Argyle 2016/17 - Bang average, yet still winning (mostly)

I'm gonna start this thread and see how it progresses, because up until now (29/10/16) we have been no better than half decent in terms of performances, and yet bizarrely we are romping an albeit shite division.

Today yet again for the umpteenth time - on performance, we probably deserved to draw a game, and yet came out with another win thanks to a bit of luck/perseverance from Donaldson.

Every team over a course of a season will have a number of games where they get more than they deserve, but I have never ever witnessed a season in my 35-odd seasons of watching, where we have amassed so many points from such bang average performances on such a regular basis.

Don't get me wrong, long may it continue. I've really never seen a season like it though.

Czarcasm wrote:

I'm gonna start this thread and see how it progresses, because up until now (29/10/16) we have been no better than half decent in terms of performances, and yet bizarrely we are romping an albeit shite division.

Today yet again for the umpteenth time - on performance, we probably deserved to draw a game, and yet came out with another win thanks to a bit of luck/perseverance from Donaldson.

Every team over a course of a season will have a number of games where they get more than they deserve, but I have never ever witnessed a season in my 35-odd seasons of watching, where we have amassed so many points from such bang average performances on such a regular basis.

Don't get me wrong, long may it continue. I've really never seen a season like it though.

It's a bit odd as you say. No Barca performances, forwards who are not scoring, best GD in the league, little bit of luck (OK it appears more than usual) and yet we are, at present, leading the league. Oh well - I'll take it!

You would think the quality of performance will have to improve if the club is to get promoted, because you cant blag an entire season on luck.If Carey gets injured then what?

Can't disagree with that Czar. Haven't seen many matches this season but on today's showing what you and a few others I know have been saying is spot on, average but winning so the vast majority of fans will be happy enough with that I suppose. I thought we started ok and played the ball around quite nicely but looked toothless up top, not overly impressed with Spencer who looked knackered and half injured after about 10 minutes, need Brunty back asap imo as he chases everything and raises the tempo of the rest of the team, thought we looked lethargic on the whole and one up front at home doesn't really do it for me unless you've got players steaming forward from midfield which wasn't really the case today. Our first goal was strange as they had a player down injured and seemed to switch off a bit hoping we were going to kick the ball out, we rightly played on a pretty much walked through them, Tanner with a tidy finish to the keepers left corner. Their goal looked a good finish from a 20 yard free kick, don't know if Luke or the wall were at fault and will need to see it again. Second half was pretty dire again and a draw or even a defeat seemed on the cards when bizarre things started to happen. The ref seemed to get caught up with an Argyle player as they were running past each other as he went down heavily with what looked like a broken leg. There was 10-15 mins until the game restarted and what had been an awful atmosphere up until then seemed to change for the better, within a minute Donaldson chased down their keeper and got a block on his clearance, the ball looped high into the air and somehow landed in the back of the net. After that we fairly easily controlled the remaining god knows how long cause there was no 4th officials board until there was only 4 mins left even though in reality there must have been 15-20 mins of injury time. I'll gladly take the win left the ground well happy but I'm not sure how long we can continue to play like that and keep picking up the points, we're either riding our luck or this league is dire. Lastly, twist and shout sounds fcuking awful, village to the core, give it up you inbreds it's as bad as the angels who were thankfully absent.

sufferedsince 68 wrote:

You would think the quality of performance will have to improve if the club is to get promoted, because you cant blag an entire season on luck.If Carey gets injured then what?

Exactly Suffs. Credit to Donaldson today for gambling, but I'm still waiting for a performance this season where our strikers look like they are 'top of the league'.

Anyone looking in from afar at the league table could be forgiven for thinking our team has been parachuted in from a couple leagues above, when in reality if our performances equated to league position, we'd probably be around 7-10th.

I'll say it again - don't get me wrong, long may it continue, but it shorely can't last over 46 games.

Ps... Man of the match is a tough one, fives and sixes across the board really but I'll give it to big Bradley, like the look of him. Att 8,650.

none of the out and out strikers looks like they could score more then 5 a season let alone be the 10 plus we need out of two of them,

when the feck is garitta back????

From afar it looks like our winning is coming because of our defence - the best in league 2. If you discount the opening day drubbing then we've conceded only 10 in 14 league matches. Apart from that Luton match, only Portsmouth have scored more than 1 against us in the league. That's the basis of our form. We don't pull up any trees going forwards but if you ain't conceding many you're always going to pick up points consistently. I'm pretty sure that Bulvitis's delayed entry into the team, along with moving Songo' out of defence, was what kickstarted our unbeaten run.

Obviously the challenge will be when injuries occur. Carey getting injured would obviously be a huge loss, but I'd probably be just as concerned if Bulvitis or Bradley got injured.

McCormick is probably another reason we have a great defensive record. He would also certainly be playing in a higher league if it wasn't for his non-footballing history. He's a definite advantage we have over most other teams in this division. Also worth remembering that there are some bleedy awful teams in this league. Remember how bad we were under Fletcher, and in Sheridan's first season, and yet we still survived in this league.

Angry wrote:

when the feck is garitta back????

Loan must have ended through injury. He's probably gone back to Bristol City.

No still here, seen him at the life centre on thursday

Have only seen us play once this season, so not qualified to talk performances but surely one of the reasons we are up there is that goals are coming from all over the pitch.

Going up in 02 with 102 points and Coughlan top scorer on 11 shows you don't have to have a Tynan....though it helps.

In fairness,there were an awful lot of 1-0 wins during Sturrocks record breaking season in 2002 and quite a few performances that didn't seem to indicate a team which would achieve what it eventually did,remember a couple of particular stinkers down here against Darlington and Hartlepool. I'm not saying that this team is as good as that one or will achieve as much [all will be revealed on that score in due course i suppose] but it does appear to be built along much the same lines-clean sheets,goals spread around the team,a target man whose goal output is not as important as his all round contribution etc.Argyle are there to be shot at now and teams aren't going to roll over and play dead just because they are playing Argyle-just the opposite in fact.If you have 35 points and the best goal difference in the league then by definition some departments of the team amount to more than average-interesting to see if this team can find the consistency to somewhere near match the 2002 outfit in the long run.

I think there is much in what you say Czar and Les but I think there is more to come from them. There are some good players and I know this is going to sound like the sort of shit offered up on pasoti but I don't think they have entirely clicked yet. There are some good individuals Bradley like you is good and say appears an upgrade on Hartley. Songo is a good midfield enforcer, Slew is lively al sit with a woeful goalscoring record and Carey is one of the best players int the division. The strikers done seem up to much yet though.

Some of the performances have been a little disjointed but hopefully it wiil improve

One thing I will say is that we definitely seem to be more of a team this season rather than a collection of individuals(if that makes sense) so credit must go to Adams and the coaching staff for achieving that with so many new faces in the squad.

Looking at the stats, their keeper quite literally didn't make a save. We had two efforts on target all match and obviously both went in. It's a great habit to have though - winning games consistently when the result doesn't match the performance.

Parallels to last season, where we scraped a number of undeserved wins and went storming away at the top of the league only for it to all unravel after Christmas.

We do seem though, to have a stronger squad this time round and a stronger defensive unit. Hopefully, the lessons will have been learned from last year and if we need to strengthen in the January window, Adams will be allowed a few quid.

Time will tell, but another disappointment at the end of the season would be unthinkable.

I seem to remember opposing teams hitting posts and crossbars in those early matches, then we would go down the other end and pinch the points. Our luck, predictably, ran out after Christmas when injuries and suspensions kicked in.
This year's squad is better although the team isn't. Plus a glance at the fixtures prove that we are playing all the bottom half teams at the moment. Our position might be misleading.
I hope Adams and Brent have the foresight to not let contracts run down. The embarrassing and ridiculous Wembley situation where every players contract was up must not happen again.

The obvious 2 seasons to compare this one to are last year and the first Sturrock promotion. The difference between them was that one proved to be a false dawn whereas the other was the real deal.

The difference, for me, between Sturrock's promotion and this season (so far) was that there was a tangible feeling that momentum was building. We could almost taste it. This season doesn't feel like that to me and it isn't down to the results which could hardly be much better at present.

Maybe that's because our improvement this year is from a much higher base and we're only a little bit better than we were last season whereas Sturrock's year knocked spots off what immediately preceded it.

Also helped in 01/2 that we were crammed into Mayflower whilst Phase 1 took shape in first half of season.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

The obvious 2 seasons to compare this one to are last year and the first Sturrock promotion. The difference between them was that one proved to be a false dawn whereas the other was the real deal.

The difference, for me, between Sturrock's promotion and this season (so far) was that there was a tangible feeling that momentum was building. We could almost taste it. This season doesn't feel like that to me and it isn't down to the results which could hardly be much better at present.

Maybe that's because our improvement this year is from a much higher base and we're only a little bit better than we were last season whereas Sturrock's year knocked spots off what immediately preceded it.

The Sturrock promotion was partly due to a feeling that we'd bottomed out and things we're starting to improve off the pitch. The stadium was being built finally, the new board seemed like they were in it for the right reasons and most of all we got very lucky with a manager who was the right fit at the right time. He'd got a different set of contacts and was bringing in players that were a significant upgrade on what we had before. We were also extremely lucky with injuries with a small squad, there was also a fantastic spirit within the squad and they all by and with a few exceptions all got on well socially.

The difference this season is that I can't help feeling we've got a bunch of players thrown together half of whom weren't here last season half of whom won't be here next season.

There are more ways to skin a cat to reach your goal....far more than half this team are new this season....the significant change is more depth and good cover....which through injuries we are already benefitting from....I think to say that they are 'thrown together' is not very complimentary towards Derek Adams...who has a proven gift for 'finding' players to do a job for him.

Czarcasm wrote:

I'm gonna start this thread and see how it progresses, because up until now (29/10/16) we have been no better than half decent in terms of performances, and yet bizarrely we are romping an albeit shite division.

Today yet again for the umpteenth time - on performance, we probably deserved to draw a game, and yet came out with another win thanks to a bit of luck/perseverance from Donaldson.

Every team over a course of a season will have a number of games where they get more than they deserve, but I have never ever witnessed a season in my 35-odd seasons of watching, where we have amassed so many points from such bang average performances on such a regular basis.

Don't get me wrong, long may it continue. I've really never seen a season like it though.

Isnt that Exactly how argyle won this league back in 02 ?

Dane. wrote:

Czarcasm wrote:

I'm gonna start this thread and see how it progresses, because up until now (29/10/16) we have been no better than half decent in terms of performances, and yet bizarrely we are romping an albeit shite division.

Today yet again for the umpteenth time - on performance, we probably deserved to draw a game, and yet came out with another win thanks to a bit of luck/perseverance from Donaldson.

Every team over a course of a season will have a number of games where they get more than they deserve, but I have never ever witnessed a season in my 35-odd seasons of watching, where we have amassed so many points from such bang average performances on such a regular basis.

Don't get me wrong, long may it continue. I've really never seen a season like it though.

Isnt that Exactly how argyle won this league back in 02 ?

I think it was also a piss poor league that year, of the teams that came up 2 of them went straight back down. Most of the time a single goal was enough, I think Shrewsbury and Luton away was the only time we came properly unstuck away from home. The Luton game deserves its own thread one day.