One Game at a Time:
Forest Green Rovers (H) March 18th
There comes a time in every commentator or diarists’ life when the challenge facing them, and their subject is so obviously dichotomous that only Kipling will do. If, and it is a big if, there was ever such a moment occasioned by a single score line, then Saturdays three nil defeat at Barnsley was it.
That, along with the relentlessness of the Wendies, and the sudden surge to form approaching some form of value for money on Ipswich's investment means that this writer has no alternative than to reach in that most obvious of directions.
One box of mini cherry Bakewell’s later, and whilst it might be the sugar rush, things have morphed back into a more acceptable form of perspective. Exile doesn’t make for an easy following experience. Football fans tend to be creatures of habit, and so Stelling et al and their fawning EPL obsession (who honestly thought Michael Dawson could ever make watchable television) are generally accompanied by the BBC text commentary, refreshingly two to three minutes out of date, plus links to Pasoti and the away teams match threads. These can be supplemented as required by trips to Owlstalk and TWTD to see what the feelings are of the main rivals in this four-way race for two places.
And make no mistake, that is now what we have become embroiled in. The recent form of the other three teams around us have closed the contest to the extent that our actually pretty reasonable form has allowed the chasing pack to move within a single match swing of our cherished automatic promotion place, whilst we ourselves cling to the coat tails of the Wendies, despite their having the immortal advantage of games in hand.
The form of the other contenders over the last six games is identical barring minor differences in goal difference improvements where Ipswich have made great strides, compared to the Arsenal like 1-0 grinding of the Wendies.
Barring the interlopers of a late improving Pompous (late as in too late fortunately) the next four teams including ourselves all have near identical records as well, which has led to a six-point swing to the chasing duo of the Tykes and Slipswich. A six-point swing to the Blues might not be much use to Rishi and Cruella but let me tell you it has reinvigorated a previously stumbling Tripswich fan base.
That means we enter the final straight with a narrow two-point advantage over Yipswich (see what I am doing here), and dependent on their games in hand results anywhere between the current eight and two points from the Tykes.
In the pursuit of the Wendies, we will be anywhere between three and nine points adrift, depending on their games in hand.
And then the complexity kicks in. Much has been made of the run in we have, with only a “tricky” trip to Shrewsbury out of ten fixtures against a team with anything to play for in terms of promotion or play-offs. True as far as it goes, although a sold-out Sid James Park will be doing all they can to trip up our promotion challenge for sure.
All of the teams who have aspirations to play a part in the post season play-offs or avoiding them from the right end now have a series of games which mean the one thing that cannot happen is they all get maximum points. Effectively that is the top ten sides, gratifyingly the cut-off sitting one above the greasy ones who on 46 points, have just too much to do to gate-crash the party, although do have some significant fixtures apart from then one against us that could mean we may have to cheer through gritted teeth a few times before the May dénouement.
“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” said Buddha.
That kind of advice is pretty much spot on for where Argyle find themselves after the weekend. Moments make matches, and the changes those moments bring about make all the difference to how the outcome is perceived.
At half time the view of the Barnsley fans forum was they were being outplayed and had done well to stay level. They saw the result for what it was…a good performance for the second forty-five minutes where they deservedly capitalised on staying in the game. One moment, just as the previous Saturday had turned on a Hardie breakaway, meant the instead of leading Argyle were still level. One glorious strike, followed by a soft header and a great free kick later and a close game looked like a bad defeat.
Ipswich on the other hand kept yet another clean sheet and scored two decent goals. In their case the moment that mattered was the penalty save by Walton, to prevent a momentum changing equaliser.
On the South coast Wendies will point to a dreadful tackle on Dele Bashiru by Raggett that was only punished by a yellow, and then Iorfa dismissed for two yellows, both of which were soft. The moment of the game for them that might cause more issues is the limping off by Byers, who will probably miss the Bolton game and possibly also the Barnsley match. That EFL conspiracy theory just won’t fade away, despite the fact they now have the longest current unbeaten league run in all the Europe top ten leagues as well as the UK.
Meanwhile another spanner in the works for the chasing pack has been brought about by the international week approaching. Wales are seeking to fill the Bale sized hole in their squad with the call up of Broadhead and Burgess. This was one short of the three players needed to allow Town to call off the game at Barnsley, which left them sweating on either Morsy making the full squad for Egypt or Greg Leigh being called up by Jamaica, allowing a postponement. It looks like, although not announced, the rarely played and recently not even included on the bench, Leigh, has made the cut off for Jamaica. This however then leaves the issue of when Barnsley can fit that game into an already crowded schedule, as they have two additional games to be fitted into the schedule compared to most of their rivals. It looks like the 25th of April (the night we are home to Gas) has been selected. Barnsley will get a very crowded April as a result, but should have Irish U21 Luca Connell, their best player by a distance now available.
Add to that Morsy needing to walk the yellow card tightrope for a further week to avoid a two-match ban, you can see why Ipswich have opted to delay. Fingers crossed that Morsy manages to finally provoke a card against the Shrews on Saturday then.
Which brings us back to the premise of this weekly or so write up. One game at a time. And to be fair if you were picking a game for Argyle to move onto after the weekends disappointment then FGR at home would probably be it.
Since their promotion from League Two the club have been gutted of their best players (witness Nicky Cadden, who scored the third Barnsley goal), have suffered injuries and dispensed with their manager, who has been replaced with an inexperienced, if imposing, Duncan Ferguson, in his first full time managerial role.
Somewhat confusingly, despite this being the third league meeting in two seasons between the clubs it will be the first time FGR have graced Home Park, having had their visit cancelled in the truncated pandemic season. As yet the club have yet to score against Argyle, having lost the first ever fixture at The New Lawn to a Sarcevic score, and being on the wrong end of a three-nil drubbing as Argyle put to bed the memory of a poor five one defeat at Charlton. Once again Argyle head into a fixture against the Vegan All Star XI looking to put right a bad result.
On the plus side for FGR they do have a potential “immutable law of the ex” moment as their second top scorer of late is ex Swansea to Argyle loanee Jordan Garrick, admittedly only with four goals. He takes up the mantle after they lost Jamille Matt in the Window to Walsall, as well as Connor Wickham leaving the club at the end of his short-term deal to head along the M4 to Cardiff. Wickham and Peart-Harris, a Brentford loanee head the scoring charts for FGR this season with six.
FGR were one of the most active sides in the transfer window, although given that former manager Ian Burchall did three quarters of the window it would be hard to judge Ferguson on the fruits of someone else’s labours. The striking signings were Bakayoko from Bolton and McCann from Rangers. They also have the progeny of dancer and podcaster Robbie Savage. Young Charlie scored his first league goal against the Gas last week, whilst on loan from Manchester United, but the three one home defeat leaves the club still seeking a first win for their new boss.
Whilst the dismissal of Ian Burchall was the least surprising one of the League One season, in an industry where a quadruple lottery rollover is the title of the next Watford managerial press release, the arrival of twice former Everton caretaker Ferguson was unexpected to say the least.
Given the bemused look on his face when interviewed alongside owner Vince Dale and some of the vegan food on offer at the club you could tell that “Duncan Disorderly” was probably not expecting his raw meat diet requirements to be quorn based. Given the changes to the squad as he arrived, he did have the advantage that even if he didn’t know all the players names, then neither did the players.
If the head of recruitment Stevie Grieve thought the squad needed time to bed in, then he was to be mistaken. Arriving in November, he departed a few days ago as the change in team members made little to no difference to their results. If Grieve had no time then FGR have no time to Grieve his departure it seems.
Ferguson is a long-time hero of Bluenose Schuey, who has trained alongside Ferguson when making his way into the game. He has already indicated that he will have the beers in for after the game, although Duncs reputation was that he was more than partial to a pre match libation in his playing days.
Ferguson became a Toffee legend after a stellar (and possibly Stella) performance against local rivals Liverpool. The performance is famous as the night before, after an evening on the lash, Ferguson, accompanied by a young female admirer, was stopped after driving through a no entry sign and into the Liverpool bus station, apparently en route to the hotel that he was living in.
Taken to the station, professing his sobriety, he sent the girl to his hotel room, and awaited his fate. Recognised by a number of Evertonian coppers, he was supplied copious amounts of water, and was shocked and surprised that when he finally took a breath test he was only marginally over the limit. His main surprise being that he reckoned he had consumed about five bottles of red wine that evening.
Perhaps even more surprising, when he finally made it back to the hotel, his paramour was still waiting.
This pre match preparation resulted in a distinctly hungover first half, and had Razor Ruddock not provoked him with a trademark tackle from behind, he was facing an undignified half time substitution.
That foul riled him and early in the second half he scored a towering header, right in front of the Gladwys Street faithful, before a surging run and pass set up Paul Rideout for a second goal, and a famous Everton victory.
Ferguson and Everton have such an affinity that he turned down the chance to follow his former Toffees boss Carlo Ancelotti to Real Madrid as a coach when he had his eyes on replacing Marco Silva. Indeed, he claimed having visited the Bernebau that Ancelotti had nicked most of his training routines.
Rough diamond he may be, but Ferguson is the only manager who has a tone poem written for him, by a Finnish composer, entitled Barlinnie Nine, reflecting his time incarcerated for assault, although Ferguson still claims he was only jailed because the judge was supporter of Celtic.
How long he survives without turning around the club finding sustainability at League One level a real struggle may depend on his turning some of the young team he has inherited into the sky diamonds beloved of his eccentric owner.
These are diamonds created from natural carbon under huge pressure. Looks like Big Dunc is in the right place for that.
As for the final run in, I stand with Disraeli, when he said, “as for our majority, one is enough.”
And right now we have two.
COYG!!!
Forest Green Rovers (H) March 18th
There comes a time in every commentator or diarists’ life when the challenge facing them, and their subject is so obviously dichotomous that only Kipling will do. If, and it is a big if, there was ever such a moment occasioned by a single score line, then Saturdays three nil defeat at Barnsley was it.
That, along with the relentlessness of the Wendies, and the sudden surge to form approaching some form of value for money on Ipswich's investment means that this writer has no alternative than to reach in that most obvious of directions.
One box of mini cherry Bakewell’s later, and whilst it might be the sugar rush, things have morphed back into a more acceptable form of perspective. Exile doesn’t make for an easy following experience. Football fans tend to be creatures of habit, and so Stelling et al and their fawning EPL obsession (who honestly thought Michael Dawson could ever make watchable television) are generally accompanied by the BBC text commentary, refreshingly two to three minutes out of date, plus links to Pasoti and the away teams match threads. These can be supplemented as required by trips to Owlstalk and TWTD to see what the feelings are of the main rivals in this four-way race for two places.
And make no mistake, that is now what we have become embroiled in. The recent form of the other three teams around us have closed the contest to the extent that our actually pretty reasonable form has allowed the chasing pack to move within a single match swing of our cherished automatic promotion place, whilst we ourselves cling to the coat tails of the Wendies, despite their having the immortal advantage of games in hand.
The form of the other contenders over the last six games is identical barring minor differences in goal difference improvements where Ipswich have made great strides, compared to the Arsenal like 1-0 grinding of the Wendies.
Barring the interlopers of a late improving Pompous (late as in too late fortunately) the next four teams including ourselves all have near identical records as well, which has led to a six-point swing to the chasing duo of the Tykes and Slipswich. A six-point swing to the Blues might not be much use to Rishi and Cruella but let me tell you it has reinvigorated a previously stumbling Tripswich fan base.
That means we enter the final straight with a narrow two-point advantage over Yipswich (see what I am doing here), and dependent on their games in hand results anywhere between the current eight and two points from the Tykes.
In the pursuit of the Wendies, we will be anywhere between three and nine points adrift, depending on their games in hand.
And then the complexity kicks in. Much has been made of the run in we have, with only a “tricky” trip to Shrewsbury out of ten fixtures against a team with anything to play for in terms of promotion or play-offs. True as far as it goes, although a sold-out Sid James Park will be doing all they can to trip up our promotion challenge for sure.
All of the teams who have aspirations to play a part in the post season play-offs or avoiding them from the right end now have a series of games which mean the one thing that cannot happen is they all get maximum points. Effectively that is the top ten sides, gratifyingly the cut-off sitting one above the greasy ones who on 46 points, have just too much to do to gate-crash the party, although do have some significant fixtures apart from then one against us that could mean we may have to cheer through gritted teeth a few times before the May dénouement.
“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” said Buddha.
That kind of advice is pretty much spot on for where Argyle find themselves after the weekend. Moments make matches, and the changes those moments bring about make all the difference to how the outcome is perceived.
At half time the view of the Barnsley fans forum was they were being outplayed and had done well to stay level. They saw the result for what it was…a good performance for the second forty-five minutes where they deservedly capitalised on staying in the game. One moment, just as the previous Saturday had turned on a Hardie breakaway, meant the instead of leading Argyle were still level. One glorious strike, followed by a soft header and a great free kick later and a close game looked like a bad defeat.
Ipswich on the other hand kept yet another clean sheet and scored two decent goals. In their case the moment that mattered was the penalty save by Walton, to prevent a momentum changing equaliser.
On the South coast Wendies will point to a dreadful tackle on Dele Bashiru by Raggett that was only punished by a yellow, and then Iorfa dismissed for two yellows, both of which were soft. The moment of the game for them that might cause more issues is the limping off by Byers, who will probably miss the Bolton game and possibly also the Barnsley match. That EFL conspiracy theory just won’t fade away, despite the fact they now have the longest current unbeaten league run in all the Europe top ten leagues as well as the UK.
Meanwhile another spanner in the works for the chasing pack has been brought about by the international week approaching. Wales are seeking to fill the Bale sized hole in their squad with the call up of Broadhead and Burgess. This was one short of the three players needed to allow Town to call off the game at Barnsley, which left them sweating on either Morsy making the full squad for Egypt or Greg Leigh being called up by Jamaica, allowing a postponement. It looks like, although not announced, the rarely played and recently not even included on the bench, Leigh, has made the cut off for Jamaica. This however then leaves the issue of when Barnsley can fit that game into an already crowded schedule, as they have two additional games to be fitted into the schedule compared to most of their rivals. It looks like the 25th of April (the night we are home to Gas) has been selected. Barnsley will get a very crowded April as a result, but should have Irish U21 Luca Connell, their best player by a distance now available.
Add to that Morsy needing to walk the yellow card tightrope for a further week to avoid a two-match ban, you can see why Ipswich have opted to delay. Fingers crossed that Morsy manages to finally provoke a card against the Shrews on Saturday then.
Which brings us back to the premise of this weekly or so write up. One game at a time. And to be fair if you were picking a game for Argyle to move onto after the weekends disappointment then FGR at home would probably be it.
Since their promotion from League Two the club have been gutted of their best players (witness Nicky Cadden, who scored the third Barnsley goal), have suffered injuries and dispensed with their manager, who has been replaced with an inexperienced, if imposing, Duncan Ferguson, in his first full time managerial role.
Somewhat confusingly, despite this being the third league meeting in two seasons between the clubs it will be the first time FGR have graced Home Park, having had their visit cancelled in the truncated pandemic season. As yet the club have yet to score against Argyle, having lost the first ever fixture at The New Lawn to a Sarcevic score, and being on the wrong end of a three-nil drubbing as Argyle put to bed the memory of a poor five one defeat at Charlton. Once again Argyle head into a fixture against the Vegan All Star XI looking to put right a bad result.
On the plus side for FGR they do have a potential “immutable law of the ex” moment as their second top scorer of late is ex Swansea to Argyle loanee Jordan Garrick, admittedly only with four goals. He takes up the mantle after they lost Jamille Matt in the Window to Walsall, as well as Connor Wickham leaving the club at the end of his short-term deal to head along the M4 to Cardiff. Wickham and Peart-Harris, a Brentford loanee head the scoring charts for FGR this season with six.
FGR were one of the most active sides in the transfer window, although given that former manager Ian Burchall did three quarters of the window it would be hard to judge Ferguson on the fruits of someone else’s labours. The striking signings were Bakayoko from Bolton and McCann from Rangers. They also have the progeny of dancer and podcaster Robbie Savage. Young Charlie scored his first league goal against the Gas last week, whilst on loan from Manchester United, but the three one home defeat leaves the club still seeking a first win for their new boss.
Whilst the dismissal of Ian Burchall was the least surprising one of the League One season, in an industry where a quadruple lottery rollover is the title of the next Watford managerial press release, the arrival of twice former Everton caretaker Ferguson was unexpected to say the least.
Given the bemused look on his face when interviewed alongside owner Vince Dale and some of the vegan food on offer at the club you could tell that “Duncan Disorderly” was probably not expecting his raw meat diet requirements to be quorn based. Given the changes to the squad as he arrived, he did have the advantage that even if he didn’t know all the players names, then neither did the players.
If the head of recruitment Stevie Grieve thought the squad needed time to bed in, then he was to be mistaken. Arriving in November, he departed a few days ago as the change in team members made little to no difference to their results. If Grieve had no time then FGR have no time to Grieve his departure it seems.
Ferguson is a long-time hero of Bluenose Schuey, who has trained alongside Ferguson when making his way into the game. He has already indicated that he will have the beers in for after the game, although Duncs reputation was that he was more than partial to a pre match libation in his playing days.
Ferguson became a Toffee legend after a stellar (and possibly Stella) performance against local rivals Liverpool. The performance is famous as the night before, after an evening on the lash, Ferguson, accompanied by a young female admirer, was stopped after driving through a no entry sign and into the Liverpool bus station, apparently en route to the hotel that he was living in.
Taken to the station, professing his sobriety, he sent the girl to his hotel room, and awaited his fate. Recognised by a number of Evertonian coppers, he was supplied copious amounts of water, and was shocked and surprised that when he finally took a breath test he was only marginally over the limit. His main surprise being that he reckoned he had consumed about five bottles of red wine that evening.
Perhaps even more surprising, when he finally made it back to the hotel, his paramour was still waiting.
This pre match preparation resulted in a distinctly hungover first half, and had Razor Ruddock not provoked him with a trademark tackle from behind, he was facing an undignified half time substitution.
That foul riled him and early in the second half he scored a towering header, right in front of the Gladwys Street faithful, before a surging run and pass set up Paul Rideout for a second goal, and a famous Everton victory.
Ferguson and Everton have such an affinity that he turned down the chance to follow his former Toffees boss Carlo Ancelotti to Real Madrid as a coach when he had his eyes on replacing Marco Silva. Indeed, he claimed having visited the Bernebau that Ancelotti had nicked most of his training routines.
Rough diamond he may be, but Ferguson is the only manager who has a tone poem written for him, by a Finnish composer, entitled Barlinnie Nine, reflecting his time incarcerated for assault, although Ferguson still claims he was only jailed because the judge was supporter of Celtic.
How long he survives without turning around the club finding sustainability at League One level a real struggle may depend on his turning some of the young team he has inherited into the sky diamonds beloved of his eccentric owner.
These are diamonds created from natural carbon under huge pressure. Looks like Big Dunc is in the right place for that.
As for the final run in, I stand with Disraeli, when he said, “as for our majority, one is enough.”
And right now we have two.
COYG!!!
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