As we jockey for position with the winning-line in sight I'm not too bothered that we're
currently out of the play-off spots because with only four games left we've got a game in
hand on three of our rivals and we also have to play two of them.
Crucially Wycombe play Sheffield Wednesday this Saturday and obviously points will be dropped somewhere. I don't mind if we finish sixth as long as we're in there. We really have to win again today, though, but we've got the best form of all those going for promotion and there seems a
good chance that Pritchard will be in the squad this afternoon. We haven't played
consistently well at all recently but we've got that winning, never-say-die mentality, quite
the opposite of what happened at this stage last season. I've never been to Plymouth for the
match and hope I never have to do so. I take my hat off to all our fans who're currently
making that longest of round-trips. I'll be watching the match in Fitzie's with my bubble
and my match prediction is a hard-fought 2-1 win for us.
When I got to the pub, my fellow-bubblers' predictions were:- 3-0, 2-1 and 2-1, to us of
course. The place was surprisingly empty so I got a seat with a great view. I got the team
news and Gooch was on the bench, unsurprisingly, while Evans was starting. That all
suited me. Pritchard was still out injured.
By kick-off time a lot more people had come into the pub and the telly was booming too. I
could hear a lot of booing onscreen as the Plymouth players took the knee. Broadhead
went on a great run down the left in the fourth minute but a very nifty tackle in the box
ended the danger for them. Plymouth won a corner in the sixth and we headed it clear.
O’Nien was thrown to the ground but ref Carl Brook took no action apart from having a
word in the culprit’s ear and you could see it was going to be a physical battle.
We were putting together some impressively fluent attacks but often the final pass was going astray. Wright was forced to concede Plymouth’s second corner in the seventeenth minute and
Patterson held it at the far post. Two minutes later he had to dive to block a low shot on the
line. It looked like we were lucky to escape a penalty when Winchester shoved one of their
players over as they both chased the ball as it was heading over our goal-line. Plymouth
were now doing most of the pressing and we conceded a third corner though it went over
and out. Elsewhere Wimbledon went 1-0 against Wycombe and that was very good news.
Gillesphey had a shot that dipped just over the bar on the half-hour while we hadn’t done
much serious attacking for a while. A great long ball from Embleton was met by the on-
running Stewart but Cooper in goal managed to grab it off his toes.
We won our first corner in the thirty-eighth minute and Stewart seemed to be clearly wrestled to the ground by Gillesphey but nothing was given. Next thing a Hardie header went just wide of our left post and Plymouth had certainly had the best of the attacking play while we hadn’t had a
shot on target. I was midway through that sentence when Embleton had one but Cooper
gathered it well. We suddenly enjoyed a good attacking spell ourselves and won another
corner in stoppage-time but it came to nothing and the whistle immediately went. If
Wimbledon could hang on to their lead, then maybe a draw would be okay for us. We were
temporarily up to fifth in the table but I still reckoned we could snatch the one goal that
looked like it would win the game.
We had a chance a minute after the restart and the tackles continued to fly in so it was
clearly going to be a humdinger second period. Cooper blocked a low shot from Embo and
we’d started much more brightly than in the first-half. “The service to Stewart is shite!”
exclaimed a man behind me as our final passes continued to go astray too often. We won
another corner in the fifty-eighth minute but it was cleared and Cirkin was yellow-carded
as Plymouth broke. The hour-mark came and went and there were a few cries of anguish in
the bar as we saw Gooch warming up. I wanted to see Neil and Roberts on before long.
Camara soon went off injured to be replaced by Randell and I was glad to see him go. A
shot from Grant didn’t go far wide in the sixty-seventh as it was deflected for another
corner. Twenty minutes to go and still no changes for us but we were starting to get the
upper hand. Gooch came on for O’Nien in the seventy-fourth minute and three minutes
later Roberts replaced Embo.
Meanwhile Stewart had had his first real effort of the game but his shot went narrowly wide. We subbed Neil for Matete with ten minutes on the clock, to some serious groaning in the pub, and Wycombe were still losing. Evans was yellow carded with about five minutes to go but we were entering our favourite goalscoring period. Instead I thought Grant had scored but his low shot was turned out for another corner. Elsewhere Wycombe had equalised and that was bad news indeed.
Four minutes of stoppage-time were announced so we were in the zone but considering how bad so many of our passes had been, a goal seemed unlikely. Sessegnon was booked for a foul and we were awarded a free-kick near the right angle of their box but it went straight to Cooper in
goal. It ended 0-0.
This was a fair result but I feel disappointed as if our passing had been better we could
have created a lot more goalscoring chances. Anyway, we’re still in a play-off position and
have a game in hand on the two sides above us.
