Plymouth Argyle: Season 3 Kick Off

Hello friends and welcome back to my Plymouth story which after a very promising pre season for The Pilgrims and some unusual signings will now move into reality as we begin our Championship campaign.

August 2013

It was a capacity crowd that greeted us geeted us at Home Park for our opening game in The Championship as we took on Bristol City who were an experienced team at this level. The opening 15 minutes saw us provide good pressure on the City goal but their first real attack resulted in a goal that came out of a long throw which caught us out yet again. We didn’t give up right there and then though waited a long time for the equalizer which came through a debut goal driven low into the net by Alexander Geynrikh. There were very few chances after that though I was happy enough with the draw.

We eased through our League Cup 1st round game away to Crawley despite having several players on international duty and really should have scored more than one goal based on these match stats.

We stayed away from home as we took on Forest at the City Ground, Nottingham. An uneventful first half was soon forgotten about as Forest took the lead from a corner which we nullified 9 minutes later with Josh Morris heading in off a Walton free kick. Alexander Geynrikh led the charge on the counter attack but it was Bhasera’s cross ball that found Zeytulaev to drive home for the go ahead goal. Once in the lead we never looked back with Bhasera in fine form, converting the third from the spot after Geynrikh was brought down in the box off Bhasera’s theough ball. Again the Zimbabwian’s cross ball from the felt flank found substitue Corey Gameiro in injury time and the Portuguese youngster swept the ball in for goal number four to complete a magnificent second half display. 

At Home Park we were quickly brought back down to earth following that emphatic victory as Sheffield United took the lead after just three minutes. Sanmi Odelusi’s unselfish play set up the ball for midfielder Kaby to strike into the roof of the net some ten minutes later which then led to an entertaining and even first half with no additional goals. Alexander Geynrikh gave us the lead just on the hour mark with a powerful shot off a through ball by James Wallace but United clawed one back when a cross deflected off Ekong and into the net. A triple substitution paid dividends as Kyle Jacobs who came on for Zeytulaev played an inch perfect pass to Wallace who side footed the ball into the net for the winning goal in the 81st minute and sent the nealry 15,000 fans into wild celebrations.

The following two games were tough away matches, the first at Reading where we battled for a point thanks to some poor finishing by Reading and some great work between the posts by Aaron McCarey. In the League Cup 2nd Round at Barnsley the match followed a simliar pattern as the previous game though a beautiful curling shot by Walton and an easy side foot tap in by Lecointe secured the win for us.

The final game of the month saw youngster Corey Gameiro strike after 8 minutes in front of a full house at home to Swansea which was folllowed by Geynrikh forcing the ball over the line minutes later from a Bhasera cross to get us off to a flying start. Swansea caught us the break just before half time to pull a goal back but Geynrikh spearheaded our own counter early in the second half to set up Zeytulaev for goal number three. William Ekong added a fourth with his first goal of the season with a powerful headed in corner and a mistake by Bhasera allowed Swansea another goal which was a mere consolation.

So the opening month of the season had been very good for us and we found ourselves unexpectedly in third place.

Injury Report

Two major set backs from August which were ML Josh Morris and RB Colin Watson. I have coverage for the left flank but drafted in Carl Jenkinson on loan from Arsenal to fill in for Watson.

September 2013

With a two week break over and done with due to internationals it was back to the business of the npower Championship and a trip to Carrow Road to take on Norwich. It just wasn’t our day with 2 great chances falling to Geynrikh but the Norwich goalkeeper was playing a blinder and kept the scoresheet clean. A good away point nonetheless.

Back at Home Park we fell behind to the vistors Charlton after 33 minutes who scored a well worked goal that began from inside their own box. We replied some 6 minutes later with striker Kudus Oyenuga pouncing on a rebounded shot by Zeytulaev. The second half was a story of missed opportunites and as a stalemate seemed likely Pelosi slipped a ball through ball to Oyenuga who riffled it into the roof of the net for a stunning winning goal.

The 3rd round of the League Cup matched us at home to Swansea whom we had recently triumphed over in the Championship. We several reserve players coming in we got off to a dramatic start with Soukouna heading us into the lead after just 3 minutes. Swansea responded aggresively, hitting the woodowrk twice before coming up with the equalizer 14 minutes later and the score remained unchanged until the interval. We came out firing on all cylinders but could not get the ball into the back of the net until a Walton free kick saw DC Boateng rise to the occasion and sweetly head the ball over the Swansea goalkeeper to send us into the fourth round.

We travelled along the coast to Southampton for the final game of the month and sprinted out to a two goal lead within half an hour thanks to a glancing header by Zeytulaev and a wonderful floating free kick by Bhasera from 20 yards out. This was a game of two halves as Southmapton battled back into the game scoring off a long shot and a set piece play and it looked like we were going to lose all three points. In the final minutes of the game Marc Pelosi came on causing havoc on the left flank and fianlly got to the byline deep into injury time and his low driving cross found the foot of Geynrikh…goaaaalllllll, snatching victory from what was looking like a certain defeat.

Results Summary:

League Table:

Scary stuff, we are unbeaten, still in third place — though it’s very much early days and there’s a long way to go.

Injury Report:

No serious change here from what was previously reported so that’s good news.

Super Sevens:

This is my biggest list to date for a 7+ rating since taking charge of Plymouth so that is very encouraging indeed. Bhasera has just been brilliant since dropping from midfield into the left back position providing 4 assists over the first two months of the season.

Fixtures:

Things are about to get a lot tougher as many of the teams in this list are near the head of the table, plus we have Stoke City to face in the League Cup.

Finances:

Our bank balance took a bit of a dip over the last two months, probably due to match day expenses.

 That’s about it for this update so thanks a lot for taking the time to read this and I look forward to your comments.