Agreed. Some of the stick he gets on here is unfair

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PASTA - for those exiles stuck in the general vicinity of Bristol

Hairy - don't mske the age old mistake of assuming my personal views are those of the "PASOTI heirarchy". There are 10 of us and on the football side we have a wide variety of views.

In my personal view, Hourihane is a player who plays a style of football which is unappreciated by a large number of Argyle fans. I would rather see wins over style too and, unusually for me I didn't clap the players off. However, booing and jeering of home players during the game will not achieve anything - the player is doing the best he can - blame the man who selected and instructed him.

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"A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are."
Bill Shankly

The answer might be to get a better team? I hate it when supporters take frustrations out on individidual players, but you cant really whinge when fans say we're crap, because we are crap.

I have always been anti-fletcher but I am starting to think he may end up coming good now. I dont know why, as the evidence suggests the opposite! Although we do need to get a midfielder and a striker in urgently.

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Unless stated otherwise all my posts reflect not just my own opinions but also those of the “silent majority”.

At half-time I was pretty happy, looking at the league table during the break (and I fully accept that you can't read too much into the table yet), the win would have seen us three points from Play-Offs. I am not saying this is where we'll end up (I'm expecting mid-table) but to be a game away from Play-Offs or teams occupying that spot would have pleased me. I don't think it is all doom and gloom being five from that position - although it isn't great by any means - but I wasn't happy with the manner in which we lost the lead to a poor Bristol Rovers team. We made them look better than they were.

I think Williams and Baz had a good game as did Madjo, although for the majority of the match he had to play on his own. He needed some support from the midfield, and if we are going to play with only one up top, I'd like to hope the man supporting him would be Paris Cowan-Hall when fit. He seems to be about the only player in the team with pace.

The two big disappointments for me last night were Purse and the failure to produce any real, meaningful chance. I don't like to highlight one player for criticism, and by all means we didn't lose because of him but Darren Purse has set his own high standards. He has been a very good player for us during his time here, a good captain, and part of a solid back line at the end of last season. It makes it even easier to spot a bad game because of this. He didn't seem to have any control of the game for someone who is typically a very commanding individual. His passing, especially into the central midfielders often put them under extreme pressure and he just didn't seem to be at the races so to speak. I am a big fan of Purse, just a little disappointed from the captain last night, and by all means he wasn't the worst performer.

All in all there were positives, for the majority of the first half we were in control. The defence looked a little suspect at times and we didn't create a lot but we had control nonetheless. The second half however was bitterly disappointing. There were glimpses of us trying to play football but a goal in the first fifteen minutes (and I feel that was entirely possible) would have killed off the game. We didn't go looking for it, and it didn't come. From then on in, we were causing ourselves more problems than need be.

With regards to the Fletcher argument I am still on side. However, in saying that, things have to improve. I can accept the loss to Port Vale, they're a good team on form, but Bristol Rovers were there for the taking last night, especially at the break. We should have won. We have to give Fletcher time to address this in my opinion and as mentioned there are a few positives to build upon. How much time is fair, and needed, I am unsure of, and I certainly don't approve of the witch hunt towards the manager but I am sure the pressure will be on him now.

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Twitter: @FrazerLloyd
Website: FrazerLloyd.com

Agreed

This is no way the fans fault and its stupid to suggest it is.

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Everyday above ground is a good day

I must say that I was hoping for something better last night after Saturday's game against Vale, when I remained silent on the performance. Argyle's goal was a cracking shot, but other than Madjo's long range effort in the first half, which hit the crossbar and went over, was there really anything to make Rover's keeper sweat?
I felt LeCointe's supposedly assistant striker role did not work as he too much needed covering a stretched mid-field, but truthfully the game largely passed him by.
I felt Rovers' midfield was more effective than Argyle's. They seemed to offer greater movement and faster ball movement.
I thought Argyle's defence stood off Bristol's scorer too long to enable him getting his shot away. There were enough green shirts behind the ball. My view was from the Mayflower Stand, just south of the halfway line, so I may be incorrect.
I agree with one earlier comment that there was too much white in Bristol Rovers' shirts and the floodlighting made dark blue and dark green too similar to differentiate from a distance, and as for the moving coloured advertising display, which was either switched off, or, broke down [Thankfully] what a mess/distraction!

You would think after being 1-0 up at half time AGAIN, we would learn to push on and go for the second. Instead, it was the complete opposite, Bristol totally dominated us in the second half and after they had equalised there was only one team that was going to win it. Being dominated at home by an injury hit, struggling side, is worrying times.

I think the boo's were aimed at the management team more than the players.

I'd broadly agree with most of the comments - interestingly, the Herald has Young as MOTM. Personally I'd go with Madjo, who looks like he could be a real handful, but he will need better support. We do have a pitifully weak midfield, even with Hourihane and Young having ok games. I'm not overly impressed with Lecointe - he seems to lack pace for me with not much else to compensate for that, though he has time on his side. MacDonald looks to have lost some of his pace and was very ordinary. The lack of midfield control is putting pressure on our central defence and they seem to be struggling as a result.

Sitting in the Grandstand meant that the new electronic advertising hoardings were dazzling at the start of the game - maybe that's why nobody could see Robbie Williams in the first half hour. We could see properly once they were toned down, but it looks to me that they were as good an investment as the old scoreboard at the Barn Park End. They were reduced to just one operating in the second half, with an obvious fault on the surviving one - they kind of mirrored our form on the pitch.

Given a comparison with last year's start, this is an improvement - I can appreciate what Fletch is trying to achieve, but injuries to key players are really holding the team back. Releasing Soukana & Walton now seems to be an error in hindsight and bringing in so many wide players seems to be wasteful.

If only we could play in the second half...

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Ha! Early retirement beckons - stuff working...

On this thread PL2 3DQ and Greenthing and yourself have criticised the supporters. Your criticism was more an observation, PL2's comment was that the team seemed to play worse with a crowd in "moan mode" but Greenthing's comments in this thread that the crowd should be criticised for being critical is utterly ridiculous. It's not an age old mistake either. There are 10 of you and 3 out of 10 on this very thread have been critical of the crowd. When people see "site admin" next to someone's username, it can add more gravitas to their posts (it is hierarchical). You might not agree but that's how I see it.

The crowd aren't to blame - we've turned up through thin and thin and thin over the past six years. We've put our hands in our pockets and we've supported the club by renewing season tickets and attending home and away. They should be applauded for still being there.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19645867

This is a disgraceful response from Fletcher - he should be apologising publicly for another lacklustre performance and promising to make things better.



It's true, nobody is perfect but we don't expect that, we expect a decent football team playing well. And no, Carl, it wasn't and hasn't been easy to sit there either - it's been a nightmare of relegation, defeat and poor performances over an extended period of time. Take your frustration out on yourself and your team. In terms of actual expense, attending a football match takes up about 50% of my disposable income for the week (I'm sure some other people use a much higher percentage of their money to attend) - think about that before you criticise a fanbase who are tired of your idiotic post match comments, your lack of quality on the pitch and your awful managerial ability. And yes, I would say that directly to the man if he was sat opposite me.

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Bottoms not flags

He's being to alienate himself

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Everyday above ground is a good day

Bravo that man!

Hopefully today's dog-walking training session will teach the players how to hang on to a lead.

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COYG

durate et vosmet rebus servate secundis

Ditto - first time in 3 seasons.

Says a lot about the perceived experience, doesn't it.

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B-14 | Row Y. Signatures are overrated.
Twitter? http://twitter.com/arw86

This wasn't a terrible performance but then again the opposition was extremely weak. I know that you don't get world-beaters at the rump of the Football League but even so I was surprised how poor Rovers were.

Ultimately what did for Argyle was our inability to score that vital second goal. The early part of the first half saw us waste a decent period of dominance and once Rovers got going they could as easily scored two as the one they got. Other than Madjo, I didn't think any of our players looked likely to make an impact.

Tactically I think Fletcher needs to go with slightly more 'safe' team selection and stop trying to fit round pegs in square holes. I would have put McDonald in Lecointe's position and had one of our many wingers on the right. Lecointe is nowhere near ready to play such a regular part in the first team and it is all the more baffling when we have players like Gurrieri and Feeney warming the bench. Fletcher would do well to at least give us some idea of why he sets up his team in this way - if we had the players to do it I could understand. As it is I can't quite fathom it.

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PAFC - Pride Of Devon