One Game at a Time: Difficult Second Season
Pompous (A) ( not a derby Sky, not a derby) March 12th
“I have not failed. I have just found ten thousand ways that do not work.”
So said inventor (and alleged copyright thief) Thomas Alver Edison. On that basis, the game against the Wendies on Saturday crossed another off the list of ways to fail we must never try again.
Failure is of course relative, and so for every defeat we suffer, and suffer is entirely the correct verb to use here, it must be judged against the performance of those around us. So even though we have lost again, with Stoke contriving to lose against form horse Coventry after clawing back a two-goal deficit and not conceding the second most obvious penalty of the Championship weekend, Luton imploding in a worse manner than we managed at Burnley and Cardiff failing at Sunderland, well, remarkably, it could have been worse. Hull, having sent us back to the bottom, scraped a point with ten men at the Wurzels.
Derby, poor hopeless Derby, used the incentive of a sold out away end of Blackburn fans to win the Eustace Grudge Derby, remarkably being two goals to the good even before we had managed to slot home Wednesday’s opener through the hapless foot tangled Ogbeta.
And then of course Pompous, our next opponents, warmed up by puncturing the unstoppable Leeds promotion charge in its tracks, despite the remarkable sight of Matt Ritchie volleying Dan James into the air and still not conceding a penalty.
The net effect of all of this is that we slide to the bottom of the table once again, and, even with our forward line being reinforced by a returning Hardie, there is little to suggest that we have the firepower to outscore a defence which has once again started to leak goals.
Whilst Hotdog being back, albeit at a questionable level of fitness, we have immediately suffered another catastrophic injury. This one is a self-inflicted foot wound by “one of our own” Adam Randell whose ill-tempered outburst aimed at the referee for the Cardiff game gained him nothing but a three-game recovery break.
In truth with a game system which seems to primarily involve our midfield in a role that largely involves watching the ball sail over their heads from behind them and then stand by to repel boarders for the next ten minutes out of possession, Randell might well have been out with a cricked neck in any case.
His absence does highlight the paucity of our midfield options. Boateng looks a good acquisition, but his best pass of the Wednesday game was the through ball that almost gave them their fourth goal. The only positive of the entire game was at least we saw as much of Cissoko as we were used to when he was our player.
A feeling of resignation has settled over Home Park. The odds are now clearly against us and whilst relegation is not inevitable, it feels probable. For newer fans who have known only relative success this probably hits harder than the veterans amongst us who have been here before many times, and have learned to enjoy the fleeting good times, and embrace the struggle of the rest. T’was ever thus.
Our owner himself has been quoted many times in his business persona as saying, “if you haven’t failed then you haven’t taken enough risks”.
With only ten games left in the season, what better time therefore to play old friends and rivals Pompous, fresh from a morale boosting win over the Champions elect Leeds, Leeds, Leeds, and, with four wins in their last five games, a healthy twelve points ahead of us in the table.
Led by the surprise at the time appointment, John Mousinho, and owned by former Mickey Mouse boss Michael Eisner through his Tornante Company, the Mickey Mouse club has been owned by the Eisner family for seven years, with their acquisition taking place just after the Hampshire club pipped Argyle to the League Two Championship on the final day of the season in 2016.
It is fair to say their ownership has been a slow burn with their final breakthrough to the Championship coming last season, and in a similar way as Argyle have progressed much of their work has been done on the ageing structure that is Fratton Park and the infrastructure that comes with it. One thing Pompous fans need to look for is that also in the Tornante portfolio is Task Rabbit, a freelance labour market website, presumably not for footballers, or at least not yet.
They also own Omaze. Yes, the glossy TV ads for a luxury property to be won by raffle fundraising platform. I can just see it now.
“With its luxury coastal views and stunning floodlights, together with a luxurious lawn to centre you too could win the chance to own this historic stadium complete with a squad of moderately talented players and a loyal if rough round the edges following. Would suit an ambitious campanologist who owns a tattoo parlour.”
Whilst it may not be the best time for Argyle to play Pompous, and let’s be honest right now it isn’t the best time for us to be playing anyone, recent history is not that bad. Four defeats in the last twenty or so games this century, no defeats in the last eight and a tendency for a two all draw to be the outcome.
If we have underdog status, time to draw upon our inner Rocky, race up the Mayflower Steps hands aloft, and enjoy the fact that whilst they may have Colby Bishop back and scoring, leading marksman Callum “Clubber” Lang is out for the rest of the season. Phew.
They are side who are also not without selection issues. Both their main centre backs are out injured leaving them with a makeshift central defence. They have also made intriguing signings, like Andre Dozzel, known by QPR fans as Andre the friendly ghost for his almost invisible match presence and failure to compete, but who is a regular on the teamsheet here.
With a midweek that sees Hull play Oxford and Luton at Cardiff, whilst Derby entertain the unstoppable force that is Frank Lampard’s Coventry City, Argyle will kick off hoping to be not too much worse off than before they started and hoping that Blackburn can redeem themselves after the appalling defeat at Pride Park and drive another nail into the Oatcake coffin on Wednesday.
Argyle will be looking for that elusive double double of a first away league win giving them a first valuable league double. The Dockyard derby that really isn’t will be a game between two of Britain’s port cities where the number of the players on the pitch will actually outnumber the number of ships in the Royal Navy. That’s a sobering thought for these difficult times. Thanks to Steve Rhodes (Memory Man) for that little tidbit.
It is a little ironic that the team of three Nelsons will head into the match against the team with none in their history aside from the naval one needing nothing less than a Victory.
When your backs are against the wall, and you also live just down the road from Chartwell, I find you can never go far wrong with good old Winnie.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
And, for good measure and something most Argyle fans instinctively know is true.
'Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm'.
Who knew Churchill was a Green!
COYG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pompous (A) ( not a derby Sky, not a derby) March 12th
“I have not failed. I have just found ten thousand ways that do not work.”
So said inventor (and alleged copyright thief) Thomas Alver Edison. On that basis, the game against the Wendies on Saturday crossed another off the list of ways to fail we must never try again.
Failure is of course relative, and so for every defeat we suffer, and suffer is entirely the correct verb to use here, it must be judged against the performance of those around us. So even though we have lost again, with Stoke contriving to lose against form horse Coventry after clawing back a two-goal deficit and not conceding the second most obvious penalty of the Championship weekend, Luton imploding in a worse manner than we managed at Burnley and Cardiff failing at Sunderland, well, remarkably, it could have been worse. Hull, having sent us back to the bottom, scraped a point with ten men at the Wurzels.
Derby, poor hopeless Derby, used the incentive of a sold out away end of Blackburn fans to win the Eustace Grudge Derby, remarkably being two goals to the good even before we had managed to slot home Wednesday’s opener through the hapless foot tangled Ogbeta.
And then of course Pompous, our next opponents, warmed up by puncturing the unstoppable Leeds promotion charge in its tracks, despite the remarkable sight of Matt Ritchie volleying Dan James into the air and still not conceding a penalty.
The net effect of all of this is that we slide to the bottom of the table once again, and, even with our forward line being reinforced by a returning Hardie, there is little to suggest that we have the firepower to outscore a defence which has once again started to leak goals.
Whilst Hotdog being back, albeit at a questionable level of fitness, we have immediately suffered another catastrophic injury. This one is a self-inflicted foot wound by “one of our own” Adam Randell whose ill-tempered outburst aimed at the referee for the Cardiff game gained him nothing but a three-game recovery break.
In truth with a game system which seems to primarily involve our midfield in a role that largely involves watching the ball sail over their heads from behind them and then stand by to repel boarders for the next ten minutes out of possession, Randell might well have been out with a cricked neck in any case.
His absence does highlight the paucity of our midfield options. Boateng looks a good acquisition, but his best pass of the Wednesday game was the through ball that almost gave them their fourth goal. The only positive of the entire game was at least we saw as much of Cissoko as we were used to when he was our player.
A feeling of resignation has settled over Home Park. The odds are now clearly against us and whilst relegation is not inevitable, it feels probable. For newer fans who have known only relative success this probably hits harder than the veterans amongst us who have been here before many times, and have learned to enjoy the fleeting good times, and embrace the struggle of the rest. T’was ever thus.
Our owner himself has been quoted many times in his business persona as saying, “if you haven’t failed then you haven’t taken enough risks”.
With only ten games left in the season, what better time therefore to play old friends and rivals Pompous, fresh from a morale boosting win over the Champions elect Leeds, Leeds, Leeds, and, with four wins in their last five games, a healthy twelve points ahead of us in the table.
Led by the surprise at the time appointment, John Mousinho, and owned by former Mickey Mouse boss Michael Eisner through his Tornante Company, the Mickey Mouse club has been owned by the Eisner family for seven years, with their acquisition taking place just after the Hampshire club pipped Argyle to the League Two Championship on the final day of the season in 2016.
It is fair to say their ownership has been a slow burn with their final breakthrough to the Championship coming last season, and in a similar way as Argyle have progressed much of their work has been done on the ageing structure that is Fratton Park and the infrastructure that comes with it. One thing Pompous fans need to look for is that also in the Tornante portfolio is Task Rabbit, a freelance labour market website, presumably not for footballers, or at least not yet.
They also own Omaze. Yes, the glossy TV ads for a luxury property to be won by raffle fundraising platform. I can just see it now.
“With its luxury coastal views and stunning floodlights, together with a luxurious lawn to centre you too could win the chance to own this historic stadium complete with a squad of moderately talented players and a loyal if rough round the edges following. Would suit an ambitious campanologist who owns a tattoo parlour.”
Whilst it may not be the best time for Argyle to play Pompous, and let’s be honest right now it isn’t the best time for us to be playing anyone, recent history is not that bad. Four defeats in the last twenty or so games this century, no defeats in the last eight and a tendency for a two all draw to be the outcome.
If we have underdog status, time to draw upon our inner Rocky, race up the Mayflower Steps hands aloft, and enjoy the fact that whilst they may have Colby Bishop back and scoring, leading marksman Callum “Clubber” Lang is out for the rest of the season. Phew.
They are side who are also not without selection issues. Both their main centre backs are out injured leaving them with a makeshift central defence. They have also made intriguing signings, like Andre Dozzel, known by QPR fans as Andre the friendly ghost for his almost invisible match presence and failure to compete, but who is a regular on the teamsheet here.
With a midweek that sees Hull play Oxford and Luton at Cardiff, whilst Derby entertain the unstoppable force that is Frank Lampard’s Coventry City, Argyle will kick off hoping to be not too much worse off than before they started and hoping that Blackburn can redeem themselves after the appalling defeat at Pride Park and drive another nail into the Oatcake coffin on Wednesday.
Argyle will be looking for that elusive double double of a first away league win giving them a first valuable league double. The Dockyard derby that really isn’t will be a game between two of Britain’s port cities where the number of the players on the pitch will actually outnumber the number of ships in the Royal Navy. That’s a sobering thought for these difficult times. Thanks to Steve Rhodes (Memory Man) for that little tidbit.
It is a little ironic that the team of three Nelsons will head into the match against the team with none in their history aside from the naval one needing nothing less than a Victory.
When your backs are against the wall, and you also live just down the road from Chartwell, I find you can never go far wrong with good old Winnie.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
And, for good measure and something most Argyle fans instinctively know is true.
'Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm'.
Who knew Churchill was a Green!
COYG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
