Plymouth Argyle: Season 4, Dec 2014 — Jan 2015

Hello friends and thanks for stopping by to review the latest update in my Plymouth Football Manager Story. As you know things have been tough for The Pilgrims in our first EPL season so lets see if things improved as we entered 2015.

December 2014

The first news to come out of Home Park was our financial report which had taken a massive boost over the last two months with now close to £6million in the bank; the board have to be happy with those results even if our on the field ones were atrocious!

Our first game of the month saw us visit Old Trafford and was indeed a memorable one at least for the United fans as we were crushed 7-0! To say that we were totally outplayed would be an understatement and highlighted how much of a gap there was between us and the elite teams.

We returned to Home Park to take on West Ham and we took the lead after 16 minutes with a good interchange between Rodriguez and Genyrikh which Rodriguez fired home into the corner of the net. The usual slew of opportunities breaking down outside the box then followed before West Ham equalized on the hour mark. It was looking like the same old story – we would throw away the second half but it wasn’t to be as ML Marc Pelosi on the very last kick of the game sent the ball screaming into the roof of the West Ham net and we had won!!!

Up next was a bottom of the table clash with Wolves which we couldn’t make use of home field advantage resulting a bore draw for both sets of supporters. Our third home game in a row saw the arrival of fellow strugglers Birmingham and we took the lead through a magnificent diving header by Ryan Shotton and once more we were desperately unlucky in front of goal but that single effort proved to be enough for three points.

The final game of 2014 saw us travel to London to take on league leaders Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. I was expecting a similar fate to that we experienced at old Trafford but we played remarkably steady though were eventually beaten by a single goal in the 82nd minute

After that defeat I was surprised to see that we were not bottom of the table at the end of the year.

January 2015

We found ourselves drawn away to Championship side Wigan in FA Cup Third Round which was a dull and boring affair for both sets of fans and ended in a 0-0 draw. Back at Home Park we began our reverse EPL fixtures with the visit of Everton who systematically took us apart scoring three goals whilst at the other end they blanked us out. The long trip to Sunderland saw old flashes of brilliance from Alexander Geynrikh who bagged himself a first half brace only for our defenders to throw all our good work away as Sunderland snatched a draw from two free kicks.

FA Cup 3rd Round Replay

Expectations were high amongst supporters as we hosted Wigan in the 3rd round replay but by half time the fans were feeling very lethargic as we failed again in the final third to make any serious threat on goal. By the hour mark things were looking dubious but a break down the right and an in-swinging ball by Zeytulaev caught Wigan by surprise and an own goal put us in front. Six minutes later the old Uzbek partnership struck pay dirt for the first time this season with Geynrikh hammering the ball into the roof of the net off a Zeytulaev through ball. We then closed down Wigan and coasted through into the next round.

After dispatching Wigan out of the cup it was back to league action and the visit of 6th place Bolton. We absolutely dominated the game with Yu Hai putting in a magnificent performance and he was unlucky not to get a goal himself. However, Geynrikh did from the penalty spot after Zeytulaev was brought down in the area early in the second half and that converted penalty was enough to take all three points.

For the first time this season we were temporarily out of the relegation zone!!!

The last two games of the month were both against Fulham; the first in the league at Craven Cottage where a brilliant first half performance by Zeytulaev saw the Uzkek set up a goal for his fellow countryman after 8 minutes and score two himself, killing off this game before the interval. The second game was the FA Cup 4th Round at Home Park where Fulham turned the tables on us taking a 2-1 lead before half time. With 11 minutes left in the game Ryan Shotten’s long throw into the box was turned into the net to force a replay.

Geynrikh has been on fire recently after a very dismal start in the EPL and that’s probably down to the fact that he is now leaving on a free at the end of the season joining Turkish side Karsiyaka. I had decided to sell him off by November and even at a cut price I couldn’t get anyone to buy him in January

I’m hoping though this youngster will make up for Geynrikh’s departure. My scouts were very excited about this former Leeds United player and he has the potential for becoming a future member of the England senior team. I thought he was a great capture for Plymouth

League Table

So the fightback has began and lets hope we can continue this surge up the table and move away from the «death zone»

 Fixtures:

We start off at home to Man City and this will be a game where I’ll deliberately put out a weaker team as I want to save my best players for the key games against West Brom and Stoke which are games we could now possibly win.

 Well that’s about it my friends and as you can see I’ve turned things around a bit and we now have a chance of possibly staying up in the Premier League and maybe an extended cup run too!

As always thanks for reading and there’s still no snow in Toronto for me to shovel…what a bonus!