Plymouth Argyle: Season 4 Kick Off

Hello friends and welcome back to my FMS and the start of my fourth season in charge at Plymouth and the beginning of life in the English Premier League. On paper it seemed we had a fairly decent schedule to start things off so let’s see how The Pilgrims got on..

August 2014

Goodison Park provided the venue for our first ever game in the EPL and we got off to a dream start as 18 year old Brazilian Jaguare scored on his debut after 11 minutes with a magnificent diving header from a Lopez cross on the right flank. Almost 20 minutes later Everton were reeling as Lopez’s corner was met by the head of Marc Pelosi and it was 2-0! This however would be a game of two halves as Everton came alive right after the interval and intense pressure paid off with a goal 6 minutes in. We over committed ourselves in defence exposing a huge gap at the back which Everton exploited to fashion the equalizer but I was happy with this away point.

A capacity crowd was on hand as we put in a solid performance at home to Sunderland. We were unlucky on two counts, the first with injuries to wingers Pelosi and Lopez during the game and the second the goal. Defender William Ekong was pushed to the ground by Gyan but no free kick was given and he scored the only goal of the game late in the second half.

League Cup Round Two

Federico Rodriguez broke the deadlock in the 48th minute but we couldn’t capitalize on that lead with strike partner Geynrikh being substituted after yet another poor performance. We gave away another silly goal from a corner to allow Forest back into the game and we were struck again by a winger injury, this time Zeytulaev which reduced our attacking potency. Fortunately for us Forest were useless at penalty kicks and we scraped through to the third round outscoring them 3-1.

The injuries were beginning to mount and before our next match away to Bolton I found myself without any wingers either due to fitness or injury.

Consequently then for the final game of the month we found ourselves playing an unfamiliar 4-1-3-2 formation, attacking through the middle that Bolton had no problem shutting down at all an easily ran out 3-0 winners.

September 2014

Things were about to get a lot worse during the international break as both my right backs, Watson and Zamani sustained injuries which meant I had no first team players at all on the right flank.

I quickly arranged a friendly against Newport County to bring some of the Youth and Reserve players up to match fitness as it very much look looked they would be needed because I was unable to secure anymore loan signings to cover the injuries. A horrible performance against Newport sent the squad morale back to where it was when I first joined the club, fairly poor, poor, very poor but no abysmal…just yet.

With morale so bad we did however manage to put in a decent performance at home to Fulham and were unlucky to lose this one through a deflected shot in the 26th minute. More worryingly though was my strikers were frozen out of the game. Our trip to the Eastland’s started well as we hit the bar in the opening minutes, which to get that close to the net was quite an accomplishment based on how we’ve been playing. Once Livermore was sent off in the 16th minute City took over the game and we never saw their 18 yard box again. I was surprised in the fact that we managed to keep them from scoring less than 2 goals.

League Cup Third Round

For the second time in a row we had to place most of the match with just 10 men with the sending off of Jordan Ferri resulting in the only goal of the game from the penalty spot. This defeat was a massive disappointment to the team and the club as a whole as this should have won this one.

We finished up September with a home game to West Brom and we started brightly with striker Rodrigues going close to scoring with just a minute on the clock. Poor marking left Shane Long all alone in the 6 yard box to open the scoring for the visitors but this time our heads didn’t drop. Conor Coady who had been pushed out of the back four and into a DM role statred to command the game and was rewarded for his efforts with a goal right on the stroke of half time – a magnificent strike from 25 yards out. The second half saw us take the game to West Brom but again the final third of the field let us down and so it ended all square but at least we got a point!!

Results Summary:

Yikes, it’s bad!!!

League Table:

Look at the bottom of this picture as that’s where you will find us though we are above Stoke :)

Fixtures:

A bottom of the table clash to start things off next month and then we face some serious opposition so it’s not looking good at all.

Finances:

We are doing much better in this department as we are back in the black once more with just under £2million in the bank.

Well that’s it for this less than positive update but hopefully things will improve once some players return from injury. The West Brom game saw me try out a new tactic, a 4-2-1-3 formation as my left flank approach which I’ve always used seems to have been easily shut down in the EPL.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.