They think it's all over...

...but it ain't just yet!

Although yesterday was Argyle's last home game of the season, there is still one game to play against Hull next Sunday (k/o at 13.00). With Leeds almost certainly relegated, once more Argyle only have pride and league position to play for. The Hull game promises to be a party atmosphere, with many supporters participating in an end of season fancy dress.

Redressing the Balance

Plymouth Argyle 2 (Ebanks-Blake 77 pen, Hayles 85) - 0 Preston North End

Holloway sought to redress the balance after Argyle's 3-0 defeat at Deepdale and Argyle rose to the challenge. For a team that are chasing Premiership dreams, North End gave a lackluster performance of pedestrian pace. From kick off Argyle bossed PNE around like a small child, who only managed to show snippets of interest. North End were pinned in their end with a succession of corners and the Lillywhites responded with a plethora of faked fouls, which for once referee, Dermot Gallagher, didn't fall for. But for all the battling and counter attacks, neither team could find the back of the net, thanks to both keepers including Romain Larrieu, who made his first start between the sticks since Christmas. Argyle had to wait until Ebanks-Blake fired home a dubious penalty awarded for handball, to take the lead late in the second half. Hayles followed that up with the decider on 85 minutes when he rounded Lonergan and slotted the ball in from a tight angle and Preston's game was over. Argyle had nothing to play for but pride, however they gave one of the best performances of the season to make this their 4th successive win in addition the the officials were excellent for once.

This was the last home game of the current campaign, and first team league football will not be played on Home Park's pitch until 11 August. And as was usual for the end of the season, the squad gave a lap of appreciation after the match, however after giving a rousing speech, Holloway stayed behind to shake the hand of every supporter who cared to wait, which must have taken hours.

Players of the Year

Lillian Nalis and Gary Sawyer have been honoured as the Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year respectively.

New Kit Revealed.

Following the new yellow away kit, the new home strip was revealed today:

The End is Nigh

Tomorrow's match verses Preston will be Argyle's last home match of the current campaign with next Sunday's games at the KC Stadium marking the end. As is traditional, the Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season awards will be presented prior to kick off. Many people will agree that there have been at least 4 players competing for both trophies, which a lot of supporters choosing Nalis and Ebank-Blake respectively.

But once the last fan has left Home Park the work for next season will begin, with the ground being repaired and painted, the Elton John and George Michael concerts in May and June, and the final decision on the Mayflower terracing will be apparent. Behind the scenes Holloway will already be thinking about his squad and several comings and goings are expected.

Then a week on Sunday we can all reflect on what has happened since last September.

Aljofree is free

Hasney Aljofree has returned from his loan at Oldham Athletic.
Aljofree has had a hard season due to sucessive runs of injuries, not least his trip to hospital during the Southampton game at St Mary's last autumn. It will be interesting to see if Hasney chooses to stay at Argyle this summer.

South-end of the line?

Plymouth Argyle 2 (Ebanks Blake 6, Hayles 90) - 1 Southend United (Clark 25)

With Luton relegated for definite, there is a real relegation scrap between Hull, Leeds and Southend, and whilst it wasn't as sweet as buring Southend on Saturday, taking three points from their hopes was just as good. Fully confident supporters chanted "Southend aren't going down" right up to the 90th minute when Hayles scored the winning goal.
Argyle didn't make easy work of it either, our 6 minute lead came thanks to some very nifty footwork outwitting the defender right on the Southend goal line by Halmosi brought a cross right to SEB who knocked it into the net. But as usual they fell asleep for a while causing Southend to equalise in a controversial goal from a controversial free kick through to a possible foul on McCormick. Southend immediately woke up and caught the spark to threaten the goal on several occasions with Argyle responsing at the other end, neither team able to get the ball in. And so it was right through the second half, until Hayles sunk the ball set up by Fallon.

So exactly who gets relegated goes down to the last game of the season, and Argyle may have a say in that in an indirect wasy, a win for Hull may send Leeds down, whilst a win for Argyle may send Hull down. Which is the lesser of the two evils?

Stadium Review #20 - Kenilworth Road

Ground Information: Kenilworth Road (Luton Town FC) Capacity 10,300

Appearance: A dump. Many people put down Kenilworth Road (or "The Kennel") but they are perfectly right to do so. Having said that this is probably the most interesting stadium in the Championship, there are so many different bits and quirks to it. The most striking being the excellent Oak Road entrances that are between the neighbours' houses and the toilets "in people's living rooms" imagine having a stadium in your back garden. The exterior of the ground is stuck in the 60s/70s and looks like it hasn't been painted since. Internally there are so many bits to it, stands and different heights and levels with bits place here and there like an unthinking child's Duplo set, from the conservatory "executive" boxes on one side facing the nearest you can get to a standing paddock these days with perch seating in the lower tier. Another quirk are the tower floodlights down both sides of the pitch. 7/10

View: As befits old grounds, there are numerous pillars supporting the roof, and they are hefty pillars too, it is not possible to get any unobstructed view, but else apart from the front rows that are a good few feet below pitch level the view is fairly good. 5/10

Getting there: Went by train for this one, a fairly painless manoeuvre leaving from Farringdon station after transferring from Paddington, and the fares from Plymouth are very reasonable too. Finding the ground from the station is a case of follow my leader as it isn't signed at all but is in fact only 10-15 minutes walk away. The easiest way is to leave the station from "Platform 5" and head straight ahead, crossing the Sainsbury's car park. Alternatively you can walk through the shopping centre that is Luton town centre. 5/10

Facilities (toilets, TVs etc): The refreshment bars are at the rear of the stand, so are dry bars but this means you do not miss any action at all. I did not use the toilets as they are down the stairs next to the turnstiles and were fairly small. The stand is converted terracing and badly converted terracing at that, the leg room is pitiful and DVT inducing. 5/10

Food and Drink: Very good pie but a bit more expensive than some grounds. As mentioned the advantage of not missing the match to get refreshments is helpful if a large queue builds. 6/10

Stewarding/Police: There was a bit of trouble with the local hooligan firm after the match that was dealt with swiftly by the local constabulary. As usual a large presence for a London (or rather near London) club. The stewards on the other hand didn't seem to have a clue as to their responsibilities, but joined in with some banter with some drunk supporters near the front. 5/10

Surrounding area (what's there to do outside the ground): Nothing. There's a "high street" at the end of Oak Road or back in the "town centre" you can wander round the shopping mall that contains all of Luton's town centre shopping, there are surprisingly few pubs there too. If coming by train, get a longer connection time in London. 4/10

Home fans (their contribution to the atmosphere etc): The more vocal home supporters gather just to the right of the away end in the upper tier and were very vocal throughout in spite of their relegation fears. In fact they just took the pee out of their own situation. 7/10

Total score: 44/80

Stadium League Table:
Pride Park (Derby): 65
Hillsborough (Sheffield Wednesday): 58
Poltair Park (St Austell): 57 [non league]
Stadium of Light (Sunderland): 55
= Portman Road (Ipswich): 51
= Ricoh Arena (Coventry):51
= Carrow Road (Norwich): 50
= Walkers Stadium (Leicester): 50
Underhill (Barnet): 49
= St Andrews (Birmingham): 48
= Molineux (Wolves): 48
= Loftus Road (QPR): 46
= The Hawthorns (WBA): 46
= Elland Road (45)
= Turf Moor (Burnley): 45
Kenilworth Road (Luton): 44
Deepdale (Preston): 43
Ninian Park (Cardiff): 42
Roots Hall (Southend): 41
London Road (Peterbrough): 36

So Kenilworth Road is the penultimate ground this season with just Hull left, however hopefully there will be a special Wembley review come the FA Cup Vase in May.

Romain Returns

Romain Larrieu has returned from his loan to Gillingham. Ian Holloway has hinted that he wishes to test all of the first team squad before the end of this season, could this mean that Romain will be between the sticks this Saturday?

FA Cup Vase tickets

For the benefit of any Greens who will be going to Wembley this May to support Truro, details are as follows:

Ticket Sales:

There will be several means to purchasing the FA Vase tickets:

Tickets will be available from the clubhouse between 11:00am – 15:00pm and 17:00pm – 21:00pm from Monday 23rd April, all week.
Tickets will also be available on Saturday 28th April and Sunday 29th April between 11:00am – 19:00pm. These sales will be CASH ONLY and will also require the completion of a registration form which can either be obtained on the day or downloaded ( http://www.trurocityfc.co.uk/docs/favasefinal.doc ) and printed.

For those unable to get to the club, tickets will also be available online on the Truro City FC website (http://www.trurocityfc.co.uk ) for those wishing to pay via debit or credit card.
The tickets will be sent out within 7 days of purchase via recorded delivery and will thus require a signature. These too will be available from Monday 23rd April.

From the week commencing Monday 23rd April, tickets will also be available on http://www.thefa.com and http://www.ticketmaster.com.
It is likely these seats will not be located within the initial 15,000 allocation that the FA has provided Truro City FC.

The preliminary ticket prices are (these are subject to confirmation from the FA):
Adults: £15 / £10
Disabled: £10
Children: £5
(On instruction from the FA we hope to provide more information on the difference between the £15 and £10 seats. However we anticipate the £10 seats to be located at the end of Wembley behind the goal, while the £15 tickets will be more central. We must stress we are awaiting final confirmation from the FA )

Please ensure you order the correct tickets as security checks at Wembley are expected to be stringent.

Merchandise:

There will be a wide-selection of merchandise available from the clubhouse over the coming weeks. Please be aware that the club will be selling no merchandise at Wembley itself.
Limited Edition Commemorative Replica Shirt : £30
FA Vase Commemorative T-Shirts : £10
FA Vase Commemorative Scarves : £10
Truro City FC Flags : £5
Truro City FC Baseball Caps : £5
Truro City FC Pin Badges : £2.50
Jester Hats : £5
FA Vase DVD’s (previous rounds): £6

The club will release several ticket hotline numbers nearer the date to answer any enquiries. In the meantime do utilise the clubs Official Fans Forum ( http://www.mfbb.net/tcfc/ ) which acts as an excellent point of reference.

Season Tickets on Sale

Next year's season tickets have now gone on sale, prices of which are outlined here

Pie of the Year 2006/07

After the penultimate away game of the season, here are the current standings:

1. Colchester 7.96
2. Ipswich Town 7.9
3. Crystal Palace 7.56
4. Birmingham 7.46
5. Wolves 7.44
6. Luton 7.43
7. Barnsley 7.36
7. Southampton 7.36
9. Derby 7.3333333333333333
10. Leeds 7.20
11. QPR 6.95
12 Sunderland 6.8
13 Coventry 6.69
13 Barnet 6.69
15 Cardiff 6.4
16 Peterborough 6.326
17 Norwich 5.84
18 Southend 5.06
19 Leicester 5.03
20 Preston 4.93
21 Stoke 4.29
22 WBA 3.23
23 Burnley 2.16

Colchester has been leading since the start of the season, will Hull be good enough to make a last minute dash for the top of the table?

Over and Out

Whilst Argyle are looking at midtable obscurity, after many a great escape and many changes over the last few years, Torquay United have finally been relegated out of the football league.
Western Morning News
Compared to Exeter City, Argyle have seen Torquay (normally full of ex Argyle players) and a little kid to pat on the head and say 'never mind' but after the club has been brought to its knees after 3 years of blunders, it has finally died a slow death.

Lu-down?

Luton Town 1 (O'Leary 52) - 2 Plymouth Argyle (Norris 4, Halmosi 40)

Thankfully taking a day out of my holiday to take a bus ride, 2 trains and 1 tube to get to Luton was worth the effort after Argyle beat Luton and ease their fall into League One. Argyle were fairly poor for most of the game but Luton were worse. Argyle took an early lead thanks to Norris, and Halmosi made it 0-2 just before half time, but Luton were there for the taking. They were all over the place, but Argyle couldn't capitalise on this and given them a good hiding, with passing going missing and opportunities in front of the goal being wasted. And then they lost their way completely in the second half, enabling Luton to net the ball and come extremely close on several other occasions in some rapid end-to-end play. But it wasn't enough for Luton, whose fans turned on the team during the first half and on themselves during the second by voicing their reasons for their table position.
Hayles, back as captain again, lead the way with some choice words and hot headedness as usual which led Ollie to sub him a few minutes after he dhould have walked-luckily the referee decided to issue a warning rather than a second yellow card. And this saw Sinclair's last ever match in a green shirt this season, hopefully this talentied inspirational player will return to Home Park this summer, or will go on to become a world class footballer thanks to his time with us.

Season Tickets

Season ticket prices have been announced today, and are the same as last year:

Green membership (bracketed prices apply before 18 May, unbracketed before 29 June, further prices have not been released)

Seating: adult £418 (£378); over 65s £285 (£252); under 23s £225 (£225); under 18s £75 (£75)
Mayflower: adult £342 (£228); over 65s £266 (£234); under 23s £185 (£185); under 18s £75 (£75)
Disabled: adult £285 (£252); over 65s £228 (£198); under 23s £175 (£175); under 18s £50 (£50)

In addition two lower tiers of membership are available:

White membership (permits purchase of match vouchers for six league matches and second tier priority to other games)
adult £142; over 65s £95; under 23s £77; under 18s £41

Pilgrim membership (give third tier priority for ticket purchase to all games)
adult £25; over 65s £25; under 23s £25; under 18s £25

Supporters wishing to relocate must renew their ticket between 2 July and 7 July only.

Stop the Rot

Plymouth Argyle 3 (Halmosi 15, Ebanks-Blake 45, Hayles 62) - 0 Leicester City

Three away games in a week, three defeats in a week. Could Argyle stop the rot? Thankfully, yes is the answer.

Halmosi scored his second goal in two days to open the scoring, but would Leeds repeat itself? Luckily, no. Argyle went into half time at 1-0 up, after coming close to going 0-1 down when Leicester found the back of the net, but whilst the Foxes celebrated, a lone man was holding his flag aloft. Offside, and that was close. Within 1 minute of kick off the threat of a reocurrant Leeds was buried when Ebanks-Blake scored from kick off in a defensive blunder that has dogged Argyle recently.
Leicester then tried throwing the kitchen sink at us, and in a reveral of fortunes, it was our keeper that kept us in the game. Hayles then went on to bury the Foxes with a third goal. An injured Buzsaky limped off and then followed a double substitution to keep the clean sheet, but had the affect of upsetting the remainder of the play and let Leicester have too many chances, which they thankfully couldn't convert.

A much better performance, building on the Leeds game but this time with the correct result. This puts us on 55 points which makes us safe this season.

Stadium Review #19 - Elland Road

Ground Information: Elland Road (Leeds United FC) Capacity 40,204

Appearance: A mixed bag of architecture, from the modern imposing space framed main stand through the multi storey car park-esque south east corner to the industrial unit West Stand and old brick built run down 60s odd bits. Inside the ground is fully enclosed, with 4 stands of blue seats and the (what seems small, away end) adorned in yellow sticking out like a sore thumb. The East and north stands seem to go on forever. 7/10

View: Stuck in the corner near the back is not ideal, and 4 pillars holding up the roof obscure some of the view. There are obscured view prices, but we didn't pay them so I'd hate to think what constitutes a poor view. 4/10

Getting there: Elland Road is right next to the M621, though the signs will take you past the ground and back around even though there's direct access right next to the stadium. Coming by train means a 35 minute walk or a bus ride, which stop off at the stadium's "bus terminus". 5/10

Facilities (toilets, TVs etc): The refreshment bar is located underneath, and slightly behind the stand serving both tiers, however it seemed big enough to cope and I didn't have to queue at all. Unlike at Turf Moor the pies were of good quality. There were two sets of toilets, but queues quickly formed at both at busy times. 5/10

Food and Drink: Good pies, even if there was no steak and kidney, and the usual selection of other food and beverages. Whether because everyone else had already eaten, I was served straight away by the girls, who seemed very keen and quick. An in-out queuing system operates that avoids a scrum and distributes the queue into several small ones instead of the usual long one. 7/10

Stewarding/Police: Mounted police in Elland Road, and stewards who were keen to evict people for standing in spite of home fans doing so, which wound up the supporters (but what goes around comes around - how many times do Argyle complain that away fans stand at Home Park?). 5/10

Surrounding area (what's there to do outside the ground): Not much, apart from near the ground itself with its McDonalds, the nearby area is typical northern back-to-back terracing. Finding a pub is worthwhile for the cheap prices though. 5/10

Home fans (their contribution to the atmosphere etc): The atmosphere was great, but you can only hear the fans flanking the away end, and likewise Leeds cannot hear you at the far end. Leeds have much better songs from their past than Argyle will ever have, but the did give up trying to out-sing Green and White Barmy Army. 7/10

Total score: 45/80

Stadium League Table:
Pride Park (Derby): 65
Hillsborough (Sheffield Wednesday): 58
Poltair Park (St Austell): 57 [non league]
Stadium of Light (Sunderland): 55
= Portman Road (Ipswich): 51
= Ricoh Arena (Coventry):51
= Carrow Road (Norwich): 50
= Walkers Stadium (Leicester): 50
Underhill (Barnet): 49
= St Andrews (Birmingham): 48
= Molineux (Wolves): 48
= Loftus Road (QPR): 46
= The Hawthorns (WBA): 46
= Elland Road (45)
= Turf Moor (Burnley): 45
Deepdale (Preston): 43
Ninian Park (Cardiff): 42
Roots Hall (Southend): 41
London Road (Peterbrough): 36

Look out Below!

The Greens are coming

Leeds United 2 (Healy 45, Michalik 87) - 1 Plymouth Argyle (Halmosi 36)

So another defeat, and even after the players have recovered from their sore asses after the Burnley defeat we still don't get a result. This last week we have a score line of 1:9 goals. So this time we scored a goal - some improvement at least - but give away two sloppy ones. Oh for that Leeds nutter to have accidentally knocked the ball in during his pitch invasion. I think we've reached the stark reality that we are just a mediocre club, with medicre support and mediocre clout in the wages department. We had a lucky start to the season but that has promised too much, riding the wave of play offs, new manager, FA cup run (where did that come from?) had lead to this recessionary feel. Currently I feel that we should still be worried about not getting much - if anything - from the last 5 games, and that the bottom half of the table is still changeable. It's not good enough to "be the better team" but not win. Plucky Argyle is becoming Push Over Argyle.

Stadium Review #18 - Turf Moor

Ground Information: Turf Moor (Burnley FC) Capacity 22,546

Appearance: A club torn between redevelopment and renovation, a bit like Argyle. Two sides have been rebuilt as two tier stands, whilst the away end is still a traditional cowshed with wooden seats, but they are for the wider bottomed person so you are not squashed at all. The 'grandstand' looks untouched. Underneath the away end you get the real cowshed feel - a cavernous empty structure with a few brick buildings for toilets and food bar. The unusual aspect of having the dressing rooms and tunnels at the end of the pitch make it different from the rest other identikit stadia. 6/10

View: From the picture you can see you get a pretty decent view. There are two support pillars at either end of the stand, but they obscure a minute part of the pitch. 9/10

Getting there: Turf Moor is signed from the motorway, but the local police insist on an escort from the outskirts around the back streets. 5/10

Facilities (toilets, TVs etc): One refreshment bar, one set of toilets-which were quite decent. But else sod all. 4/10

Food and Drink: The worst pies this season, and they only had three out of five choices in stock. Burnt, hard Balti pie and a meat and potato that disintegrated. Nice bar staff though. 2/10

Stewarding/Police: Even though there were only 160 approx in a huge stand there was at least 1 cop to 3 supporters, and the steward insisted on people remaining seated. 6/10

Surrounding area (what's there to do outside the ground): No idea. 5/10

Home fans (their contribution to the atmosphere etc): They wanted the result and were right behind the team from the off. The Green Army were very poor in comparison, but then we had very little to shout about. 8/10

Total score: 45/80

Stadium League Table:
Pride Park (Derby): 65
Hillsborough (Sheffield Wednesday): 58
Poltair Park (St Austell): 57 [non league]
Stadium of Light (Sunderland): 55
= Portman Road (Ipswich): 51
= Ricoh Arena (Coventry):51
= Carrow Road (Norwich): 50
= Walkers Stadium (Leicester): 50
Underhill (Barnet): 49
= St Andrews (Birmingham): 48
= Molineux (Wolves): 48
= Loftus Road (QPR): 46
= The Hawthorns (WBA): 46
Turf Moor (Burnley): 45
Deepdale (Preston): 43
Ninian Park (Cardiff): 42
Roots Hall (Southend): 41
London Road (Peterbrough): 36

Supporters' Forums

As well as the usual PASOTI and Rub of the Greens message boards, a new board was opened at the beginning of this year at www.pafctalk.co.uk. This board has been dead for some time, however a few Greens have recently signed up in an attempt to try and get it going again. So if you fancy somewhere that's a bit lighter than PASOTI or RotG, then join us and sign up.

PAFC Talk

Burnley

Burnley 4 (Duff 13, McVeigh 20, Jones 38, Elliott 61 ) - 0 Plymouth Argyle

Warning - this article contains a rant.

So 4-0.
What a huge steaming pile of manure. No player turned up today at all, there was no interest from them at all. A disgrace to the club. It's no good thinking 'we're midtable so we're safe' or 'we were so hard done by in the FA Cup - woe is us', you have to play till the end of the season. Holloway said that every player was playing for their place on the squad, but after tonight not one of them deserves to wear the green (and yellow) shirt next season; don't they take Ollie seriously, or do they not really want to be in the squad?

And what's with the see-through tactics? Every set-piece was exactly the same - free kicks to far post, goal kicks up to Hayles, throw ins to Fallon. Clubs don't need to do any research or have an need to adapt during the game.

It's times like this when it's hard to say 'support the club no matter what' but when you've made the effort to give up a day's holiday at work, travel 7 hours, pay £28 travel, £18 match ticket, beer, food; and they can't even be arsed. Argyle are going to pay dearly from this - Leeds is a certain loss, we'll be walked all over - lots of people at Turf Moor said that Leeds will be their final match of the season unless somethng happens, and next year's season tickets are looking in doubt. Especially with the lack of ambition at the club regarding off pitch affairs.

Things can only get better.
But then again, this is nothing new to Argyle.

Argyle Live

A reminder that 855 MW has now ceased broadcasting for 1 year. To continue listening to live Argyle matches, you will need to retune to 95.7FM or DAB

Truro City FC

Congratulations to Truro City for becoming the first Westcountry team to play at Wembley (we all know it should have been Argyle) by reaching the final of the FA Carlsberg Vase.

Rest assured that the Green Army will be there on 13th May, including me.

FA report

Stadium Review #17 - Portman Road

Ground Information: Portman Road (Ipswich Town FC) Capacity 30,300

Appearance: A traditional setting - city centre location, stands straight off the street is something I like in a football ground. Inside has the traditional 80s look of narrow passages and paint job. The converted terrace look is prevalent, with a mishmash of inclines, tier numbers and stand heights. 7/10

View: Away fans are stuck in the top tier of the Cobbold stand, in the corner; however the view from the lofty position is not bad. The low roof does mean that high balls are lost, and the back 6 rows are amongst the roof supporters, so the farther back you are the more restricted the view becomes. 7/10

Getting there: Easy as pie. Follow "Football Ground" from the bypass and you're straight there, by train, leave the station walk straight ahead. The city centre location is ideal, you cannot go wrong - however the coach park is slightly out of the way. 8/10

Facilities (toilets, TVs etc): There used to be refreshments in the upper tier but these have since been relocated to downstairs next to the turnstiles. The bar only serves alcohol before the game - not at half time; it is also fairly small if you have a large support. There are sets of toilet in both tiers so no fears of wetting yourself queueing. 6/10

Food and Drink: Apart from the alcohol arrangements, the bar was well stocked with the usual selection of pies, soft and hard drinks, and snacks, all served efficiently. The Balti pie was alright, I have had better, but I think I had a dud as other people rated theirs better. 6/10

Stewarding/Police: Two coppers took a bit of an unhealthy interest in us. It wasn't like we has a large flag with "Bananabus" on it, and posing for photos, being rowdy or picking a flight with a stuck up git in a posh car. "Are you a charity?" Huh?. 6/10

Surrounding area (what's there to do outside the ground): Last season we went into town, which is just around the corner - the Debenhams is nice if you cannot find a toilet(!). There is an away-friendly pub opposite the station which is very big and efficient (The Station Hotel, funnily enough). The locals seem friendly enough. 9/10

Home fans (their contribution to the atmosphere etc): P*ss poor. Had they been sedated upon entering the turnstiles - only came alive after each goal - the rest of the time cardboard cut outs would have made more noise. 2/10

Total score: 51/80

Stadium League Table:
Pride Park (Derby): 65
Hillsborough (Sheffield Wednesday): 58
Poltair Park (St Austell): 57 [non league]
Stadium of Light (Sunderland): 55
= Portman Road (Ipswich): 51
= Ricoh Arena (Coventry):51
= Carrow Road (Norwich): 50
= Walkers Stadium (Leicester): 50
Underhill (Barnet): 49
= St Andrews (Birmingham): 48
= Molineux (Wolves): 48
= Loftus Road (QPR): 46
= The Hawthorns (WBA): 46
Deepdale (Preston): 43
Ninian Park (Cardiff): 42
Roots Hall (Southend): 41
London Road (Peterbrough): 36

78 seconds & 15 minutes

Ipswich Town 3 (Garvan 9, Lee 15, Haynes 90) - 0 Plymouth Argyle

For the third sucessive season Argyle came away from Portman Road 3-0 down.

The gane effectively was won within 15 minutes of kick off after Matt Doumbe was sent off after just 78 seconds of play for a foul that the referee did not see. Only after the linesman's opinion was aired did Doumbe walk. 15 minutes later the Tractor Boys were two-nil up, with the third coming on the 90th minute.

Even with only 10 men, the Greens fought hard but if we cannot take our chances with 11 guys on the field - we have no chance with just 10. And so the usual faffing around in the 18 yard box, with strikers too afraid to have a pop, lead to nothing, only a disallowed goal from Ebanks-Blake, which might have started a comeback for a draw. "After you, sir", "No, no, after you", "No, I insist". But the sending off visibly shook the guys and they took until the second half to recover and start concentrating.

And again this brings up the problem of the lack of discipline in the squad. Being a 'take no prisoners' side, especially in a league in which we are small - in squad height and size - is no bad thing, but making stupid mistakes is awful. So is throwing the toys out of the pram when the decisions go against us - leading to the clocking up of far too many yellows, which takes its toll when the suspensions kick in.

Many reckon that we are safe in the league, but are we? There is always the chance that we will lose our remaining games - especially if the team believe that there's nothing to play for (which actually there isn't except for improvement on last season's postion). So a very very poor scoreline, here's to Burnley tomorrow and Leeds on Saturday.