Monday, 7 May 2007

That's all folks!

Hull City 1 (Elliott 61) - 2 Plymouth Argyle (Halmosi 45+1, Ebanks Blake 59)

So Argyle end their league with 5 consecutive wins, and their first win at Hull for some time. An unchanged side from the Preston game managed to come up trumps in a game with little to play for except pride - Hull's survival guaranteed by Leeds' relegation. A scoreline of 4-2 might have been if Ebanks-Blake had won the dubious penalty, and both teams hadn't had goals disallowed for offside.
The game saw some really good banter between both sets of fans, especially with the mutual hatred of Leeds that permeates through many clubs' fan base, and at some points the football seemed a distraction, but we all know how to kill an atmosphere dead - miss a penalty. After the initial jubilation by Hull, the stadium was deathly quiet for the remainder of the first half. Even when Argyle scored in stoppage time the celebrations were somewhat muted. It is a rare event when the home crowd will applaud the away following.
Once again Argyle showed that they can get a bit big-headed and cocky when winning, sitting back leads to the opposition taking their chances, as Hull's goal came just 3 minutes after Argyle's second. This lead Argyle to begin to flounder, allowing Hull to permeate the defence, and not taking advantage of the gaps in Hulls. However the Pilgrims (who are now incidentally the only Pilgrims in the league due to Boston's demise) clung on to victory, and have again finished higher than the previous season.

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