Plymouth Argyle: Season 3, Dec 2013 — Jan 2014

Hello friends and welcome back to a Christmas Day update to my Football Manger Story. It’s still early in the morning here in Canada so plenty of time to worry about turkey, stuffing and roast potatoes. Still, I couldn’t believe there was a line up at my favorite coffee shops drive thru at 6:00am this morning. Sucks! Well onto the story..

December 2013

The month got off to a very frustrating start as we had two goals disallowed away to Millwall, Conor Coady sent off but somehow managed to return from London with a draw. Back at Home Park we fell by a single goal to last seasons League One Champions Huddersfield where our attacking movement looked about as thrilling as watching the daily routine of a snail. After back to back disappointments I unoladed on my players in the dressing room.

Meanwhile the draw for the World Cup 2014 had been made with host nation Brazil being handed the easiest group in World Cup history. Like seriously?

England will have a more difficult time of it in their group but should go through to the next round.

December wasn’t about to get any better as a gut feeling I’d had for several days finally came true as a devastating report came back from the training ground.

William Ekong put in a man of the match performance scoring the equalizing goal in the 49th minute as we came from behind to snatch a point away to Peterborough. Back at Home Park we gave the fans little to cheer about against Leeds United until striker Corey Gameiro beat the offside trap in the 91st minute and curled the ball around the Leeds keeper for the winning goal for a desperatly needed three points.

Following the win against Leeds we began our three game road series with the first stop at Fratton Park where we contributed to a very boring 0-0 draw that left both sets out fans downright miserable on Boxing day.

Two days later we showed up at Ashton Gate and the game was completely at the other end of the spectrum . Bristol took the lead after 7 minutes when poor marking from a corner allowed an easy tap in for the home side. We responded though with DC Boateng rising above the City defence to head in an equalizer from a free kick. Minutes later City were back in front as Boateng tripped over his own feet allowing a clear shot on goal but a brilliant run by CF Leconite ended with a foul in the penalty area and up stepped Helan to make it 2-2. Pandemonium in the stands as they say. We came out in the second half fired up putting the home side under pressure and we took the Lead as Odelusi pounced on a defensive mix up and drilled the ball into the corner of the net. More pandemonium!!! From there we defended admirably, shut down City and came away with all three points with a make-shift team.

Injury Report:

I’m putting it in here rather than after the fixtures as our striker situation took a turn for the worst with three players now on the injury roster the latest being Lecointe who is out for the rest of the season. I’m going to have to look at a loan signing to bolster the front line.

The final game of the year took us to Bramall Lane where in disgusting weather conditions we fell behind to a long shot just on the stroke of half time. As the weather improved so did our football with three second half goals the best of which was a counter atacking move finsihed off by Conor Coady. Sheffield did respond in kind but by then the three point were secure.

So our road trip ended with a draw and two wins which given our front line injury crises I thought was quite remarkable and left us holding on to second place as 2013 drew to a close.

January 2014

The first day of 2014 saw a new arrival at Home Park as right midfielder Javi Lopez joined The Pilgrims on a free transfer having been released by Malaga. He has a nice touch of flair and good dribbling as well as the ability to float over a good corner or two.

A meeting with the board provided an opportunity to change the seasons expectations. Although we were flying high at the top of the table I chose a more conservative option which did improve both the transfer and salary budget.

Our opening game of 2014 was an FA Cup 3rd Round tie at home to Burnley who lined up looking like they had come to defend and catch us out with counter attacks and that’s exactly what they did. We were frustrated all afternoon in the final third of the field and even the arrival of Federico Rodriguez on loan from Bologna couldn’t liven up our attack. Eventually Burnley’s strategy paid off with a second half goal and we were out of the cup just like that.

Heavy snow then blanketed Devon for most of January so it was nearly three weeks until our next game at home to a demoralized looking Nottingham Forest. We were naturally a bit off key due to the lack of playing time but still managed a comfortable 2-1 win with goals from strikers Rodrigues and Oyenuga.

The following game saw us travel to Swansea where our first half performance was nothing short of disgraceful. Inept passing and marking were paramount in the opening thirty minutes which Swansea took full advatange of, killing the game off before half time. Even the return of Alexander Geynrikh couldn’t rally this sorry bunch of troops.

We returned to Home Park to take on Reading where for 80 minutes it was like watching the team trudge through three feet of mud. Tired and uninventive it took Spainard Javi Lopez to liven things up with two assists in the final 10 minutes of the game supplying a cross for Rodriguez to sweep into the net and the other a free kick for Soukouna to head home.

Before the transfer window closed I sold three players at reduced prices just to get them off the books. Two of them were actually left sided players that support my tactic, however after our recent inconsistent from I wanted to send the team a message.

Players Out:

The other side of that coin was bringing in a new player and yet another one from the Far East, this time from The Peoples Republic of China in the shape of ML Yu Hai who has made many international appearances for his country.

Results Summary:

League Table:

We are still hanging onto second place despite our eractic form over the last copule of months and find ourselves in a real battle with Derby County for second place and a automatic promotion spot.

Super Sevens:

This list is getting shorter each time I fear and disappointingly nobody stepped up to the plate to topple Geynrikh and remains top even though he was out injured!

Fixtures:

Derby and Burnley are on the horizon so we have to be well prepared for both those games as they will be pivotal to the outcome of the season I feel.

So that’s it,we’re all up to date with my Plymouth story so thanks very much for taking the time to read this during this busy festive season.