The Season of Goodwill

To all except Welsh assistant referees.

Back to normal now (well as near as possible) after the holidays.

Plymouth Argyle 2 (Fallon 38, Summerfield 57 pen) - 0 Southampton

An excellent result at home on Boxing Day lifted the spirits of the Green Army after a sustained period of no wins with a good performance from the men in green who played their opponents off the field. In front of the biggest crowd of the season the Pilgrims romped home following a powerful header from Fallon, cemented by a penalty by Summerfield early in the second, won because of a handball. Summerfield was a surprise choice to take the kick but most probably did as a two finger salute to the discontent amongst supporters. There were a few changes in the team including the recall of skipper Duguid who was fit again after injury, along with Noone and MacNamee, while others were rested for Arsenal.

Cardiff City 1 (Boothroyd 81) - 0 Plymouth Argyle

And then back to earth with a bump with the only league trip to foreign shores (Wales) where Argyle were denied a goal by the assistant referee who flagged for off-side and has since proven to have been wrong. Nonetheless there it was a much changed team that ran out for the last time at old Ninian Park due to The Big One this weekend, giving some semblance of a return to the good away form however clouded by MacNamee's dismissal in stoppage time. He won't be transfer listed for sure. Even so so many wasted opportunities again. But who gives a shit? We're playing Arsenal next week. Get out the flags (or not as they're banned at the Emirates), sink a couple of pints (dry transport from the Westcountry) and watch the greens get hammered for 90 minutes. The FA Cup where all men are equal, except some are more equal than others, and you'd think is the only game we're playing this year.

Merry Christmas

Well it's nearly over now, but hopefully you all had a Happy Christmas and are now sat on the sofa struggling with excess wind.

Convenient Scapegoat

Barnsley 2 (De Silva 37, Campbell-Rice 90 pen) - 0 Plymouth Argyle

A crap performance was put squarely at the door of Walton because of his dismissal, resulting in his effective bannishment from the club by being transfer listed. Walton was red carded from the Barnsley pitch after just 28 minutes on Saturday leading to what Sturrock has declared a breakdown in Argyle's game plan resulting in the defeat. Who knows is this is true? By many accounts the 28 minutes before the incident did not set the world on fire. But Walton's consist ant poor attitude and behaviour have finally proved too much. On the day the club announce credit crunch matters, this could not have been more convenient for the bean counters. After all Walton's never really been popular.

But even so, the run of bad games has equalled that at the beginning of the season and could be out done if there's another loss on Boxing Day. The difference is that we started falling from the right end of the table and the defeat on Saturday did nothing to the Greens position. Any other manager would be having a brown pants moment, but Sturrock has job security so he does need to be worried. The sympathisers say give him time, he's a proven. But how much time does he need? In a few weeks time its likely that the whole personnel at Home Park will change and the rebuilding will start again. You don't have time at Argyle. Maybe that's why attendances are falling chairman, but why bother doing anything to address that?

Watching Football is Not a Crime

Or is it?

The police have new powers called section 27 to ban anyone from an area for 48 hours if they suspect you of causing disturbance under the Violent Crime Reductions Act. The idea is that you can be removed from an area, such as the local club land for being DUI and potentially disorderly. However at least the South Yorkshire and Greater Manchester Police Forces have been using the order to remove large numbers of football supporters from whole counties under suspicion of potentially causing disturbance. They have at least detained Stoke City and Plymouth Argyle supporters in pubs (where it is purported to have been no disturbance) regardless of age, cautioned under Section 28 and escorted out of the county and beyond (Stoke were removed from Manchester as far as Stoke and Argyle from Doncaster as far away as Birmingham). This is regardless of whether these supporters originally came from where the escort took them or the age of the supporter.

The Football Supporters Federation has launched a campaign against what is considered to be a misuse of the Act. More details here.

Going to the Smoke

I've got a ticket to Arsenal after a load of wangling by other people, so will be off to the big smoke in January to be treated like a load of shit by the Met's finest. Happy days.

Argyle Talk

The fan's forum PAFC Talk has metamorphosed into Argyle Talk and is now available at www.argyletalk.co.uk

Lady Luckless

Plymouth Argyle 0 - 1 Birmingham City (Carsley 62)

Getting worse. A better performance from the boys in Green but the Blues take their only chance and win whilst the Pilgrims dither about. The Credit Crunch Christmas is biting at Home Park.

Plymouth Argyle 1 (MacLean 83) - 1 QPR (Helgusson 16)

A late equaliser saved further embarrassement from subsititute MacLean in yet another sloppy game at Home Park which saw the Pilgrim behind after just 16 minutes because of a rebounded volley during QPR's first true possession of the game after Argyle's domination. A series of missed opportunities ensued throughout the game, QPR's performance improved as time continued as the green shirts were second to every ball and every shot going high or wide. Thankfully this time the subsititutes lifted the game and were rewarded with a goal.
But over all 5 games without a win is not good enough.

Lady Luck?

Doncaster Rovers 1 (Stock 37) - 0 Plymouth Argyle

Lady Luck has decided to slap Sturrock on the arse he stated in his post match report. Luck? What's luck got to do with it? 2 games against bottom of the league clubs, two games lost. Great start to December and the festive period. But is typical Argo. Denied by a wonder goal and a wonder save. Not, denied and outclassed by ineptitude and bad football. Not good enough.

Choo Choo

What's this? A train? To the Emirates? Is it true?
It's quite unprecidented in this day and age for a club to charter a train to a match, but Argyle are ruuning a charter train from Plymouth to Finsbury Park (the nearest station to the Emirates), departing at 8am from Plymouth and 6pm from London.

Tickets cost £50 adult and £45 under 16 (accompanied only)

http://www.pafc.co.uk/page/AwayTickets/0,,10364~1476770,00.html

Coach Travel is also available

8,600

Arsenal ticket details

The club have been allocated 8,600 tickets for the FA Cup draw verses Arsenal at the Emirates.
Concentrate, because this is goint to get complicated:

Tickets will cost between £32.50 and £46 depending on where in the Emirates you are located.

If you have a GREEN SEASON TICKET for the GRANDSTAND or MAYFLOWER RESERVED SEATING, you must get your ticket on Sunday 7 December (10am - 4pm) or Monday 8 December (9am - 5pm).

If you have a GREEN SEASON TICKET for BLOCKS 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 you must get your ticket on Tuesday 9th December (10am - 4pm) and Wednesday 10th December (10am - 6pm).

If you have a GREEN SEASON TICKET for BLOCKS 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10 you must get your ticket on Thursday 11th December (10am - 5pm) and Friday 12th December (10am - 6pm).

If you have a GREEN SEASON TICKET for BLOCKS 11, 12, & 13 you must get your ticket on Sunday 14th December (10am - 4pm) and Monday 15th December (10am - 5pm).

If you have a GREEN SEASON TICKET for BLOCKS 14, 15, 16 & 17 you must get your ticket on Tuesday 16th December (10am - 5pm) and Wednesday 17th December (10am - 5pm).

If you have a GREEN SEASON TICKET for MAYFLOWER UNRESERVED/DISABLED STAND you must get your ticket on Thursday 18th December (10am - 5pm) and Friday 19th December (10am - 5pm).

If there are any tickets left they will go on sale to WHITE SEASON TICKET HOLDERS. There will be an announcement on www.pafc.co.uk on Friday 19th December.

If there are any tickets left they will then go on sale to PILGRIM MEMBERS.

It is unlikely that any tickets will go on general sale.

There will be an equal share of each ticket price available on each day.

The Biggest Game

FA Cup 3rd Round, Arsenal v Plymouth Argyle, Saturday 3 January, Emirates Stadium.

So Argyle have drawn Arsenal in what is the biggest game in recent years, is it a good draw? Well there's probably zero chance of progession and as it's away no extra gate receipts. So probably not. But it'll give people a day out to see a big team. Ticket details are yet to be confirmed.

The Trouble with Argyle

Plymouth Argyle 1 (Gallagher 67) - 2 Blackpool (Dickinson 78, Dickinson 81)

Is that they are far too inconsistent. A run of good performances just outside the play offs and then they put in a load of shite, at home as well and not wonder the crowds are sub 10k. By all accounts today was a woeful day, save for Gallagher's 'wonder goal', that turned the crowd from elation to desperation in 3 minutes. This is not how you win fans.

It wasn't just individual problems, it was a collective collusion of crapness that should have wanted a bollocking at half time and definitely full time. Granted the team seemed more up for it at the beginning of the second half so their ears must be ringing, but by the end they should have bleeding ears after such an un'honest' performance. Or were they just 'tired'(!) that they let a late debutante substitute score two goals.

A Wee Bit of a Turn Around

Plymouth Argyle 2 (Mpenza , Gallagher) - 1 Cardiff City
Southampton 0 - 0 Plymouth Argyle

Back in September no-one thought that come the end of November the Greens would be in a play off position, but here they are. From the depths of last place to the heights of in 2 months is a fantastic turn around. The performances put in in the last two games were good too, one of which was in front of the country's eyes which normally is a slipping point for the Pilgrims.

The Greens were the better team on Saturday and, though maybe a little poorer on Tuesday, held their own at St Mary's to a 0-0 draw. This was even after enforced changes due to injuries. Does this mean that the team have turned a corner and are able to work together no matter who is in the XI (ie Sturrock can change his team and not play the same men every game)? Or was it a one off.

There are three games this week (Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday) and the main indicator will be Saturday's performance. No doubt though that a poor game would be blamed on the manager's get clause, tiredness.

PAFC Talk

The fans' forum PAFC Talk has been laid to rest by its owner due to personal reasons.
It is hoped that the forum will be resurrected soon.


UPDATE:
In order to rehost the site, we need approximately £60 a year. If you would like to donate, please do so via the PayPal site:

No-one Saves the Day

Coventry City 0 - 1 Plymouth Argyle (Noone 87)

Who put the ball in the Coventry net? Super Craig Noone. Doesn't really scan that well does it? But at 0-0 going into the break it was a turn around that Argyle came out and scored instead of conceding especially as it wsa Coventry who (you could say predictably) started the second half the better team. But for once it was a substritution who changed the game as Noone came on to score in the dying minutes of the game and hung on for the three points. Up until then there were the usual missed chances, including Mpenza, who had his first start of the season, in the 11th minute that was tipped round the post. Though Coventry were not without their chances either which saw Larrieu push a 30 yard strike just over the crossbar.

So the three points place Argyle currently 9th in the table.

It ain't Over till the Man Blows

Plymouth Argyle 2 (Doumbe 37, Mpenza 90) - 2 Charlton Athletic (Youga 86, Gray 90 pen)

There are 90 minutes in a game of football.
Well, there are more than 90 minutes in a game of football.

Well, it ain't over till the man blows his whistle, so technically a game of football could go on for days. But even so, a game has a set period of time and anything can happen. It usually does. In Argyle's case they get comfy on a 1-0 lead, nothing unusual there when leading, go into autopilot and defend the lead, the deeper the better, and again they let it slip away. So they wait until the 90 minutes is over to regain the lead but then concede a penalty immediately afterwards! It's laughable really if it wasn't so frustrating.

Most of the reports coming out of Home Park concluded that Argyle should be happy with the draw, so something must have been bad and Summerfield was on the end of it. But should people be surprised? It's Argyle's party trick and guaranteed that being in the lead is a nail biting event just as playing catch up is a non-event. But to let the lead go twice, and to concede penalties in back-to-back games is ludicrously poor form. It seems that yet again Sturrock's decision on substitutes was lacking in the fans' opinion. But who are we to question the Messiah? What do we really know?

PG's Trips - Steel City Red Blues

Sheffield United (Beattie 49 pen, Beattie 57) 2 - 0 Plymouth Argyle

Just a quick one today:

We always get shit refs.
2 gifted goals - a fair result? Well the direction of the 3 points, possibly yes. The way the goals happened, probably not. But all in all the slack performance that the Greens gave, they probably would not have got anything from the Steel City's red half. And to be honest, we have not really been playing well for some time. Luckily, everyone else played worse.

A big problem that looms like a black cloud is the ineffectiveness of the team to come back from being behind. In all 15 games when Argyle went behind, never have they managed to score. And secondly, the nervousness in front of goal. The big white netty thing is where the ball should go. You don't get points for farting around and looking all flash in the penalty box, just to lose posession. Goals mean points (and points mean prizes!).

A wasted afternoon.

O Come all Ye Faithful

The ever popular Argyle Christmas Carol concert will this year be held on Monday 15 December, 18.30 in the Devonport Stand.

Keep Sunday Special

The Argyle Superstore (Home Park) will no longer be open on Sundays, however Centre Spot (Drake Circus) will be open as usual.

Match tickets are currently being handled by the superstore on non matchdays, however Argyle have not stated whether the Box Office will also be closing. Tickets are still on sale at Centre Spot or via e-ticketing.

You may Experience Interruptions to your usual Service

I shall be away for 6 weeks from Sunday 1 November until Sunday 14 December, therefore I may not be able to update this blog as often as usual.

Apologies for any Inconvenience.