One Game at a Time: You’re Only Here for the Nail Biting
Brexiter City (A) April 27th
One down, two to go.
As accurate a summary of the result at Stoke and Argyle’s predicament following it as I can think of.
After all the build up a sold out away end was treated to one of those all too familiar Argyle performances where the fine margins fall the wrong way early, and once the first goal goes in, everyone kind of knows that it probably isn’t going to drop our way.
For the first forty minutes, despite the troubling loss of Forshaw to what looked like a season ending hamstring injury, the game was tight and tense, with Argyle forcing the only save of note from Iverson, from a Whittaker pot shot from distance, and an offside Hardie goal chalked off, albeit rightly. Although try telling that to Michael Carrick after a shocking offside decision allowed Gnonto to put Leeds 3-2 up at Boro the following Monday.
Then came the melee, caused by a late challenge on Cooper. Designed to intimidate the statistically best keeper in the Division, the net effect was a series of bookings for either side, a break in concentration and, within a few minutes, the end of the game as a contest as Stoke wandered in somehow two goals to the good for a much different team talk. Double dutch indeed.
The next goal was always going to be decisive and so it was when Stokes third Dutchman scored in injury time to wrap up the points and the well beaten Argyle fans were left with the pre relegation slide rules once again as that elusive point that seemingly will guarantee safety proves ever elusive.
You know it’s a bad day when the best thing about the result is that two ex-players don’t get on the score sheet in a three-nil defeat. And with the fixtures spreading out as Sky milk the race to go up and stay up for all it is worth, it took until Sunday afternoon to unravel the consequences of the weekend relegation fixtures.
The weekend winners were Stoke, as we know, QPR who ended Ryan Lowes imaginary play-off hopes, and the Wendies, who overcame the one-man band that is Sammy Szmodics, courtesy of a blooper reel performance by Ashley Pears in the Rovers goal, first getting lobbed by Windass from forty yards, and finally capping that with an own goal of simply epic proportions.
That goal, which consisted of an air kick to a soft back pass which may or may not have bobbled, a turn to rescue the situation and control the ball that ended with a kneed mis-control towards the net, followed by a scrabbling attempt to reach the ball that had just enough momentum to win the race to the back of the net. Finally, a spin and foul-mouthed tirade at the horror-struck defender who had sent the ball his way, as if it were his fault. It wasn’t.
I am not a betting man, but I wouldn’t be averse to gambling on a change in goal for Rovers final two games.
Brum achieved the near impossible, of failing to net at Rotherham who unveiled the returning sombrero toting Steve Evans as manager. Huddersfield held the Jacks until a second half deluge left them clinging to the last vestiges of hope….a home game with Birmingham which if they win leaves them with the simple task of getting a result at Ipswich. They could well be heading in the opposite direction after having a two-week vacation courtesy of Coventry’s plucky but ultimately vain attempt to upset the Old Trafford apple cart at Wembley.
As for our next opponents, Millwall secured their Championship safety with a scrappy one nil win at Sunderland whose implosion seems almost complete now.
After the other midweek fixtures were concluded the only other thing really decided was that Leicester should soon be confirming their return to the Championship the season after next, by gaining promotion to a Premier League determined to deduct them points before they start for past misdemeanours of a financial nature.
Even the all-conquering Stoke are still not completely safe with a trip to the stuttering Russell Martin Smarmy Army, doubtless smarting from the lessons drummed into them at training, in-between the mamager’s trips to his mechanics evening class, where fortuitously the main focus this week is what to do when the wheels come off.
Below them QPR have a tricky home game against Leeds to deal with this evening before wrapping up their season at Coventry, who also have a visit to Blackburn to try and rescue their nosediving form. Sadly, for the Sky Blues, their only trip to Wembley this season is the one they just had, and four defeats in their last five games have meant that a single Norwich point means even three wins from their last three won’t be enough for the play-offs.
If Rovers do stutter against Coventry, they end their season at the presumably celebratory Leicester City, although given the way the top sides have stumbled of late, there is an outside chance that the Foxes still might need something from this final game to either seal the deal for promotion or even the shiny silver trophy that goes with buying the league title.
The Wendies have stuttering West Brom in town, who after two defeats on the bounce are still catchable by Hull City, as are Norwich. Given the final game of the season at Home Park the deflation of Hull, preferably on Saturday evening by Ipswich would be an enormous boon.
Huddersfield simply have to win at home to Birmingham to maintain even a remote chance of survival, and Birmingham with a final home game against Norwich who potentially could still need something to make the play-offs, probably need to do so as well. A Brum win or even a draw effectively relegates the Terriers. Especially as their final game is away to Ipswich.
All clear? Excellent. Which leads us to Saturday.
If last weekend was a trip to a ground where we hadn’t won for over a hundred and ten years (and, sadly, counting), visiting Millwall isn’t a whole lot better.
And whichever way you cut it doesn’t really help. Our last league win over Millwall on their own patch, the Den, was that most famous of Argyle away wins in 1967.
Since Millwall moved from Cold Blow Lane to Zampa Road (which still sounds like the next unimaginably expensive unknown midfielder signed by Todd Boelhy for Chelsea) not a single victory in sight for the Greens.
The New Den, plonked on a piece of industrial ground between railway lines like a life-sized Lego kit was one of the first of the new grounds brought about by the change in regulation of football grounds following HIllsborough. At the time a hugely unpopular move for the Millwall fans, which saw pitch invasions to protest the actions of then Chairman Reg Burr, the club were looking for a new start that would allow them to generate more revenue than just the football side at what at the time was called the New London Stadium, and not a mention of the Den to be found. Even now there is a risk that local developers will buy up the spare ground around the New Den which has led to speculation of a relocation to Kent, which has gone down as well as you might think with the local Millwall fans. Not to mention the residents of Kent.
The club had an image problem, and not just because it’s proximity with the new Stadium to so many railway lines attracted the apparent support of Michael Portillo. As previously discussed, the club had an in-built media profile of hooligan based riotous behaviour, enshrined in the “no-one likes us” song and slogan embraced by the clubs marketing department.
It is safe to say that combined with Panorama exposés, fans like Harry the Dog and the Richardsons, and the only known use for a newspaper for Millwall fans apparently being the ingenious invention of a bludgeon type weapon known as the Millwall Brick, you can imagine the famous Norwegian diatribe in defeat of England if used against the Lions sounding more like “Tommy Steele, Michael Portillo, Danny Baker, Gary Oldman, David Haye, Daniel Day-Lewis, F Troop, The Bushwackers, Harry the Dog, The Richardsons…..your guys took a rather unfortunate narrow defeat, but played really well and could well have nicked something at the end…..”
It is rare, if ever, that someone looks around a social gathering and thinks, what this party needs is a few Millwall fans to liven it up. On this weekend, however, one Millwall fan who both lived up to their historic reputation and was widely applauded for doing so is being honoured pre match. Ray Larner, the “Lion of London Bridge” is being presented with the Royal Humane Society Silver Award for his bravery in 2017 in tackling three extremists who slashed him with machetes while he fought them off, allowing many in the restaurant he was in to escape to safety.
Whilst Larner as a hero is an imperfect role model, no-one can doubt either his bravery at the time or the severity of the injuries he received in fighting for his fellow diners. How many would have done what he did in the same circumstances?
With Millwall safe, and hopefully suitably gorged on rewarding deliveries of sponsors Huski chocolate bars, another sold out away allocation will be hoping for the spirit of 67 on the pitch.
It is legend that Argyle arrived with a poor away record at the home of the Lions, then unbeaten for 59 consecutive home matches. One newspaper pools pundit who predicted an away win received a barrage of abusive phone calls for his impunity.
Argyle lined up with John Mitten, son of United legend Charlie Mitten, making his debut, having signed at the team hotel that morning.
Against all odds Banks and Bickle gave Argyle a two-goal lead. Millwall pulled one back through Neil but Peter Shearing was inspired in the Argyle goal and a famous victory was sealed.
The unexpected win, later commemorated in comic book style by the Scorcher, enraged the expectant home fans. A pitch invasion, initially aimed at manager Fenton, spread to the stoning of the Argyle team and supporter coaches. Harley Lawer, the Sunday Independent correspondent, recalled seeing his typewriter used as a football as it was kicked down the road.
It is the defining historical moment between the two clubs, who otherwise have had little involvement of significance before or since.
Argyle could well do with another all too rare victory in the South East London, although a point would be a boon as well, assuming not all the other results go against us this weekend.
Millwall play a style of football, as we saw at Home Park that, now under renewed boss Neil Harris, has seen them win their last three games without ever playing expansive football. They are hard to beat, aggressive in defence and as the departed KKH will testify, fairly aggressive in attack, after he was mugged quite literally for the ball in the build up to their second goal last year. What was to be the Joe Edwards Derby has been replaced with the Battle of the Neils.
Argyle need to find a goal scoring solution as well as perhaps a clean sheet. The tried and trusted Hardie Whittaker axis has dried up to a large degree. Will the caretaker duo shake up the attacking options?
We head into the Lions New Den. Where’s Daniel Pasoti when you need him?
COYG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brexiter City (A) April 27th
One down, two to go.
As accurate a summary of the result at Stoke and Argyle’s predicament following it as I can think of.
After all the build up a sold out away end was treated to one of those all too familiar Argyle performances where the fine margins fall the wrong way early, and once the first goal goes in, everyone kind of knows that it probably isn’t going to drop our way.
For the first forty minutes, despite the troubling loss of Forshaw to what looked like a season ending hamstring injury, the game was tight and tense, with Argyle forcing the only save of note from Iverson, from a Whittaker pot shot from distance, and an offside Hardie goal chalked off, albeit rightly. Although try telling that to Michael Carrick after a shocking offside decision allowed Gnonto to put Leeds 3-2 up at Boro the following Monday.
Then came the melee, caused by a late challenge on Cooper. Designed to intimidate the statistically best keeper in the Division, the net effect was a series of bookings for either side, a break in concentration and, within a few minutes, the end of the game as a contest as Stoke wandered in somehow two goals to the good for a much different team talk. Double dutch indeed.
The next goal was always going to be decisive and so it was when Stokes third Dutchman scored in injury time to wrap up the points and the well beaten Argyle fans were left with the pre relegation slide rules once again as that elusive point that seemingly will guarantee safety proves ever elusive.
You know it’s a bad day when the best thing about the result is that two ex-players don’t get on the score sheet in a three-nil defeat. And with the fixtures spreading out as Sky milk the race to go up and stay up for all it is worth, it took until Sunday afternoon to unravel the consequences of the weekend relegation fixtures.
The weekend winners were Stoke, as we know, QPR who ended Ryan Lowes imaginary play-off hopes, and the Wendies, who overcame the one-man band that is Sammy Szmodics, courtesy of a blooper reel performance by Ashley Pears in the Rovers goal, first getting lobbed by Windass from forty yards, and finally capping that with an own goal of simply epic proportions.
That goal, which consisted of an air kick to a soft back pass which may or may not have bobbled, a turn to rescue the situation and control the ball that ended with a kneed mis-control towards the net, followed by a scrabbling attempt to reach the ball that had just enough momentum to win the race to the back of the net. Finally, a spin and foul-mouthed tirade at the horror-struck defender who had sent the ball his way, as if it were his fault. It wasn’t.
I am not a betting man, but I wouldn’t be averse to gambling on a change in goal for Rovers final two games.
Brum achieved the near impossible, of failing to net at Rotherham who unveiled the returning sombrero toting Steve Evans as manager. Huddersfield held the Jacks until a second half deluge left them clinging to the last vestiges of hope….a home game with Birmingham which if they win leaves them with the simple task of getting a result at Ipswich. They could well be heading in the opposite direction after having a two-week vacation courtesy of Coventry’s plucky but ultimately vain attempt to upset the Old Trafford apple cart at Wembley.
As for our next opponents, Millwall secured their Championship safety with a scrappy one nil win at Sunderland whose implosion seems almost complete now.
After the other midweek fixtures were concluded the only other thing really decided was that Leicester should soon be confirming their return to the Championship the season after next, by gaining promotion to a Premier League determined to deduct them points before they start for past misdemeanours of a financial nature.
Even the all-conquering Stoke are still not completely safe with a trip to the stuttering Russell Martin Smarmy Army, doubtless smarting from the lessons drummed into them at training, in-between the mamager’s trips to his mechanics evening class, where fortuitously the main focus this week is what to do when the wheels come off.
Below them QPR have a tricky home game against Leeds to deal with this evening before wrapping up their season at Coventry, who also have a visit to Blackburn to try and rescue their nosediving form. Sadly, for the Sky Blues, their only trip to Wembley this season is the one they just had, and four defeats in their last five games have meant that a single Norwich point means even three wins from their last three won’t be enough for the play-offs.
If Rovers do stutter against Coventry, they end their season at the presumably celebratory Leicester City, although given the way the top sides have stumbled of late, there is an outside chance that the Foxes still might need something from this final game to either seal the deal for promotion or even the shiny silver trophy that goes with buying the league title.
The Wendies have stuttering West Brom in town, who after two defeats on the bounce are still catchable by Hull City, as are Norwich. Given the final game of the season at Home Park the deflation of Hull, preferably on Saturday evening by Ipswich would be an enormous boon.
Huddersfield simply have to win at home to Birmingham to maintain even a remote chance of survival, and Birmingham with a final home game against Norwich who potentially could still need something to make the play-offs, probably need to do so as well. A Brum win or even a draw effectively relegates the Terriers. Especially as their final game is away to Ipswich.
All clear? Excellent. Which leads us to Saturday.
If last weekend was a trip to a ground where we hadn’t won for over a hundred and ten years (and, sadly, counting), visiting Millwall isn’t a whole lot better.
And whichever way you cut it doesn’t really help. Our last league win over Millwall on their own patch, the Den, was that most famous of Argyle away wins in 1967.
Since Millwall moved from Cold Blow Lane to Zampa Road (which still sounds like the next unimaginably expensive unknown midfielder signed by Todd Boelhy for Chelsea) not a single victory in sight for the Greens.
The New Den, plonked on a piece of industrial ground between railway lines like a life-sized Lego kit was one of the first of the new grounds brought about by the change in regulation of football grounds following HIllsborough. At the time a hugely unpopular move for the Millwall fans, which saw pitch invasions to protest the actions of then Chairman Reg Burr, the club were looking for a new start that would allow them to generate more revenue than just the football side at what at the time was called the New London Stadium, and not a mention of the Den to be found. Even now there is a risk that local developers will buy up the spare ground around the New Den which has led to speculation of a relocation to Kent, which has gone down as well as you might think with the local Millwall fans. Not to mention the residents of Kent.
The club had an image problem, and not just because it’s proximity with the new Stadium to so many railway lines attracted the apparent support of Michael Portillo. As previously discussed, the club had an in-built media profile of hooligan based riotous behaviour, enshrined in the “no-one likes us” song and slogan embraced by the clubs marketing department.
It is safe to say that combined with Panorama exposés, fans like Harry the Dog and the Richardsons, and the only known use for a newspaper for Millwall fans apparently being the ingenious invention of a bludgeon type weapon known as the Millwall Brick, you can imagine the famous Norwegian diatribe in defeat of England if used against the Lions sounding more like “Tommy Steele, Michael Portillo, Danny Baker, Gary Oldman, David Haye, Daniel Day-Lewis, F Troop, The Bushwackers, Harry the Dog, The Richardsons…..your guys took a rather unfortunate narrow defeat, but played really well and could well have nicked something at the end…..”
It is rare, if ever, that someone looks around a social gathering and thinks, what this party needs is a few Millwall fans to liven it up. On this weekend, however, one Millwall fan who both lived up to their historic reputation and was widely applauded for doing so is being honoured pre match. Ray Larner, the “Lion of London Bridge” is being presented with the Royal Humane Society Silver Award for his bravery in 2017 in tackling three extremists who slashed him with machetes while he fought them off, allowing many in the restaurant he was in to escape to safety.
Whilst Larner as a hero is an imperfect role model, no-one can doubt either his bravery at the time or the severity of the injuries he received in fighting for his fellow diners. How many would have done what he did in the same circumstances?
With Millwall safe, and hopefully suitably gorged on rewarding deliveries of sponsors Huski chocolate bars, another sold out away allocation will be hoping for the spirit of 67 on the pitch.
It is legend that Argyle arrived with a poor away record at the home of the Lions, then unbeaten for 59 consecutive home matches. One newspaper pools pundit who predicted an away win received a barrage of abusive phone calls for his impunity.
Argyle lined up with John Mitten, son of United legend Charlie Mitten, making his debut, having signed at the team hotel that morning.
Against all odds Banks and Bickle gave Argyle a two-goal lead. Millwall pulled one back through Neil but Peter Shearing was inspired in the Argyle goal and a famous victory was sealed.
The unexpected win, later commemorated in comic book style by the Scorcher, enraged the expectant home fans. A pitch invasion, initially aimed at manager Fenton, spread to the stoning of the Argyle team and supporter coaches. Harley Lawer, the Sunday Independent correspondent, recalled seeing his typewriter used as a football as it was kicked down the road.
It is the defining historical moment between the two clubs, who otherwise have had little involvement of significance before or since.
Argyle could well do with another all too rare victory in the South East London, although a point would be a boon as well, assuming not all the other results go against us this weekend.
Millwall play a style of football, as we saw at Home Park that, now under renewed boss Neil Harris, has seen them win their last three games without ever playing expansive football. They are hard to beat, aggressive in defence and as the departed KKH will testify, fairly aggressive in attack, after he was mugged quite literally for the ball in the build up to their second goal last year. What was to be the Joe Edwards Derby has been replaced with the Battle of the Neils.
Argyle need to find a goal scoring solution as well as perhaps a clean sheet. The tried and trusted Hardie Whittaker axis has dried up to a large degree. Will the caretaker duo shake up the attacking options?
We head into the Lions New Den. Where’s Daniel Pasoti when you need him?
COYG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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