Just back from Truro

Just got back from a good night.

Arrived at half 5, went in a couple pubs and then made our way up to the ground and took our places behind the goal, decent little ground to be honest in some nice weather. (if you went, we were the ones trying to liven the atmosphere up singing etc lol)

First half wasn't fantastic. The back 4 were solid and there were no real slip ups, Richards and Blanchard were able to hold it well with Williams staying tight, Lowry looked excellent and then came a bad moment, he got injured and he went down badly before going off on crutches, a real shame as I liked the look of him. Our main threat going forward was Lennox as he drifted in and out, Hourihane wasn't great but Copp looked good throughout. The first clear cut chance fell to truro but Rene Gilmartin (who enjoyed fan banter throughout) made an expert save to tip the ball onto the post. Jamie Richards then had a headed goal dissalowed. We finally got our breakthrough, Griffiths won a ball before chesting it down and finished nicely.

In the second half Williams moved to RB with Bhasera at LB, a great decision and both really upped their game. Lecointe looked promising on the right wing, and the biggest shock of the night Soukouna shared the midfield with an average Luke Young. Argyle were forging chances from the off and a headed attempt from Soukouna smashed against the crossbar before he then had a follow up well blocked, not long after, Nelson saw his header cleared off the line before he then to hit the crossbar with a header. A clever flick from Rhys Griffiths came off the upright before Rene Gilmartin was called upon to make another good save.

All in all, an ok performance, good at the back and good going forward in the second half.

Positives:
Rhys Griffiths, good, won everything and scored a good goal.
Soukouna, did very well, didn't lose the ball and could have scored a couple
Lecointe, strong on the wing, some good crosses
Rene Gilmartin, controlled his box and made 2 superb saves

Negatives:
Cowan Hall, yet to prove himself
Purse, another shaky match.

COYG

Well it isn't going to get the missing thousands back but at least it's a win.

Could we have bought another injury prone boy in Lowry? His track record isn't good in that department.

gasser9 wrote:

Well it isn't going to get the missing thousands back but at least it's a win.

Could we have bought another injury prone boy in Lowry? His track record isn't good in that department.

I saw the incident as an accidental late collision with a truro player in which he went down on his ankle, not gonna blame him for it.

And as you say, not a jaw dropping trashing but its a start

Got as far as Lowry injured and decided I've read enough. This is worse than when Todd was running things.

At least under Todd we knew it was all or nothing. This Brent shit of signing youngsters hoping to come good and injury prone players who might play a few games is quite frankly despicable.

An acute businessman pretending to know fk all about football but knows enough to do the cheap option at every fkn turn is ok. The wankers who continue to support this shit aren't!

We don't need PASB, we don't need flags, we don't need Webby's ultras. We need proper last century protests!

Last nights match report.

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What a win.

They got a right stuffing!

downthetrack wrote:

What a win.

We did it without some of our most experienced players too!

I see Cureton's likely to sign for you DTT, bringing the average age of your squad to 42. I did say age and not IQ.

Hodges says it was a depleted Truro side who can take more from the game than Argyle

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I can hear it now.
Nigel Martyn, Stack Stevens, David Penhaligon, A L Rowse, An Gov, your boys took a healuvva beating.

I wasn't there, but once again Fletch's post match comments really do make my heart sink. Just read this article about Rhys Griffiths and he must lack imagination [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

What exactly did he learn whilst doing his coaching badges? Did he only do the module on playing 4-4-2, lump it and cross it to a big man? Then again he did play for that great footballing tradition West Ham so some of it must have rubbed off... somewhere... surely?

Aside from that I would like see Griffiths up against Preston, see how he'd cope with a professional defence.

The thing is Warny, having a big centre-forward doesn't have to mean you pump the ball up to him at every opportunity like we used to with Fallon, a bit of craft in midfield and a full-back overlapping, put over a good cross and the big man can score.

Now and again the quick ball up to the front man can be the best option and buys you time if you've been under pressure. Fletcher gives the distinct impression that lumping it up to Griffiths would be a regular occurence if he signs up for us, or am I being overly erm ya know critical of the Gaffer?

Errm yeah, no, y'know.

FFS !

I agree with you Greenjock. Mixing it up is something I thought Norwich did very effectively in Lambert's time. They hit Grant Holt when needed, did the dirty things, but were comfortable in possession and not bad to watch.

Increasingly I think that Fletch only has one idea. His dismissal in this paragraph is, for me, is symptomtic of so many mediocre coaches in football at this level and his views on keeping the ball; "At the end of the day, in the first-half, you can pass it as much as you want but you’ve got to get the ball in the box..." I'd like to shake him and say that we're not after passing for the sake of it. Lets retain possession, show some intelligence on the ball instead of treating it like a hot rock and blindly crossing thinking it leads to more scoring opportunties.

And I certainly don't think you're being overly critical of the gaffer!

Warny wrote:

I agree with you Greenjock. Mixing it up is something I thought Norwich did very effectively in Lambert's time. They hit Grant Holt when needed, did the dirty things, but were comfortable in possession and not bad to watch.Increasingly I think that Fletch only has one idea. His dismissal in this paragraph is, for me, is symptomtic of so many mediocre coaches in football at this level and his views on keeping the ball; "At the end of the day, in the first-half, you can pass it as much as you want but you’ve got to get the ball in the box..." I'd like to shake him and say that we're not after passing for the sake of it. Lets retain possession, show some intelligence on the ball instead of treating it like a hot rock and blindly crossing thinking it leads to more scoring opportunties.

And I certainly don't think you're being overly critical of the gaffer!

So what exactly did Fletcher say in his comments that differ from your ideas on creating goalscoring opportunities? Saying that "you can pass it all you want but you've got to get the ball into the box" is not precluding passing the ball at all,is it? I would interpret Fletchers coments as saying that you can have a passing game as the basis for your style but you need to avoid a situation where you pass the ball into blind alleys,as Hoddle's Wolves team did and indeed Argyle did at the start of last season.And i can't see either where he says that "blindly crossing " the ball is a good coaching maxim.Can't really see the problem TBH,bit of an over reaction IMHO.

Greenskin wrote:

Warny wrote:

I agree with you Greenjock. Mixing it up is something I thought Norwich did very effectively in Lambert's time. They hit Grant Holt when needed, did the dirty things, but were comfortable in possession and not bad to watch.Increasingly I think that Fletch only has one idea. His dismissal in this paragraph is, for me, is symptomtic of so many mediocre coaches in football at this level and his views on keeping the ball; "At the end of the day, in the first-half, you can pass it as much as you want but you’ve got to get the ball in the box..." I'd like to shake him and say that we're not after passing for the sake of it. Lets retain possession, show some intelligence on the ball instead of treating it like a hot rock and blindly crossing thinking it leads to more scoring opportunties.

And I certainly don't think you're being overly critical of the gaffer!

So what exactly did Fletcher say in his comments that differ from your ideas on creating goalscoring opportunities? Saying that "you can pass it all you want but you've got to get the ball into the box" is not precluding passing the ball at all,is it? I would interpret Fletchers coments as saying that you can have a passing game as the basis for your style but you need to avoid a situation where you pass the ball into blind alleys,as Hoddle's Wolves team did and indeed Argyle did at the start of last season.And i can't see either where he says that "blindly crossing " the ball is a good coaching maxim.Can't really see the problem TBH,bit of an over reaction IMHO.

Because from what I saw last season and what I percieve to be disheartening comments I don't think he will install that kind of mix and match approach. Plus I don't think he's even capable of it. All I am seeing is him maintaining last seasons survival tactics or really building a squad to do it, more filling out an already pretty poor bunch.

Warny wrote:

Greenskin wrote:

Warny wrote:

I agree with you Greenjock. Mixing it up is something I thought Norwich did very effectively in Lambert's time. They hit Grant Holt when needed, did the dirty things, but were comfortable in possession and not bad to watch.Increasingly I think that Fletch only has one idea. His dismissal in this paragraph is, for me, is symptomtic of so many mediocre coaches in football at this level and his views on keeping the ball; "At the end of the day, in the first-half, you can pass it as much as you want but you’ve got to get the ball in the box..." I'd like to shake him and say that we're not after passing for the sake of it. Lets retain possession, show some intelligence on the ball instead of treating it like a hot rock and blindly crossing thinking it leads to more scoring opportunties.

And I certainly don't think you're being overly critical of the gaffer!

So what exactly did Fletcher say in his comments that differ from your ideas on creating goalscoring opportunities? Saying that "you can pass it all you want but you've got to get the ball into the box" is not precluding passing the ball at all,is it? I would interpret Fletchers coments as saying that you can have a passing game as the basis for your style but you need to avoid a situation where you pass the ball into blind alleys,as Hoddle's Wolves team did and indeed Argyle did at the start of last season.And i can't see either where he says that "blindly crossing " the ball is a good coaching maxim.Can't really see the problem TBH,bit of an over reaction IMHO.

Because from what I saw last season and what I percieve to be disheartening comments I don't think he will install that kind of mix and match approach. Plus I don't think he's even capable of it. All I am seeing is him maintaining last seasons survival tactics or really building a squad to do it, more filling out an already pretty poor bunch.

So would you say that the quality of staff was entirely Fletcher's fault? Or does the problem go rather deeper than that?

For me it's not just his comments after the Truro game, but the complete inability to change his gameplan at all last season. Level, ahead or behind it didn't seem to matter, the tactics remained the same until 10 minutes from time if we were behind.

We do have Lennox and PCH who could both be nippy wide men, but there is no point in lumping a high ball up to Lennox who looks like the paperboy who delivers the Wiltshire Times.

I'm not overly worried by the 5-0 defeat, although I was surprised the much vaunted defence caved in quite so badly, or the win at Truro, as pre-season games rarely mean much more than getting fitness and trying to get new faces to gel into the team, unless we start our best XI against WSM and Tiverton and get thumped, and then panic and play a completely different side against Preston and Birmingham, and still get thumped.

These games are the chance to see what Griffiths can do regularly, and if he knocks in a few more in these games he's surely worth a go.