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Plymouth Argyle: Great start, massive setback…

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29 октября, 2011

Kevin

Hello friends and welcome back to my new Football Manager story and the start of a new season. Before I get into that a special mention to Johnny for asssiting me (yet again) in connecting to Steam as the other morning I got a message saying FM 2012 was unavailable, please try again. With that panic now over I’m more than delighted to bring you the latest update.

Our opening game of the season was away to Dagenham and a deflected free kick off the back of Simon Walton gave us an early goal after 11 minutes. We needed no such luck with the second that came just before the hour mark when Dagenham cleared the ball from their penalty area which fell handily to Walton who teed up Carl Fletcher for a rocket off a shot into the roof of the net. Left back Robbie Williams put in an excellent performance both in defence and attack to solidify the three points.

Next up was our League Cup 1st round encounter away to Orient who were a division above us and proved to be difficult opponents. We did however snatch the victory as striker Asante was brought down in the box and Walton converted the penalty to upset the odds and send us through to the next round.

A decent crowd of nearly 10,000 was on hand for our first game of the season at Home Park which saw us run riot over Aldershot in a stunning 5-0 victory with an early brace by striker Warren Feeney and a bullet header by left winger Jon Meads that sent us into the dressing room with a three goal lead at the half. To see and the other two goals click the highlight link below.

Plymouth v Aldershot highlights

Away to Burton Albion we struggled to break down the home sides defence though early in the second half Mark Leech’s 10 seconds of pure inspiration broke the deadlock with a compelling run and strike from outside the box that smashed against the underside of the bar and into the net. Substitute Asante added a second nine minutes from time with a shot on the volley from close range to keep our unbeaten start to the season going.

With both my left backs injured I brought in Ben Reeves from Bristol City and he made an immediate impact providing the cross for Asante to flick the ball into the net after just 8 minutes at home to Northampton. Sixteen year old striker Matt Lecointe hit an absolute stunner to double our lead in the 27th minute with Kaby and Asante adding two more before the interval. This was a game of two halves as Northampton gave us a scare with two unanswered goals as our energy quickly depleted but we held on despite the pressure for the home win.

Lecointe Stunner!

Mark Leech hit the bar in the first minute of our second round League Cup encounter at home to Swansea. Soon afterwards the home fans were rewarded with a goal from the penalty spot by Walton after Jon Meades was brought down in the box. Warren Feeney missed from close range and Marques hit the woodwork before Swansea fashioned an equalizer on the stroke of half time. A cruel deflection off the back of Marques gave the visitors the lead in the 72nd minute and Swansea added a third ten minute from time.

Akwasi Asante was on form once again hitting the only goal of the game in a one –nil win at The County Ground, Swindon. The game however was marred by injuries to Mark Leech and Kaby, both of whom will be out for two months which is a massive setback.

We finally scored from a corner courtesy of Rui Marques to take the lead over Bournemouth in our First round JPT at Home Park. Yet another deflection off Marques handed a Bournemouth striker the equalizer early in the second half whilst poor marking from a corner kick gave up the go ahead goal and ended another chance at Wembley for the second time this month.