Festive game number three and Plymouth Argyle at
home which on paper, should be another three points if we approach it properly.
Argyle have been kicking around lower mid table for most of the season so far
but with the lowest budget in the division, the only aim this year is to stay up
and it was all going pretty well. That was
until a week or so ago when Stephen Schumacher, their
highly rated manager who got them promoted from League 1 last season, decided
to leave a club where he was revered, in a lovely part of the world and move to
Stoke City. Stoke is of course a place
where the fans will turn on you in an instant and which seems like a bit of a
poison chalice job and Stoke itself is of course, not as nice a place as
Plymouth, or in other words, a shithole.
The reaction of the Argyle faithful has been fairly philosophical but having
been in that position when managers leave to not necessarily make a massive
step up, I would be fucking livid, especially given the assurances a week
before that he was not looking to leave. However, if you take off your partisan
goggles for a second - the three-and-a-half year contract he signed has
probably secured his and his families future, even if he goes the same way as
Nathan Jones did when he went to Stoke and gets sacked after six months.
Since Schumacher left, Argyle have responded with a 3-3 draw at home to
Birmingham and a 2-2 draw away at Cardiff but regardless of their current form,
they are a team we should certainly be beating at home, residing as they do on
28 points, the exact same number as Swansea.
Neil Dewsnip, the current Director of Football is in charge today.
The only news to come out of Saints since the last game is that Joe Aribo is
likely to be going to the African Cup of Nations with Nigeria. If you had asked
me three months ago whether I’d be remotely bothered about his potential
absence, I first would’ve questioned how the fuck he got in the Nigeria squad and
been delighted for him getting some game time as he wasn’t getting it here. As
it is though, he has started the last five games and has contributed well so we
are actually going to miss him when he goes. Russell Martin has in my book,
said the right things in that the club wouldn’t even try and stop him going, such
is his pride at playing for Nigeria. Fair enough. He also, in a roundabout way, hinted that Joe
had now taken on board how hard he has to work to be effective at this level. The Nigeria extended squad also contains Tall
Paul Onuachu and Nathan Tella, who will probably defect to another country just
when he is about to become useful. (UPDATE: Joe made the cut for the tournament, whilst the other two did not)
There’s a couple of rotation changes today with Stuart Armstrong and Aribo
on the bench and starting places for Charly Alcaraz and Will Smallbone. Shea Charles is also in the side with Flynn
Downes nowhere – ill again. This game is
of course kicking off at 6pm on a Friday, which is an absolutely bullshit time for a football match to take place with Sky
taking precedence and the match-going fan coming a very distant last on the list
of priorities.
The big screen in the ground shows a video of clips from our unbeaten
run and then fades to black and the word ‘NEXT’ comes up on the screen,
followed by the Plymouth badge. I don’t
like stuff like that. It never sits well
with me when the social media team are allowed free reign. For me, an important characteristic of a
Southampton person is to be humble and it's never good to give motivation to the opposition.
Anyway, right from the first whistle you can see
what kind of game it’s going to be with Plymouth basically sat in a 5-3-2
formation, which is more or less 5-5-0 out of possession and not being
interested in pressing in our half. It’s understandable from their point of view
but it’s going to make it hard work. However
understanding I try and be however, when their goalkeeper Conor Hazard starts
wasting time after three minutes, it really pisses me off, especially when the
referee knows it and gestures to him to get on with it. Just fucking book him and
then see what he does. There are 30,000 people in here wanting to see a game of football, not to see the keeper fuck about over a goal kick.
Five minutes gone and it looks momentarily like we’ve found another way to make
Hazard get on with it by taking the lead as Ryan Manning crosses a ball in from
the left, behind the defence and Che Adams takes a superb touch with his right
foot and then smashes it pass Hazard with his left, which is the one he never
seemingly wants to use. Great finish but the fucking flag’s up. Bollocks.
Having been denied this time, we try again and it’s time it’s ridiculous effort
as Adam Armstrong picks the ball up in the centre circle and from just inside
the Plymouth half he smashes it left footed and its sails over the top of the
goalkeeper who is not getting there and lands on the roof of the net just behind
the crossbar.
Two minutes later and following an Edozie ran down the left, a bouncing ball
breaks to Alcaraz about 25 yards out and he just smashes it on the turn through
the massed ranks of Plymouth defenders in about a foot wide of the post with Hazard
struggling.
Another chance comes and goes from a Manning corner and it’s met at the near post by THB, who flicks it
goalwards and watches it bounce off the far post while everyone else plays statues and
Plymouth get away with it again. How we haven’t scored yet is ridiculous. Another attack down the right ends with KWP
running at defenders and then Shea Charles putting in a lovely ball between the
goalkeeper and 6 yard line but more statues.
This honestly could be four or five already – but it’s zero and when another
attack ends with a foul on Adam Armstrong on the edge of the box and it’s not
given, it’s sucker-punch time as Argyle get into our half for the first time,
building up down their left and switching it Morgan Whitaker on the right with
just Edozie for company but it does he does brilliantly to block and the danger
passes. That’s a major difference from
the start of the season when Edozie would have been ten yards away from the
player as he scored.
Half time and somehow it’s 0-0. Patience required as you have to believe that it will come, as long as we keep going.
Sure enough, it’s the same pattern at the start of the second half with Alcaraz picking up the ball on the left and running at the Plymouth defence past three defenders before his shot is deflected and saved by Hazard and Adam Armstrong is unfortunately only 5 foot seven and can’t head in the rebound.
Out of nowhere Plymouth smash a long ball which is brilliantly taken down by Whitaker who manages to work the space and put in a brute of a cross with his left foot and there is Bali Mumba at the back post to head into the net - for fuck‘s sake. Clearly the linesman agrees because the flag goes straight up to stop all the celebrations dead.
Now a goal behind, there is no discernible change to Argyle’s tactics, other than the fact the keeper isn’t wasting time any more. It’s still nine men behind the ball at all times with Saints knocking around about forty yards from the goal. Bednarek flights a lovely ball over the top to meet the dome of Smallbone running forward and he tries to just place a header past Hazard which he manages but sadly, just the wrong side of the post.
The chip pass has obviously been identified as an opportunity so we try the same again with THB and his effort finds Che Adams he gets goalside of the defender and the goalkeeper absolutely shits himself and just stands there in does absolutely fuck all allowing Adams to knock the ball into the net with the outside of his right foot from about five yards. 2-0 and it really should be game over.
Substitution time with Adams, Smallbone and Alcaraz or coming off for Fraser, Stuart Armstrong and Aribo. Aribo continues his impressive form straight away by holding off a player and knocking a ball through to Adam Armstrong who takes his time before smashing it with the keeper making a decent save, to be fair… to the time wasting bastard.
Adam Armstrong and Sam Edozie depart the scene to be replaced by Jack Stephens and Sekou Mara and it all goes to shit for ten minutes as we get a little bit sloppy until Jack Stephens bounces are very average pass back to Baz, who takes a heavy touch to put himself in trouble and as Hardie closes in, Baz tries to get out of the shit with a body feint and nothing happens and Hardie just knocks it into the net. For fuck‘s sake.
With six minutes left, Saints have the arse about the ridiculousness of the current scoreline and have now fully woken up and go on the attack - KWP putting Ryan Fraser clean through and the Wee Man has to score but hits the goalkeepers foot.
96 minutes and Argyle are having a go now for a ridiculous smash and grab and put us under a little bit of pressure and Shea Charles treads on the ball and it ultimately ends with Whitaker having a shot from 25 yards which sails harmlessly over the bar. The End.
Well that was considerably more nervy than it should’ve been. To be honest, we should’ve won this game as comfortably as we did against Swansea and Blackburn in our previous two home games. 2-1 is a ridiculously flattering scoreline for Plymouth but at the same time, they will come away with a sense of injustice because of the perfectly good goal that they had disallowed – and it was. It’s never offside and of course it would’ve put them in the lead and goals change games. However, I feel that if it had been allowed to stand then they would’ve been none of the complacency in our play for the last half an hour to allow them to eventually make it 2-1 and look like a close game.
I'm not having complaining that that three of their players were ahead of the ball and celebrating the goal when we went straight up the other end and scored. Their goal was disallowed straight away, so I don’t have much sympathy for them to be honest because whether it’s a wrongly disallowed goal or a genuinely offside goal, if it gets disallowed you’ve got to be ready for the game to restart. The good thing about that from a Saints point of view is that we attacked quickly and directly and scored as a result.
The trouble for us was that at times, it was just too easy. In the opening fifteen minutes it looked like we were going to obliterate them and it was just a matter of time before something ended up in their net but we got a bit passive at the end of the first half and went in level. The second half was all us and then came the disallowed goal on one of Argyle’s rare forays into our half. It was a wonderful goal from Alcaraz to put us ahead and Che Adams bundled in the what turned out to be the winner.
Plymouth manager Dewsnip had obviously been influenced by our recent home results and admitted that he basically sent out his team not to get battered. Fair enough – it’s all about staying up for them and with the manager having jumped ship, I totally get it. I understand why the goalkeeper Hazard was time-wasting like a motherfucker from the third minute onwards but the officials do my head in. It’s ironic that Argyle fans will be going on about the officials when in the first half in particular, all they did was help them by allowing them to waste time and then barely adding any. Two minutes was a ridiculously light amount of extra time for the first half.
Hazard certainly got on with it after we went ahead though he perhaps showed one of the major limitations of his goalkeeping on the second goal when he totally bottled making any sort of challenge as Che Adams round. You have to dive into the spokes in that particular scenario and show a bit of bravery.
Our goalkeeper of course didn’t cover himself in glory tonight, as Baz had a buffering moment when he made the shocking decision of trying to body swerve the onrushing Hardie. That decision comes from complacency at the game being too easy, in exactly the same way with Charly Alcaraz made that ridiculous decision to chip the penalty against Blackburn when it was all too easy. Complacency is our enemy, especially when we are dominating games. Seventeen games unbeaten can make you think you’re unbeatable I guess. We all know that’s not the case.
With the side being rotated slightly for tonight, it was a chance for Will Smallbone and Charlie Alcaraz to step up and in the main they both did, particularly Alcaraz who is an absolute natural to play the role that Stuart Armstrong plays. There is a place up for grabs in midfield of course with Joe Aribo off to the AFCON, so impressing in whatever minutes you get between now and then, is clearly going to stand you in good stead. Shea Charles also in a very good game in place of Flynn Downes.
I wasn't sure that all the subs were needed at 2-0 but in my eyes, anything Russell Martin may or may not have done wrong in the second half of that game was totally excused by the fact that he made it abundantly publicly clear he had no interest in meeting Rishi Sunak after the game, who graced the ground with his no doubt, non-paying presence. I'm surprised he made it for the 6pm kick off time on a work day. Would have thought he’d have been busy?
We now have seven wins in a row at home and it’s now seventeen games unbeaten. The gap to Ipswich closed again by another two points tonight with them drawing at home to QPR and Leeds defeat at West Brom means we have suddenly opened up a six point gap on them. In just three days we visit Ipswich’s nearest and dearest neighbours, Norwich City and though this is going to be a tough game, another win is most definitely needed.
Happy New Up the fucking Saints Year!
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