When Plymouth travel to south coast rivals Bournemouth on Boxing Day, it will be the Pilgrims' first match for 15 days. Peter Reid's men will need to be prepared for a action when Christmas Day has been and gone, the club face a hectic nine days in which they'll play four times.
By the time the busy festive period is over, Plymouth will be hoping to be in and around the play-off places and ready to mount a serious push for promotion in the second half of the season. The continued prolific goal-scoring form of Bradley Wright-Phillips could be integral to any success enjoyed by the Green Army in 2011 and the football odds reflect this.
The former Southampton striker leads the League One goal charts with 12 goals and has been one of the biggest positives for Plymouth in what has been a disappointing opening half of the current campaign. Wright-Phillips was in deadly form in his team’s last game, the 2-0 Devonshire derby against Exeter on November 11th, scoring twice to give the Pilgrims the bragging rights.
There is sure to be Championship interest in Wright-Phillips when the January transfer window opens and Plymouth could be tested with the current financial troubles at the club. If the striker can continue scoring regularly then it will give the club the best chance of climbing this league. The Green Army will be hoping those in charge of the club see Wright-Phillip's goals as the best chance of returning to the Championship.
Peter Reid will already be on the lookout for another forward after Rory Fallon joined Ipswich last month and the Plymouth manager will be hoping he doesn’t have to find a replacement for Wright-Phillips. The striker and Craig Noone have been the club's stand-out players this season and keeping hold of the two key players could be the best bit of business Reid could hope to take care of.
With the season nearing the halfway point, Plymouth find themselves much lower in the table than they would have been hoping for at the start of the campaign, lying 15th in the table. With League One following the trend of English football this season, Plymouth may be nearer the bottom of the table than the top but they are only eight points behind second placed Sheffield Wednesday. A decent winning run and Plymouth are certainly right back amongst the race for promotion.
Meanwhile, some people still make Middlesbrough betting tips to drop down into League One next season.
The side have struggled so far and another relegation battle looks very much on the cards.
1 comment:
A nice article with admirable sentiments, but unfortunately way off the mark - PAFC should not turn down a halfway decent offer for *any* player if we get one.
Right now, it's not a question of whether we can get back into the Championship, or whether we can stay out of adminstration - the debt at Argyle has mounted to such an alarming degree that we will be lucky to even make it as far as going into adminstration.
Perspectives need to be adjusted - the next six months isn't going to be about whether we challenge for promotion, or even if we manage to stay in League One.
It's going to be about whether we still have a club to support or not.
Come the end of the season, we will be very very lucky indeed if Plymouth Argyle still exists.
This is what people should be talking about, and trying to prepare for - unless a white knight on a charger comes riding to our rescue.
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