Plymouth Argyle: Season 1 Finale

Hello friends and welcome back to the final update of my first season in charge with Plymouth. Having brought a team whose morale was abysmal to promotion into League One could we go on and win the title?

April 2012

We kicked off our race to the title in what should have been an easy win at home to Accrington but we squandered a two goal lead allowing the visitors to snatch a point. Two days later and it was a disastrous outing at Hereford where we put in our worst performance of the year and were brutally beaten 3-1.

Those two results meant that Swindon had narrowed the gap between us to just one point with four games remaining.

1. Plymouth        96

2. Swindon         95

3. Shrewsbury   84

I was able to revert to my preferred line up away to Macclesfield which meant Asante had the ball in the net within two minutes. Twenty minutes later he rounded the Macclesfield keeper to add number two from an inch perfect pass by Walton. It was a Walton free kick that caused all kinds of trouble allowing Bhasera to force the ball home early in the second half. Defender Rui Marques was twice beaten for pace as the home side staged a comeback but Atkinson’s low drive into the net ensured the victory.

Swindon could only manage a draw at home to Bristol Rovers which meant we had a three point lead again.

We followed that result with a 3-1 win in our final home game of the season against Crawley which saw Asante give us the lead after just 19 seconds and Soukouna adding a second inside 5 minutes. Oyenuga added the third just before the hour mark and then we gifted Crawley a late consolation goal. Swindon drew again which meant we needed one more win to become champions!

With the title on the line we put in a horrible performance away to Oxford losing 2-0 as our nerves got the better of us.

Swindon didn’t perform any better and drew with Gillingham which meant we were League Two Champions!

The final game of the season was an emphatic victory in the “Devon Derby” at Torquay. It was a match we totally dominated from start to finish though we were handed a gift as Torquay were reduced to 10 men when their keeper was sent off.

Final Table: Top Ten

As League Two Champoins we collected a whopping £25,000 in prize money though I don’t think that will help our financial situation much.

Super Sevens:

Asante is of course top of this table and quite rightly so with a massive haul of 30 goals from 34 appearances. He has to be the best player I’ve ever signed in either in the old Championship or Football Manager. An incredible natural ability to poach goals at least at this level and I would highly recommend him. Walton played a fundumental role with 20 assists and seven goals

Once the celebrations are over there will be much work ahead in the off season as many contracts are about to expire so lot’s of negotions to look forward to. I’m hoping there wil be enough money around to re-sign a lot of these players as I’d like to keep the team together. I think Feeney and Larrieu will definitely go but I’m not yet sure about Fletcher?

Thanks for reading and following along this season and I look forward already to bringing you all the pre-season news from Home Park.