Maybe I should just avoid all Argyle message boards full stop at the moment. I expect it 'elsewhere' but virtually every thread here too just seems to be looking for any and every way to cast absolutely anything as negative, as a stick to beat someone with.
I've tried to bite my lip on this one (or should that be bite my fingers as i'm typing :think: ) but I can't. I appreciate the irony as i'm occasionally accused of being *MR* Righteous Indignation myself, but some of the posts on this thread are simply ridiculously high horsed, so high the riders must surely struggle to even see the ground beneath them.
At any club, at any level, a perfectly legitimate option when going ahead and having a lead to defend, ESPECIALLY when it's top v bottom is to park the bus. Bringing on a defender for an attacker is just part of that. It wasn't a massively left field decision, it is perfectly normal for any manager to do such a thing if circumstances dictate.
To read some of the astonished words typed on this thread though you'd think we'd substituted the goalkeeper for a second left winger or something. It's as if the concept of defending what you've got is now somehow alien to some posters.
It didn't work, clearly. But who is to say that by NOT making that decision Shrewsbury wouldn't have come at us just as strongly and got two or more for want of that extra body in defence?
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but when the general underlying mood music of the pitchfork wielding mob right now is to look for fault first and consider objectivity and practicality later never, you're only ever going to find fault.
I can tell you several FAR worse substitutions...
Any and every time Paul 'kin Mariner brought on Kenny 'kin Cooper for a late cameo impression of an especially immobile Ent from Lond of the Rings.
Every time Mick Jones brought on either of the dwarfs Padi Wilson or Earl Jean and then 'went long' to chase a game :facepalm:
Every time Tony Pulis brought on Anthony Pulis last knockings when we were winning just so sonny-boy could pick up a win bonus (same nepotism but at least 'Oooh Ahh Sturrock Junior' coming on to hold the ball in the corner had a legitimate tactical point).
They were all diabolical, nonsensical substitutions that defeated the object of trying to get something from a game. Yesterday was just a legitimate and widely used tactical option that didn't happen to work, more often than not it would've.
Get a ferkin grip guys, the Green Army is losing the plot at the moment. It's like everyone has collectively decided that if something paints the manager, or a player, or the board, or the club in a bad light then 'game on'. Common sense, logic and objectivity can take a flying jump.
As a collective, we must surely be better than this. This mentality at the moment is awful.
Never mind the bollox, we got a point against the league leaders that not one of us thought we would. THAT'S a positive, let's take it and move on.
