Plymouth Argyle: Oct — Dec 2015

Hello friends and welcome back to another episode of my Plymouth Argyle Football Manager Story. The first couple of months of our second season in the EPL hand’t been very productive so let’s see if things had improved any?

October 2015

We travelled along the coast line to meet Southampton which turned out to be another frustrating time especially in attack that in essence would ironically play in this away defeat. Ten minutes from the end we had Southampton under immense pressure and a long clearance from their defence fell by chance to striker Pollet who skipped over Ekong’s sliding challenge, rounded the keeper, 1-0. Darn!!!!

Following that defeat the bad news continued with left back Jamie Richards getting injured in training and will be out for at least three months. This was quickly followed by my £5.75 million right winger Kostas Fortounis wanting to leave as he can’t settle in England and so was granted a leave of absence. With Zeytulaev playing terribly so far this season I was basically without any attack on the right.

Our next game was at home to Arsenal where I deployed a very unbalanced 4-1-3-2 formation with no right winger and an extra striker as the lone one was not working for me in any shape or form. Chris McLaughlin gave us the lead turning a low driven corner kick into the net early in the second half this was after Stoyanov had pulled off a dramatic penalty save in the opening 20 minutes. Stoyanov couldn’t repeat the feat as we gave away another penalty and that goal meant another game ending in a draw for us.

A trip to London ended in what was a horrendous 3-0 defeat away to Fulham and our return to Home Park provided no further joy as we crumbled in the second half to Man United who went on to win 2-1 after we had equalized on the stroke of half time. Bruno Bertucci picked up a knock so I had no fit left backs in my squad.

Next up was United’s neighbours Bolton and we finally got a break early into the game as the home side were reduced to ten men after Zeytulaev was cynically tackled. We quickly fell into attacking mode with Fatos Beciraj coming close and Jaguare even closer as he missed an open goal (head drops whilst sitting on office chair). The breakthrough came from a Mauricio penalty kick after Baesu was brought down. Bolton equalized from a set piece as inexplicably we left a man unmarked to score even though we had a man advantage and they quickly doubled that lead as every player pushed up for a corner with Bolton scoring on the counter in injury time. Baesu spent the second half trying to walk the ball into the net wasting an abundance of opportunities though he did win the corner that Sissoko headed in to snatch a draw.

We returned to Home Park to take on league leaders Liverpool where one lack of judgement by right back Kappelhof was enough to create some space for Liverpool to score the only goal of the game. A long trip to the North East of England saw us come from behind for a well-earned point away to Sunderland with Fatos Berciraj getting the all important equalizer.

The final game of November saw the visit of Stoke City and a first half in which we played our best 45 minutes of football since pre-season. We should of course been 1-0 up except that McLaughlin who received the ball all alone in the box turned 180 degrees and passed it back to the half-way line. WTH? I was so livid but we continued to play well in the second half and McLaughlin’s “sin” was forgiven when he played a brilliant through ball to Beciraj who struck it cleanly into the net after 70 minutes. Marc Peolsi hit the bar 2 minutes later with a brutal strike from distance but then he sneaked into the box minutes later to tuck home a Kappelhof cross. We were going to win!!! That was assured as substitute Baesu swept in goal number three in the dying seconds for our first win since September 19th. Wicked!!!

*** So it was at this point I decided to carry on into December and see if we could win another game?

December 2015

Following the win over Stoke there was media speculation that I was widely tipped to take over at Chelsea following the departure of Alex Mcleish. Given my EPL record so far I thought that was hilarious and denied any interest in leaving Plymouth for Stamford Bridge.

The first game of the month, and for the second time in a row it was another confident performance by the lads as we took on Wigan at Home Park. A goal in either half first by Fortounis who was back from a leave of absence and then my sneaky little Romanian striker Baesu secured all three points. This was our first back to back win in the EPL.

For the second time in a couple of weeks I was top of the list for a job vacancy this time at Everton but again denied interest to the delight of The Board who went on to announce the completion of the stadium expansion which is now just shy of 25,000.

Our next game was away to Leicester whose manager Bryan Robson had billed it as a “relegation battle”. I didn’t get into a media exchange with him and let Chris McLaughlin do the talking on the field as he struck the opening goal after just 8 minutes at the King Power Stadium. A cavalry charge like counter attack was superbly finished off by Mauricio with 22 minutes gone and we should have scored more despite the even amount of possession but it was another three points in the bag!

The first of a London double header began at Home Park with a full house on hand in our recently completed extension. The Plymouth faithful didn’t have too long a wait for something to cheer about as Spurs we reduced to 10 men after just 2 minutes. As Tottenham reorganized McLaughlin struck from just outside the box feeding off an eloquent through ball by Shelvey. We then began to play some awesome possession football with Spurs chasing us around the park but we failed to add a second goal. That would come soon after the break as skipper Conor Coady found McLaughlin all alone in the box and it was 2-0. Coady would go on to have a brilliant second half along with Ekong who was solid at the back as we captured an unexpected win.

Our four wins on the trot came to an abrupt end as we had to play 3 games between Boxing Day and the end of the year. Jonjo Shelvey played magnificently as he dominated the midfield away to Chelsea where we were unlucky to lose by a single goal from a corner kick. Back at Home Park Man City were just too good for us and when Blackburn arrived for the final game of 2015 we had physically nothing left, finishing the game with only nine men on the field. To make matters worse defender Sissoko broke his ankle and will be out for three months.

Those three defeats was a brutal way to end the year and in the dressing room a requested Team Meeting turned bad sending player morale between very poor and abysmal which could really set back the good work we did to escape the relegation zone.

League Table:

Right now we are sitting very nicely in mid table, 10 points clear of the drop thanks to those four wins and a couple of more good results could put us in the top ten!

Fixtures:

2016 will start with an FA Cup game away to Stevenage where I’ll most likely have to play fringe players due to fitness and injuries and hopefuly there will be no repeat of the Stockport fiasco. That will be followed by a critical game at Goodison Park as Everton are just above the relegation zone.

 Finally a look at our finances that have rebounded nicely and with no plans to bring in any new players in the upcoming transfer window I should be able to keep things looking quite healthy with Barclays Bank :)

Well that’s it for this update and to be honest I’m in a more positive mood than my last update. A bad week at work, a severe migraine and a powerful prescription to stop it made me all a bit moody, if anyone had noticed by my comments! The next update will be January through March which will then set things up for the Season and maybe Story Finale?

As always I appreciate you taking the time to read this and I look forward to your comments.