Argyle last night.

[Plymouth Gull]

As I was at uni yesterday afternoon me and a friend decided to stay down and go to Home Park and watch a relegation rival and a future opponent, Argyle v Bradford. I was a bit concerned that I'd see more fight, more quality and a win for the hosts, so it was a bit awkward being sat in the home end, especially when we saw that TUFC were 1 down after 3 minutes, disaster. However, here is what we concluded from last night:

- If that is Argyle's general standard, then I'm not too concerned. They were worse than we've been recently which is saying something!
- One standout attacker was Jason Banton but he is very much a 'head-down' winger; that is someone who will not be looking up while the ball is at his feet, instead making lots of fanciful stepovers thinking he is Ronaldo.
- Argyle fans are incredibly delusional. It was hilarious seeing the linesman make 3 spot on decisions in the first half, including one which Bradford should DEFINITELY have scored from, but the fans were giving him a lot of abuse throughout after that which was crazy as the decisions were right.
- They do what I'd like to see Poke do, pass the ball to the full back from goal kicks and build a move that way, rather than an aimless punt towards Reuben Reid (who looked a smaller, poorer version of our Rene).
- Argyle very much route one, barely seemed to get the ball down and pass.

All in all I'm not that worried about Plymouth if that is their level, but saying that they always have the ability to knick a win out of nowhere which they almost did last night with the final kick, literally. A long punt forward and Matt Duke went up to catch, Tyler Harvey jumped into him and Duke dropped it (blatant foul not given). From the follow up, Chadwick knocked it goalwards past Duke, it hit Harvey who was on the goal-line, he tried scrambling it over but the Bradford defender managed to block it and then Duke kept it from going for a corner, crazy. I was sat there cacking my pants as it would have been so undeserved if they'd taken the points.

As for Bradford:

- Andrew Davies is a dominant centre half, very good.
- Garry Thompson (ST) was very good, caused a lot of problems until his substitution. Connell, who replaced him, also caused mayhem.
- Duke is a big, big keeper, and looked very comfortable most of the evening, possibly down to the lack of Argyle chances.
- Two fast wingers, Kyel Reid and Zavon Hines tried stretching Argyle but it didn't really work, to be honest.
- Looked pretty dangerous for a 15 minute spell in the second half, where they had 3/4 good opportunities including hitting the bar. Argyle also hit the post in the second half after a snapshot by Banton. Possible claims for a penalty for Bradford when Reid was sent tumbling but the ref deemed it outside the box. Hard to comment as I was miles away.
- Strong unit, I don't think they were at full strength as they were without Gary Jones and Nakhi Wells, while James Hanson only came off the bench when he's usually a starter.

It was good to get an insight of what we will be up against in 3 weeks time, and they're at Exeter on Saturday if anyone else fancies a look (though I understand giving money to City unnecessarily is hard to do).

Cheers!

[AustrianAndyGull]

Nick, i've said since Sheridan took over that the appointment condemned them to the BSP and i stand by that. I just think that ourselves, Plymouth and Accrington are three poor sides who generally struggle to score goals and so long as we match them i don't see either of the 2 putting in a run of form now so we'll be safe by default. We might not even need to win any matches, a load of draws may be enough although a risk but Argyles fixtures look horrendous and so they're gone IMO.

[Behind-the-Gulls]

Sheridan played another new loanee last night-Joe Bryan from Bristol City but apart from Banton his loan signings haven't made much impact.
Hopefully Knill is more astute;with Lambadie looking good,Benyon to start making a real impact in next weeks games and another striker on -board soon,with a bit of luck,who will be key to our survival hopes.

[brucie]

Plymouth have a really bad looking run in. Not seen them lately but they look pedestrian at the back. Accrington look awful.
Absolutely no point in really wondering about the other teams though. We will probably stay up if we win three games and and get a couple of draws in our remaining games.
Its getting the required wins that is the ultimate problem.

[Modgull]

Still having difficulty seeing where we will get three wins from - presumably the three home games against York, Barnet and B Rovers. Whilst I would hope for 3 points against York, I could see us struggling against Barnet. Hopefully Rovers will be firmly in no-mans land for the final game and not up for a hard fight. If they are pushing playoffs by then I would not see us beating them either. Would one win and perhaps five draws be enough?

[ferrarilover]

I have put the remaining fixtures through the Ferrarilover Scale model and Plymouth have had it. Their run in came in at 79%, which is the highest percentage I have ever seen. Ours, by contrast, was the third easiest on 55%. Bristol Rovers have the simplest, with 48%.

I thought Plymouth looked reasonably good against us. They were nothing special, but not really any different to a lot of the other very ordinary sides we have played this year. If they could hit the target, they might well have caused us some problems. This seems to be a common theme this year among the lesser clubs, a real struggle to find the back of the net despite not necessarily playing terrible football.

Matt.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Plymouth have a really bad looking run in. Not seen them lately but they look pedestrian at the back. Accrington look awful.
Absolutely no point in really wondering about the other teams though. We will probably stay up if we win three games and and get a couple of draws in our remaining games.
Its getting the required wins that is the ultimate problem.

Agree here Brucie, i think our survival hopes are made a lot more realistic simply because the 2 teams below us are so poor. Accrington are truly awful and so long as Francis Jeffers doesn't spark a mini revival then all we need do is nick a few results here and there, i actually think maybe a couple of wins and a few draws and we'd be ok. Plymouth are down, they can't score goals and there is no way they will win many if any of their remainig fixtures. Our task is easier as Accy and Plymouth are so unbelievably bad. I can see us nicking more points than them now and i feel better.

(Just slightly worried about the Francis Jeffers impact though)

[stevegull]

Andy, I don't know why you have such a rose-tinted view of Francis Jeffers. He's a player who is generally considered to be one of the worth players to pull on (and score!) in an England shirt. If you look at his career stats you'll see that he hasn't really scored goals regularly since his stint at Everton... and that's over 10 years ago. Infact the most amount of goals he has scored for any team since then is 5 for Sheffield Wednesday. And even those goals were scored over a period of 3 years and 54 games!

In short, don't fear Francis Jeffers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Jeffers

[bixieupnorth]

hes got good ears tho!!

[AustrianAndyGull]

I don't have a rose tinted view Steve, to be honest i've not looked at his record just that he has played in the Premier League a bit and so automatically i assume he would be a cut above what there is in league 2. I hope i'm wrong and you're right though!

[SuperNickyWroe]

you are bang on there stevegull - good to see you dont always talk wet!

without being harsh - jeffers is a bit of a donkey - thats why hes there!

ok, it maybe a bit harsh..... :}

[Scott Brehaut]

Just in case there is anybody else reading this from Guernsey (or Jersey (spits)), I'd rather shag a donkey but could fit in a toad