Saturday 29 December 2007

You came Second in a Beauty Contest

Plymouth Argyle 2 (Ebanks-Blake pen 44, Timar 67) - 2 Stoke City (Cresswell 8, Hodges 57 og or Shawcross depending on who you believe)


stoke city crestThe shape of things to come then? Concede a stupidly sloppy early goal and come back through a penalty. OK we're not always going to get the penalty, but the stupid goals seem here to stay. And they always happen when Larrieu's on his arse. Once again Argyle we're lucky to get a penalty decision - an exact match for that against QPR - and lucky that Ebanks scored from the rebound, but had to come back again thanks to another sloppy (possibly own) goal. It seems harder and harder to keep a clean sheet these days (the same with most clubs) are strikers getting better whilst defence worse?

Pulis's style of football has been widely criticised and today it involved a lot of time-wasting and cheating. Argyle would have got a 3rd goal if it were not for their keeper fouling (and subsequently being red carded) Ebanks which went back for a free kick. As it was Stoke should have scored 3 goals too if it didn't hit the woodwork.

Overall the performance was better than that against QPR, but still woefully inadequate for an established Championship team. Very soon the transfer window will open and there is bound to be some movement. Hopefully the board are as serious as reaching the playoffs as the supporters, because if nothing happens once again it'll be a wasted season.

1 comment:

Lord Hutton said...

We too had a last minute equaliser against us. Bring on January!