear....this new year at the moment doesn't feel any different than the old crappy one.....Argyle could lift our spirits on Saturday afternoon if they remember that their supposed to be Dr Jekyll and not Mr Hyde......and for 90 minutes please.
I forgot the Gillingham Manager was Steve Evans. One of my most favourite peoples of all time in football.
Cooper, Watts, Aimson, Canavan, Edwards, MacLeod, Camara, Grant, Mayor, Jephcott, Hardie. Subs McCormick, Wootton, Nouble, Telford, Moore, Fornah, Opoku. Opoku on bench and Reeves out, Is Reeves injured or out of Lowe's favour.....personally dissapointed.
Mr Unpopular Jephcott shunned by Gillingham's defenders and from a position of lonely isolation, slots home. 1-0.
1-0...Jephcott...33 minutes....H/T Argyle deservingly in the lead.....Gillingham giving Mayor far to much space and he has been looking good. Just waiting for a cock-up in defence....far to much playing back to Cooper....just needs one poor pass and we could pay for it. Which Argyle will come out in the second half....answers please on a postcard.
Well Gillingham's substitutions seemed to change the balance but to their credit Argyle chased and harried to win the three points. MacLeod and Edwards look as if they took knocks. We could do without that. Once again the win probably as important in restoring confidence as in the three points. I might go for Joe Edwards for MotM with Niall Canavan not far behind.
1-0 ...F/T A good three points....BUT how many chances do you give the opposition to equalize. Graham ran the show down the Gillingham right wing and you were just waiting for one of his crosses to be converted. Michael Cooper I felt looked quite vulnerable at times in the air...missing some of his punches....and he'll come unstuck with all this tippy tappy stuff in front of goal one day. Gillingham made two changes early in the second half and started to look dangerous with Graham down the right....and you felt that Argyle were getting deeper and deeper and were under far too much pressure from a team with Gillingham's ability......happy with the three points but not really with the second half performance. As usual Grant was taken off and we lost his ability to start attacks and became less able....Danny Mayor played well in the first half but not so well later on. I agree with notDistant that Edwards was probably our MOTM.
Well that was hard wasn't it. Harder than it should have been really given the first half. Once again we somehow fade in the second half when we should push on for better things. However, thanks to a Gillingham player it stayed 1 - 0 after his fabulous header over the bar to stop his team mate scoring. I could tell it was a good afternoon when there were pictures of Evans berating the officials at every turn and marching over to the Ref at the final whistle. He truly is a complete oaf isn't he. Several observations today. Cooper is trying too hard at times. He didn't come to pick up or clear the ball several times when he should have. There is little communication between the defence and him where they just look at each other at times and neither do anything. It happened several times today. His going for it in the air left a bit to be desired as well. Not his best day. Mayor did a lot right today but he also lost the ball a good number of times as well. When he does and they counter fast we look in trouble because everyone has gone forward in anticipation. Hardie moves and moves creating passing options and runs into space. He may not be scoring but his contribution is definitely there. Jephcot can't seem to go 90 mnutes without scoring. Terrible habit that. Great finish to a great cross. We lack good crosses at times. With 25 minutes to go today we got deeper and deeper seemingly trying to defend the lead we had. We aren't that good at that and a better side than Gillingham would have levelled and probably gone on to win once more. We continue to play out from the dback at all cost. They seem not to get the fact they are no Barcelona and it looks very dodgy a lot of the time. I almost took to hiding behind the sofa at one stage. Far too predictable and we will get beat a lot if we don't learn to mix it up more. You could see the closing down in the second half and it was following a patern of other teams doing it to us. They do watch videos Mr Lowe. Releived is the best I can put it. MOM agree with Edwards today. Second probably Grant.
This win has moved us up to 15th in the league.....which is possibly a false position.....we have played the most games in this division....so there are teams around us who have games in hand over us.....and in one case Accrington...who have played six games less...and possibly a promotion candidate. In our next seven league games we have to play....Sunderland away.....Accrington home and away.....Portsmouth away....so a lot of hard games....what is obvious we cannot stay safe in this league by just doing well at home....we have yet to win away and that needs to start happening soon. Hopefully some of these team with games in hand will be finding two games a week...for long periods might bring with it a high level of fatigue...especially teams with smaller squads.
THE LOVABLE STEVE EVANS. sensible's buddy ...Steve Evans wasn't too shy to give us his views on yesterdays game. He said....The best team lost, didn't they...I have watched a second half of total domination....and my team haven't scored a goal. One way domination in the second half....if it had been a boxing match the towel would have been thrown in....because they were on the floor. He also complained about referee Sam Allison....you don't expect a referee to perform so poorly He also complained about the facilities at Home Park....we were housed in a computer room...the toilets were under the stand........and we had to walk outside to get to were the showers were. He was commenting about the facilities because Gillingham had been criticized for their facilities by the FL recently. PS.....Evans could start an argument and fight... locked in a room by himself.
Total bollocks isn't it? They were very second best in the first half and could have gone in 3-0 down. They had more territorial advantage in the second via hoofball but didn't really create a lot. Yes it was nerve wracking because our defence is prone to the odd mistake but really they didn't do much. Hardly towel throwing territory is it?
Yep Evans comes from never never land.....never quite how he tells it......that was a hell of a beating our lads got with 63% possession and double the amount of corners.
