Most liked posts in thread: Plymouth @ Home 16th February

Well we certainly played better than last week, but our inability to score is costing us. First half they looked hesitant and nervous. Second half we played well and should have clinched all three. Funnily enough we are still in the mix. Onwards.

 

You can say it twice even ten times mate and it still sounds depressing.

 

O'Donnell - 6 - Thought the fans let themselves down jeering and sarcastically applauding O'Donnell today. If anything tells me we're down, it's stuff like this. Getting on players backs for doing the right thing... Dear oh dear, shows how far morale has fallen.

Chicksen - 8 - MOTM contender, Chicksen stopped Plymouth with multiple challenges, and put in crosses that any reasonable forward should have scored from.
Caddis - 8 - Again, some of the crosses were exceptional, such a shame we don't have a single decent forward on our books.
NKP - 7 - Won everything second half, minus one point for the fact that Plymouth fielded the worst striker I've seen at VP this season.
O'Connor - 6 - Just awful first half, and probably the weakest player second - had nothing to do, but when the ball came to him, his decision-making often resulted in a crushing disappointment.

O'Brien - 6 - Terrible first half, improved slightly in the second, looks like he badly needs a rest to me. Should have hit the target also second half, put it wide.
Butterfield - 6 - Flashes of real quality, but isn't there yet - wonder if he'll be the saviour in the final games? If anyone can unpick a quality defence, it's going to be him.

Ball - 7 - Had two or three quality chances, just couldn't quite finish any of them off. Endless endeavour, is a must-sign for next season (if we can get him)
Payne - 6.5 - Unmemorable game, really don't see what he was doing that made him un-sub-able.
Clarke - 6.5 - I like him playing a slightly deeper role, but don't agree with one up top in must win games like this. Tried, ran, actually competed pretty well.

Doyle - 6 - A generous six, because for 70 minutes the lad did absolutely nothing. Started winning a couple of headers, and had to bury a chance from a great Caddis cross, but didn't.

Thoughts?

 

Payne is a Championship quality player, but nothing like Messi at Barca.

Messi scores virtually every single game.

Payne has scored 9 goals in 41 games.

Bad comparison, but I see your point.

I agree that Hopkin seems to be in a strange habit of taking Payne off every single game. I'm not really sure why.

Today, Billy Clarke deserved a round of applause and he's barely played any football, so asking him to hammer it for 90 minutes is strange.

 

Ladapo was pathetic today, I didn't look him up prior to the game or listen to any coverage, just watched the game and thought he was absolutely awful.

 

They also got us there in the first place...

 

I think people holding on to the fact we are only in the bottom 4 on goal difference are slightly misguided. We’ve a terrible run of fixtures in March and I’ll be amazed if we are not 5/6 points adrift come April.

I would take needing a win to stay up on the last day right now

I’m expecting the worst tbh

 

I'm afraid Doyle has been a big disappointment all season. I get that he may need someone up front to play off but there comes a point where a striker needs to start making his own chances and put away some of the chances that fall his way. He's not even done that. Take away his penalties and his goal return is going to look like an average midfielders.
Not that we've got anyone else mind. . . . .

 

You have your view, I have mine. IMO the movement, ball control and bringing others into play by their centre forward completely outshone what little bit of achievement Doyle brought to the table. He also had a fair turn of pace which is something else Doyle is lacking. With regard to O'Connor I also thought he had a good game and it was interesting to witness the battle between them. Where Plymouth let themselves down was that they also played with a sole striker until the late substitution so it made O'Connors and NKP's life a bit easier.
With regard to Clarke I thought that he should have been replaced by Miller for the last 15 minutes and taken the game to them instead DH played it conservatively and made sure we did not lose for the second home game running.

 

Believe It was a Airbus turbo prop military cargo plane, A400M not a passenger plane

 

that first half was depressing. saying it was absolutely god awful doesn't do justice to how bad it was. it was only the fact it was 0-0 that kept me there at half time. if their effort that hit the post had bounced in I'd have left

and missed the much much better second half performance - I'm still at a loss to explain how we didn't score. if we could play like that, for 90 minutes, every week we would be fine.
I thought Clarke played well. Doyle was quiet for the most part, but looked very threatening in the last 20 or so minutes. he has been very disappointing all season and yet he's still our best option up there. another glowing indictment of our recruitment policy.
why does Payne get subbed off every week? has he completed the full 90 for us yet?

anyway - we really should have won, and the fact we haven't has dealt survival hopes a major blow. to only take a point from 2 home games against Fleetwood and Plymouth is no where near good enough - it's looking ominous. we have to go to Walsall and win.

 

you’ve done well to canvas all fans to know 5000 aren’t renewing / signing up but i’m sure you’ll come running straight back if we get a good cup draw in the future.

 

If Hopkin plays the same formation/way as against fleetwood then expect plymouth to do the same to us,crowd out the midfield and nullify Payne and do the cynical stuff to grind out the win.

Was it last year they did the same to us, nicking a 1-0 win with their big fellas snuffing us out.

 

I promise to attend more weather affected games if you can pick me up in your super duper Merc and chauffeur me right to the back of the kop so I don't have far to walk to endure the weather and then back home again. Cheers.

 

Surely they should make this one 20p a ticket?

 

10 teams around us with the same points or less. A couple of not unachievable wins and we'll be dancing in the streets. I go for the glass half full philosophy.

 

I hope that you're right, because I despair now of us reaching my preferred 55... We are so up-and-down, that from thinking we could be comfortably safe, I now wonder if we should be hoping for a repeat of that miraculous season when 44 points was enough.

RCB

 

Yes -- if we could keep to the pace of our last 10, we'd get to 51-52, which may well be enough.

RCB

 

Given how tight it is at the bottom I agree this year it could well be a lower total needed. Let’s hope so.

NKP has run out of chances now. I’d bin him off, bring Paudie straight in at CB. Drop Miller from the squad to ensure we’re within the loan allowance, then play Butterfield, Ball, Payne and O’Brien again.

Doyle straight in upfront. Several times on Sat we worked the ball wide but when we cut it back there was no one in the danger areas. Doyle gets into those areas and has a better instinct than Miller.