After struggling in the first-half, during which Plymouth defended in depth and looked dangerous on the break, we upped our game considerably in the second and ran out deserved winners.
BEFORE
Despite a far from convincing performance against Boro, the final result and the way Rusyn got the equaliser has warmed our communal cockles. The impressive debut of new signing Hjelde didn't do any harm either so there's a good deal of optimism about before this afternoon's match. However, Plymouth have won a couple of league games on the trot after a bad run and I think they'll be a tougher nut to crack than many of our fans are expecting. I still think we'll win, though. I haven't heard anything about Ballard's injury so I'm hoping he'll be back in the side after going off near the end last Sunday. Surely Rusyn will get a start after his recent form and I'd like to see Hemir up there with him, perhaps in the later stages of the match. I also hope Tuesday's extra-time defeat against Leeds in the Cup has drained them a bit. I'll be listening to the game on SAFSEE and my match prediction is a 2-1 win for us.
When I got the team-news around 2.30, I saw that Roberts and Rusyn were starting instead of Jobe and Burstow and that seemed all to the good to me. Mundle was among the subs again. Mumba was starting for them.
THE MATCH
We were caught cold in the opening minute and allowed Plymouth to break which resulted in Mumba getting a header in. A few minutes later we were up the other end winning the first corner but the ball was cleared. There was applause in the fifth minute for Micheal Beale’s niece Poppy who is currently very ill. Ba got the first booking of the game for a foul in the ninth minute and there were boos for referee Anthony Backhouse. Just after that Patto was forced into a save and O’Nien and Hjelde cleared after it sounded like Plymouth were clearly offside. Commentator Benno certainly thought so and he said the assistant referee was way behind the play. Plymouth were pushing two players upfront whenever they could and we’d have to watch that. They had a fair bit of speed too. There were more boos for the ref when he didn’t give Miller a yellow for what many thought was a foul. We were struggling to get through their defence and hadn’t had a shot worthy of the name in the opening quarter. I could hear our fans singing, though.
Whittaker was booked for a foul in the twenty-fourth and following the resultant free-kick a Clarke effort was spilled by Hazard in goal but at least we’d got one on target at last. Barnes and Benno said that we needed to attack more down the left as we’d been concentrating on going down the right so far. I thought I hadn’t heard much of Clarke so far. Phillips was booked for pulling back Ba and we had another free-kick but Clarke wasted it. With ten minutes to the break the picture wasn’t too rosy as Plymouth were containing us comparatively easily but, anyway, we won another corner. It came to nothing. Soon afterwards a Rusyn shot was blocked and went for a third corner. We took it long for a change but it resulted in Plymouth breaking very quickly and when Whittaker fed Hardie, he hit the ball over Patto and Hume to put them in the lead. Plymouth had been threatening on the break and they’d caught us cold there. Next thing Hardie tried a shot from the half-way line and it didn’t go far wide. Mumba became their third player to be booked and following the free-kick we won another corner but… It remained 0-1at half-time and Plymouth had managed us all too comfortably.
I was wondering if a draw was all we could hope for as we kicked off again but there was a whole half to go and if Clarke could get the ball more, maybe we could get a couple of goals. We quickly won another corner but could we make it count for a change? It eventually resulted in Hazard punching the ball away and that was that. Next thing we were awarded a free-kick just outside their box and we took Plymouth by surprise as after taking it short Ekwah smashed it into the bottom right-hand corner to put us level. The crowd were cheering at last and we soon won another corner. It was cleared but we immediately brought the ball back up and pressed again. Whittaker got the ball in the net but it was ruled out for offside so well done to the assistant referee. Forshaw was down injured for a while and then there was some confusion about whether he was going to be subbed but he eventually stayed on. Anyway, we were very soon in the lead when Clarke hit a right foot shot from outside the box that went in off a post (though BBC Sport didn’t think it did). Two goals in seven minutes had turned the game around and there was still half an hour to go. We’d increased our tempo considerably since the break and it had paid off. I still felt that we’d see another goal or two before we were finished. We made a couple of changes in the sixty-fifth with Jobe and Rigg replacing Ba and Ekwah. I looked forward to seeing what Rigg could do over a more extended stay on the pitch than usual.
We continued to do most of the pressing and then in the sixty-seventh Neil fed Jobe, who went on a run and smashed in our third as the crowd went wild. That’s what you call a successful substitution. Mundle replaced Roberts and I was looking forward to seeing what he could do as well. Plymouth were sounding tired and we were finding more space than earlier so I fancied us for another goal. We were up to sixth spot, for a while at least. Mumba was among several Plymouth players substituted and he sounded very unhappy about it as he left the pitch. In the seventy-ninth there was applause for John Snaith, manager of the Colliery Tavern, who died last week. John came to my house once and he was a good lad. The game was clearly in the bag and the atmosphere had calmed down as we played out the closing stages. Aouchiche came on for Rusyn right near the end and Plymouth won a couple of rare corners as we sat back. There were six minutes of stoppage-time and it ended 3-1 to much applause.
