Plymouth v Albion - Match Report

[Curious Orange]

Everyone needs a 303.

The A303 to be precise, a lovely road for a pleasant cruise down to the West Country on a bright shiny morning; and excellent fun for caning it back to Guildford later the same day!!

In between my time spent enjoying the stunning views to be found around the A303, there was the little matter of a football match.

I was a little early getting to the ground, but bided my time before the match chatting to Yorkie, and later Braders and West Hoathly, nice to meet you chaps. Home Park feels and looks like a proper football ground, a complete contrast to the Britannia Stadium the previous week which just looked unfinished. All in all I was looking forward to the game.

So it is a shame what happened next....

The game started evenly enough, although the Albion looked lightweight up front in the abscense of Virgo and McCammon. But looked likely to score from set-pieces.

Plymouth took an early lead with a well taken finish after the Albion failed to clear. The Albion responded instantly through a scrambled Charlie Oatway goal.

What happened next is open to debate. What I saw was a ball lobbed into the penalty area, Hinsh looked favourite to get to it, but under pressure from a Plymouth player, then inexplicably he handled it. Penalty. Now people around me reckon that Hinsh was pushed, however even if that happened he shouldn't have handled the ball.

The next goal was even more contentious. Shabaan kicks the ball upfield and suddenly the lino has given a free kick, presumably because the keeper has handled the ball outside the area. It was inevitable that the resulting free kick would be hit very sweetly into the back of the net.

I kind of lost interest in the game after that...., which made the remaining hour of the game a bit dull. Suffice to say that the Albion huffed and puffed without producing much, although the introduction of Chris McPhee in the second half gave the team more focus and bite up front.

I don't know why Chippie was sent off, something to do with an Argyle player rolling about on the pitch.

I left after the fifth goal.

All in all, a very enjoyable day. Shame about the result.

 

[Gully]

Like you I hoofed it home in the car and made it back to Gloucester about an hour ago.

Fair observation on the game, from where I was sat it looked like Hinsh was pushed, can't be absolutely certain as it was a 50-50 ball, however he shouldn't have handled it regardless of what his opponent was doing.

I couldn't understand the free kick for Shabaan handling outside the area, although the bloke sat to my right reckoned he had, how often do we see the keeper actually chuck the ball up in the air and actually kick it when it is outside the box.

I thought the referee was really inconsistent, if he thought that Hinsh had denied his opponent a direct goalscoring opportunity, which he did, then why didn't he send him off, he didn't even get booked. To the same extent, if a keeper handles outside the box (a stupid rule if ever there was one), it is an automatic red card, yet Shabaan stayed on the pitch.

I am not sure about the incident involving Chippy as I was gesticulating at a Chav in their end at the time and not paying any attention to the football, yet again the bloke to my right reckoned that he elbowed the bloke as he went past, sorry if that is a bit vague. It was a pity that Chippy was sent off as we were really starting to play some good football by then, even if it was a case of trying to bolt the door after the horse had done a runner.

Highlights of the day for me were the Cornish Pasty I had for lunch, our singing, even when we were shipping goals like they were going out of fashion and meeting a couple of people who post on here.

Low points, 5 free gifts to Plymouth, homophobic abuse on leaving the ground, when will these retarded neanderthals ever learn, we have arrived in the 21st Century.

In all a day to forget, but one that I probably won't.

 

[Curious Orange]

I saw the Chippy sending off on SSN a few minutes ago. He shoved the Plymouth player over, not a red card that'll be recinded I'm afraid.

 

[Hove&Albion F.C]

how loud were we today? and what reception did we give the lads at the end of the game?


good right ups lads!

 

[Gully]

Thanks for clearing that up curious, by the time I looked round their player was already lying on the ground.

One other point though, towards the end of the game OGH was fouled by two of their players at the same time yet we got nothing for it, he and Leon were indicating to the ref that he had been elbowed, though I am not certain that he was despite the fact that he had been fouled.

 

[Curious Orange]

what reception did we give the lads at the end of the game?

I don't believe that either Gully or I know the answer to that one!!



Started off loud, then quiet, then loud again once we knew we weren't likely to get back into it and needed something to entertain us..., other than chucking Donkey about!!

 

[Hove&Albion F.C]

apparently some of the plymouth fans were singing at one point.. 'you're shit, but you've got good fans!'

superb!

 

[Gully]

The singing was pretty good, despite the fact that the game was beyond us by half time (though I was reminding those sat around me that we had recovered a 3 goal deficit to draw 4-4 in a game at Gillingham). They came up with some of the homophobic trashy songs, we responded with taunts directed at their inbrededness (is that a word). I have to admit that I did find myself looking across and counting their fingers when they were waving at us and checking to see if any of them had webbed hands, a surprising "no" on both counts.

 

[Turkey]

Strangely enjoyable but gutting at the same time. Plymouth played well and deserved to win. They wanted it more.

 

[nail-Z]

how loud were we today? and what reception did we give the lads at the end of the game?


good right ups lads!

Quite a few still left at the final whistle - and a trickle of applause for the players.

Ignoring the result I enjoyed the day - despite the bloke to my left being unable to shout without spitting. And those stewards - fighting a losing battle or what.

"Can you sit down please" always triggered a quick rendition of "Stand up if you want Falmer".

 

[Schrödinger's Toad]

Penalty looked ridiculous to me - Hinsh didn't handle it deliberately or carelessly, he was simply barged in the back and fell into it. Outrageous decision from the worst referee I've seen all season.

Couldn't really see the Shaaban incident or Chippy, but both seemed to be the kind of thing you'll see several times each and every game. We were shit, missing any sort of physical presence up-front, but we certainly weren't helped by the embarrassing officials.

For what it's worth:

Shaaban 5

Mayo 2
Butters 7
Hinsh 6
Reid 5

Harding 8
Carpenter 6
Oatway 6
Nicolas 6

Hart 5
Knight 6

Subs: McPhee 7

 

[Exiled in Exeter]

Having read McGhee’s post interview, I cannot really understand where he gets the positives from.

First half I felt we never got started. Despite the fact that it was such a frantic start to the game! Having gone 1-0 down, and then going mental when we equalised, before being very quickly brought down to earth. Chadwick and Hinshelwood were both going for it, and the Albion player was off balance and did appear to handle it. For their third goal, I didn’t really see what happened – it seemed a fairly routine goal kick and the ball was launched forward and then all of a sudden play is being brought back. Wotton then smashed the ball empathically into the net from the free kick. The David Norris effort was also a good goal, although not from a defensive point of view as he seemed to all too easily saunter through the Albion defence.

Overall from the first half, I thought Plymouth looked the much better side and had us on the back foot. We played poorly and never got close to them, or put enough pressure on their front players, let a lone manage to get a tackle in. McGhee said that Plymouth were strong at set pieces, and Wotton certainly has a good shot on him as he has shown over the years for Argyle, and yet we committed the cardinal sin of gifting them free kick after free kick around our box!

Second half, Plymouth were quite happy to sit back as they already had the game sewn up. We had quite a lot of possession around their box without being able to make a breakthrough, although maybe Leon should have done better with one chance in particular. Also unique, I guess to see Harding playing up front. I thought McPhee also looked quite good when he came on. The sending off was a bit silly from Chippy, but having seen the free kick being awarded I then missed anything an Argyle player did to annoy him. The fifth goal came about because we had pushed everyone forwards and it was just a break away goal.

Overall we were beaten by the better side. The first half was reminiscent of the game earlier at Withdean where we were just unable to stop them playing. Second half we improved but by then it was too late by then. Argyle played quit well and scored some good goals. The ref and linesman were poor. I was especially frustrated when a freekick was given against Harty when he was muscled out of it in the Argyle box. Not sure we deserved to go down 5-1, but our performance didn’t really merit anything out of the game.

 

[saltash seagull]

of all the places to get stuffed 5 1 it has to happen in front of my mum,brothers and mates who were all in the plymouth end in fact just spent 2 hours in a car with one of my best mates who's a argyle season ticket holder.
havent seen butters disalowed goal,the penalty or free kick on the tv yet but even my plymouth mates thought they were lucky to get the penalty and couldnt see wat was wrong with tanks header.for 3 such important desicions to go against us so early in the game was always gonna be hard to come back from but to be fair to them they took there chances but iv seen far worse albion displays this season let alone over the years where we havent suffered heavy defeats.at times in the 2nd half we passed the ball well and mcphee looked lively and was unlucky not to score when he came on.would have liked to see jonsey on the bench instead of watto or el abd cos we were very short of attacking options when chasing the games.thought we kept our spirits up well and got behind the lads to the end and was a little disapointed to see leon head straight for the tunnel without even give a glance to the away end at the whistle but fair play to the likes of tank,charlie and mayo who showed him how it was done.

 

[mrhairy]

But what was wrong with Butters goal that would of given us the lead. OK from where we were could not see anything wrong with it. Could have been a different game if that had counted.
Thought the inbreds were loud today made our job hard.

 

[itszamora]

Strangely enjoyable but gutting at the same time. Plymouth played well and deserved to win. They wanted it more.

Word.

Also didn't think our singing was as impressive as people have made out - nowhere near the level of Watford or Spurs for example, though I guess we had more reason to sing at those ones! The players did look absolutely gutted when they clapped us at the end of the game mind.

 

[Jesus Gul]

positives are none of the other (excl Plymouth) teams below or around us won. Henderson for Gills will be banned.

 

[balloonboy]

Ref our disallowed goal, the lino had his flag up for something before Butters headed it in. We then absolutely gifted them three goals (left before the 5th, I'm afraid, so can't comment on that one). The penalty was a ridiculous handball by Hinsh, even if he was pushed - he got the bounce all wrong, and took the suicide option. Shabaan then gave them a free kick (which was finished superbly, incidently)....apparently Shabaan has a habit of kicking from outside his area....why? Their fourth goal, we just stood off and let them work a shot. The ref was fairly crap, but no excuses for playing like we did. The only thing that encouraged me was McPhee's performance. But by god do we need McCammon and Virgs on Tuesday. I've a feeling this is going to get very nervy

 

[dougdeep]

In the Sports Argus, it says that McCammon was going to play yesterday, until he got a call from the doctor advising him not to. I guess that means that something showed up on the tests he took. So he could well be doubtful for Tuesday.

 

[Yorkie]

He has an ear infection. It could clear up by Tuesday (hopefully)

I agree the players looked gutted at the end.
The penalty was a clear cut penalty, push or no push but we were denied any sort of protection from the ref. OGH was bundled to the ground by two of their defenders in the area and nothing was given.
The linesman who flagged Shaaban was nearer the half way line than level with the 18yard box so I don't know how he saw handling outside of the area especially with a running kick. Why didn't Shaaban get booked for that?

Most of their goals were gifts I agree but as we had no bite up front and we were stretched at the back it was just a thoroughly bad day all round and thank goodness we don't get many of those.

We'll be fine as we have 9 games to go and a couple of wins will see us ok.
Mark McGhee is bound to try and find positives as he only has 48 hours to inject some confidence and morale back into the team.

Expect them to come out with a real team spirit on Tuesday night and fight for every ball.

 

[dougdeep]

I think you should do the team talk Yorkie. That was stirring stuff.