One Game at a Time
Morecambe (A) Good Friday April 7th
An optimist, a pessimist and a traditionalist are walking along Wembley Way on April 2nd 2023 at five P.M.
The optimist says, “Well, that’s got that performance out of the way! Much better we lose to that lot in the Pappa Johns than lose one of the last eight league games. Promotion here we come.”
The pessimist looks at him and says, “You must be mad. That will destroy our confidence. I can’t see another win between now and May 7th. We are going to end up in the play-offs and we will be back here and lose to Why Come.”
The traditionalist simply looks at the other two, shrugs his shoulders and says “Bleddy Argo. Typical.”
A surrealist walking the other way looks at the three of them and says “April Fools!”
Fortunately this series of vignettes are completely focussed on the League and proper cup games, and so ignoring the Papa Johns has become second nature to me. After a Sunday that started badly and fell away, time to return to the bread and butter of a promotion campaign that for all the doom and gloom of this weekend has fared pretty well in the time since Argyle last played a league match.
As Harold Wilson almost certainly never said, but is frequently misquoted, “A week is a long time in …insert your relevant subject matter here.” It was one of his political predecessors, Joseph Chamberlain who said when writing to Balfour, “ In Politics there is no point in looking beyond the next fortnight.” If you want to know how true that is, in a sporting context, look no further than the current malaise ridden threads of Owlstalk.
Since Argyles last league game, a two-nil win at Accrington, not much has gone right for Darren Moore’s High Flying Birds. Playing on the same evening they finally succumbed to a dogged Barnsley side, who have now done the double over Wednesday, which ended their record breaking 23 match unbeaten run that had, to that point kept them ahead of Argyle and with a comfortable two games in hand.
With three fixtures whilst Argyle prepared for (apparently) and took part in (briefly) the final for the EFL Trophy, confidence was high in Yorkshire and beyond that those fixtures at Forest Green, Cheltenham and then at home to Lincoln would more or less end the contest for the first automatic promotion spot.
That they regained their top spot in that period is the only positive thing about the matches for our feathered friends, now all in a flap. Having slipped behind Argyle after the Barnsley defeat, a trip to bottom of the league FGR was expected to yield three comfortable points, even if the injury news regarding George Byers and Josh Windass looked terminal for their seasons. A tactical master class by Duncan Fergusons men, whose 4-2-4-0 strikerless set up, used in their away game at Home Park to frustrate Argyle, gained the added teeth of ex Argyle loanee Jordan Garrick, whose tidy finish was the difference between the sides.
A return to Gloucestershire in midweek, in the swimming bath conditions beloved of Ryan Broom, saw a second opportunity to regain the summit slip away. That said, having trailed two nil until deep into the second half, a two all draw was not as bad as it could have been for Wednesday and a last minute strike against the post almost snatched an ill deserved victory.
A return to home comforts against Lincoln, with a lengthening injury list and murmurings amongst the faithful gathering volume, looked to be going back to form when Smith netted a trademark header in the first quarter of an hour. The return of the legend in his own apparently extensive lunchtime, David Stockdale, between the posts however, was to cough up the opportunity for Lincoln to snatch a draw, and although Wednesday had a monopoly on the ball for the second half, they were unable to pass Go-alkeeper Roughen, ready though he was.
The Cheltenham game also spelt the end for Jack Hunts season, leaving Wednesday with seven long term injuries, although Paterson and Ihiekwe may get back in the next few weeks.
Three points from the last five games, which whilst not quite relegation form is far from what was needed or indeed expected from the Champions elect. Luckily for them the crown has passed seamlessly to the currently rampant Ipswich Town, whose current form means 21 points in the last seven games without a goal conceded. Well, technically they did concede one at Derby, but a bizarre decision from the Linesman to signal a foul on keeper Walton, despite him standing completely alone and unmolested, meant the Town could saunter to a two nil victory much as they did at penalty missing Bolton. Narrow margins.
This form, much of which as a consequence of the hefty investments in playing staff made by their American owners, means that they are now within striking distance of the top two. Mind you having recorded a 12.6 million pound loss for last season (and a good chance of a similar one this season as well), Town spent more on agents fees than Argyle spent on players last year, so expectations are set high. They have a harder run of fixtures remaining for sure, but so far have made a decent fist of tough away games at the Tough Sheet (Unibol) stadium and Pride Park. In actual fact, over the last six games, County are the team at the top showing relegation form and have dropped out of the top six at the expense of Towns upcoming opponents Posh and closely pursued by Towns next opponents Why Come.
Barnstorming Barnsley followed the Pride of Yorkshire Derby victory with a defeat in the “dozen digit derby” at Exeter, before returning to the Dingledome to crush a hapless, and at the time unpaid Morecambe, Argyles next opponents, five zip.
Posh too have tightened up their form to gate-crash the play-off race, and fourth time lucky manager Darren Ferguson will be plotting the East Anglia(ish) derby trip from Ipswich upset. After that Town pluck up the courage to finally play Barnsley. On current form you would expect them to take maximum points from the games between Why Come at home and Posh/Barnsley away, but both Cheltenham and Charlton have hit a modicum of form, and ex Town striker Macauley Bonne has finally rediscovered the purpose of the net in stopping the ball, rather than his previous technique of using the grandstands behind them for doing it. The Charlton six goal demolition of Shrewsbury effectively ends their outside play-off hopes, which can only be a good thing for our upcoming Shropshire trip.
Before that however comes Easter, starting with the “traffic cone derby” beloved of the EFL when they conspire to send us on one of the least considerate journeys of the season on the least appropriate weekend of the year. Again.
Hopefully our Fan from Japan will make the fixture and finally see a performance his loyalty and commitment deserves although what someone from the land of the bullet train made of the GWR service into Plymouth North Road one can only imagine.
Waiting for us will be ex Argyle leader Derek Adams, himself staring down the barrel of a very poor performance and, in all probability, a relegation, unless he can string together a few victories. At least he still has Cole Stockton, and has managed to sign ex Palace full back Pape N'Diaye Souare.
Adams is, like most Morecambe fans awaiting the outcome of the takeover of the club after the fall into penury of their current owners, Bond Group, who were recently in the news after the failure of their Rugby Union Club Worcester Warriors.
The late payment of this month’s wages, with the funds to do so being injected by prospective new owner Sarbjot Johal at the very last minute, does not bode well. Johal, a twenty year old drink ”tycoon” from Kent remains keen to take over the club through his investment vehicle Sarb Capital. This seems to be the most likely route for the club’s salvation, over the speculative interest by local heavyweight boxer Tyson Fury, a sponsor of the club kit and owner of the club gym.
The takeover is with the EFL, who are going through their rigorous and meticulous fit and proper person test. There remain some questions over the finances of Johal, whose drink brand name Vitanic is uncomfortably close to Titanic. The other question being posed by Morecambe fans to the youthful entrepreneur for his ambition to own them is a simple one word, WHY?
Sarb Capital which stumped up the six-figure payment in exchange for shares is a somewhat nebulous company, which may or may not be linked to crypto currency speculation. As previously mentioned on OGAAT young owners are not unknown, but the shadow of Spencer Treworthy who claimed to be the saviour for Aldershot before plummeting to earth like Icarus still send shudders down the spine of Aldershot fans. The current financial struggles at the Mazuma may explain why the only job currently advertised on their website is Financial Director.
Otherwise, there is 25 year old Kyril Louis-Dreyfuss at Sunderland, spending his inherited wealth, or the seven nineteen years olds that rescued Walton & Hersham in 2019, and continue to run the ninth tier club as a kind of A level project. All the other club owners seem to sit in the old enough to know better category.
After as horrible a weekend as Argyle fans have endured for many a season, a trip to the seaside through the traditional Easter roadworks has a familiarity that may be comforting. Morecambe are terrible, although their home form is the one thing keeping them in touch. That said Argyle have the second most points gained from a losing position, ironically behind Derby County, a team we have beaten from behind twice.
Argyle have tended to react well to defeats in the league, although after the Grimsby debacle we had a bit of a stumble. Right now it is in our own hands, which is where you would want it to be.
Three of the next four games are away though, with obdurate Lincoln being the home match.
As a campaign the season is bubbling up to a terrific climax. It is still any two from four, and with clubs having collapses in form that were not anticipated, as well as others suddenly playing like they have forgotten how to lose, and you can see the tension coursing through the fan bases.
Good Friday? Bad Friday? Freaky Friday?
Time will tell. That we will get a reaction I have no doubt. So far this season we have seen that Schuey can make changes. They don’t always work, but they frequently do.
Richelle E Goodriche, author of “Smile Anyway” said “Disappointment is really just a term for our refusal to look on the bright side.”
There is no magic wand. Schuey is not the Messiah, nor is he a very naughty boy (that is Big Sam Cosgrove this week). But he will lift the side as we head into Easter.
But with eight games to go and our destiny entirely in our own hands, when better to look at the table and think “Always look on the bright side of life!”
COYG!!!
Morecambe (A) Good Friday April 7th
An optimist, a pessimist and a traditionalist are walking along Wembley Way on April 2nd 2023 at five P.M.
The optimist says, “Well, that’s got that performance out of the way! Much better we lose to that lot in the Pappa Johns than lose one of the last eight league games. Promotion here we come.”
The pessimist looks at him and says, “You must be mad. That will destroy our confidence. I can’t see another win between now and May 7th. We are going to end up in the play-offs and we will be back here and lose to Why Come.”
The traditionalist simply looks at the other two, shrugs his shoulders and says “Bleddy Argo. Typical.”
A surrealist walking the other way looks at the three of them and says “April Fools!”
Fortunately this series of vignettes are completely focussed on the League and proper cup games, and so ignoring the Papa Johns has become second nature to me. After a Sunday that started badly and fell away, time to return to the bread and butter of a promotion campaign that for all the doom and gloom of this weekend has fared pretty well in the time since Argyle last played a league match.
As Harold Wilson almost certainly never said, but is frequently misquoted, “A week is a long time in …insert your relevant subject matter here.” It was one of his political predecessors, Joseph Chamberlain who said when writing to Balfour, “ In Politics there is no point in looking beyond the next fortnight.” If you want to know how true that is, in a sporting context, look no further than the current malaise ridden threads of Owlstalk.
Since Argyles last league game, a two-nil win at Accrington, not much has gone right for Darren Moore’s High Flying Birds. Playing on the same evening they finally succumbed to a dogged Barnsley side, who have now done the double over Wednesday, which ended their record breaking 23 match unbeaten run that had, to that point kept them ahead of Argyle and with a comfortable two games in hand.
With three fixtures whilst Argyle prepared for (apparently) and took part in (briefly) the final for the EFL Trophy, confidence was high in Yorkshire and beyond that those fixtures at Forest Green, Cheltenham and then at home to Lincoln would more or less end the contest for the first automatic promotion spot.
That they regained their top spot in that period is the only positive thing about the matches for our feathered friends, now all in a flap. Having slipped behind Argyle after the Barnsley defeat, a trip to bottom of the league FGR was expected to yield three comfortable points, even if the injury news regarding George Byers and Josh Windass looked terminal for their seasons. A tactical master class by Duncan Fergusons men, whose 4-2-4-0 strikerless set up, used in their away game at Home Park to frustrate Argyle, gained the added teeth of ex Argyle loanee Jordan Garrick, whose tidy finish was the difference between the sides.
A return to Gloucestershire in midweek, in the swimming bath conditions beloved of Ryan Broom, saw a second opportunity to regain the summit slip away. That said, having trailed two nil until deep into the second half, a two all draw was not as bad as it could have been for Wednesday and a last minute strike against the post almost snatched an ill deserved victory.
A return to home comforts against Lincoln, with a lengthening injury list and murmurings amongst the faithful gathering volume, looked to be going back to form when Smith netted a trademark header in the first quarter of an hour. The return of the legend in his own apparently extensive lunchtime, David Stockdale, between the posts however, was to cough up the opportunity for Lincoln to snatch a draw, and although Wednesday had a monopoly on the ball for the second half, they were unable to pass Go-alkeeper Roughen, ready though he was.
The Cheltenham game also spelt the end for Jack Hunts season, leaving Wednesday with seven long term injuries, although Paterson and Ihiekwe may get back in the next few weeks.
Three points from the last five games, which whilst not quite relegation form is far from what was needed or indeed expected from the Champions elect. Luckily for them the crown has passed seamlessly to the currently rampant Ipswich Town, whose current form means 21 points in the last seven games without a goal conceded. Well, technically they did concede one at Derby, but a bizarre decision from the Linesman to signal a foul on keeper Walton, despite him standing completely alone and unmolested, meant the Town could saunter to a two nil victory much as they did at penalty missing Bolton. Narrow margins.
This form, much of which as a consequence of the hefty investments in playing staff made by their American owners, means that they are now within striking distance of the top two. Mind you having recorded a 12.6 million pound loss for last season (and a good chance of a similar one this season as well), Town spent more on agents fees than Argyle spent on players last year, so expectations are set high. They have a harder run of fixtures remaining for sure, but so far have made a decent fist of tough away games at the Tough Sheet (Unibol) stadium and Pride Park. In actual fact, over the last six games, County are the team at the top showing relegation form and have dropped out of the top six at the expense of Towns upcoming opponents Posh and closely pursued by Towns next opponents Why Come.
Barnstorming Barnsley followed the Pride of Yorkshire Derby victory with a defeat in the “dozen digit derby” at Exeter, before returning to the Dingledome to crush a hapless, and at the time unpaid Morecambe, Argyles next opponents, five zip.
Posh too have tightened up their form to gate-crash the play-off race, and fourth time lucky manager Darren Ferguson will be plotting the East Anglia(ish) derby trip from Ipswich upset. After that Town pluck up the courage to finally play Barnsley. On current form you would expect them to take maximum points from the games between Why Come at home and Posh/Barnsley away, but both Cheltenham and Charlton have hit a modicum of form, and ex Town striker Macauley Bonne has finally rediscovered the purpose of the net in stopping the ball, rather than his previous technique of using the grandstands behind them for doing it. The Charlton six goal demolition of Shrewsbury effectively ends their outside play-off hopes, which can only be a good thing for our upcoming Shropshire trip.
Before that however comes Easter, starting with the “traffic cone derby” beloved of the EFL when they conspire to send us on one of the least considerate journeys of the season on the least appropriate weekend of the year. Again.
Hopefully our Fan from Japan will make the fixture and finally see a performance his loyalty and commitment deserves although what someone from the land of the bullet train made of the GWR service into Plymouth North Road one can only imagine.
Waiting for us will be ex Argyle leader Derek Adams, himself staring down the barrel of a very poor performance and, in all probability, a relegation, unless he can string together a few victories. At least he still has Cole Stockton, and has managed to sign ex Palace full back Pape N'Diaye Souare.
Adams is, like most Morecambe fans awaiting the outcome of the takeover of the club after the fall into penury of their current owners, Bond Group, who were recently in the news after the failure of their Rugby Union Club Worcester Warriors.
The late payment of this month’s wages, with the funds to do so being injected by prospective new owner Sarbjot Johal at the very last minute, does not bode well. Johal, a twenty year old drink ”tycoon” from Kent remains keen to take over the club through his investment vehicle Sarb Capital. This seems to be the most likely route for the club’s salvation, over the speculative interest by local heavyweight boxer Tyson Fury, a sponsor of the club kit and owner of the club gym.
The takeover is with the EFL, who are going through their rigorous and meticulous fit and proper person test. There remain some questions over the finances of Johal, whose drink brand name Vitanic is uncomfortably close to Titanic. The other question being posed by Morecambe fans to the youthful entrepreneur for his ambition to own them is a simple one word, WHY?
Sarb Capital which stumped up the six-figure payment in exchange for shares is a somewhat nebulous company, which may or may not be linked to crypto currency speculation. As previously mentioned on OGAAT young owners are not unknown, but the shadow of Spencer Treworthy who claimed to be the saviour for Aldershot before plummeting to earth like Icarus still send shudders down the spine of Aldershot fans. The current financial struggles at the Mazuma may explain why the only job currently advertised on their website is Financial Director.
Otherwise, there is 25 year old Kyril Louis-Dreyfuss at Sunderland, spending his inherited wealth, or the seven nineteen years olds that rescued Walton & Hersham in 2019, and continue to run the ninth tier club as a kind of A level project. All the other club owners seem to sit in the old enough to know better category.
After as horrible a weekend as Argyle fans have endured for many a season, a trip to the seaside through the traditional Easter roadworks has a familiarity that may be comforting. Morecambe are terrible, although their home form is the one thing keeping them in touch. That said Argyle have the second most points gained from a losing position, ironically behind Derby County, a team we have beaten from behind twice.
Argyle have tended to react well to defeats in the league, although after the Grimsby debacle we had a bit of a stumble. Right now it is in our own hands, which is where you would want it to be.
Three of the next four games are away though, with obdurate Lincoln being the home match.
As a campaign the season is bubbling up to a terrific climax. It is still any two from four, and with clubs having collapses in form that were not anticipated, as well as others suddenly playing like they have forgotten how to lose, and you can see the tension coursing through the fan bases.
Good Friday? Bad Friday? Freaky Friday?
Time will tell. That we will get a reaction I have no doubt. So far this season we have seen that Schuey can make changes. They don’t always work, but they frequently do.
Richelle E Goodriche, author of “Smile Anyway” said “Disappointment is really just a term for our refusal to look on the bright side.”
There is no magic wand. Schuey is not the Messiah, nor is he a very naughty boy (that is Big Sam Cosgrove this week). But he will lift the side as we head into Easter.
But with eight games to go and our destiny entirely in our own hands, when better to look at the table and think “Always look on the bright side of life!”
COYG!!!
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