My look on Argyle V Crewe

A couple days late with the uncertainty at the moment.

Plymouth Argyle go into a six-pointer match as they face Crewe Alexandra at Home Park tommorrow afternoon, both sides with a poor start to the 2011/12 season.

After their first 4 matches of the season the away side find themselves parked at the bottom of the league 2 table and are the only side without a single point to show for their efforts. Crewe impressed in pre season after opening the summer matches with a 2 1 victory over Wolves and then a couple of weeks later a win against championship side Derby came about. However the Railwaymen were given a tough start to the season as they made the trip south to relegated Swindon, the home side enjoyed a fairly effortless 3 0 victory. Since then Alexandra have gone down against Rotherham and Gillingham, two sides who have also beaten the pilgrims this season. Their most recent match was a tricky trip to Greenhous Meadow in Shrewsbury where Argyle began their 125th year, the greens managed a point but Crewe suffered a 2 0 defeat.

Like the Railwaymen, Argyle have had a poor start to the season, picking up only a point for what can be described as faultless effort from Reid's rookies. The Pilgrims faced the likes of QPR and Bristol City in pre season, loosing both by narrow scorelines before picking up wins against Truro City and Saltash United. Argyle were also given a tough start as they made the trip to Shrewsbury in Shropshire hoping to impress the incredible 1207 away supporters gathered behind one end of the playing surface, a late Carl Fletcher strike earned them a point. However defeats followed, Argyle were beaten heavily (4 1) against top of the league Rotherham before AFCW managed to defeat a dominant first half Argyle 2 0. Reid's men then made the trip east (Kent) to face Gillingham, the solid Argyle defence were finally undone just 18 minutes from time and the Gills went on to win 3 0 as the heads dropped.

Crewe did not go into the season relegation favs but it is certainly looking that way at the moment, the supporters are getting tired and frustrated after seeing a leaky defence open the season in a poor fashion, claims that the players are loosing faith in the manager are also prominant. The club finished in an impressive 10th spot last season in League 2. The Alex are managed by Dario Gradi, despite being an incredible 70 years of age, Gradi has never played football at a pro level, only managing game time at Sutton and Tooting. Since then he has managed the now liquidated Wimbledon, Crystal Palace and Crewe. The Alex were founded in 1977 and play at the Alexandra stadium (10 153).

Argyle went into the season tipped by many for relegation, and they have certainly met expectations sofare. The club still have a long road ahead of them before reaching a recovery stage from their recent financial woes, the Pilgrims only today found themselves on the very brink of liqudiation, however the supposed takeover of the club by Bishop international is said to still be on. The greens have been through 2 relegations in just 2 seasons, now finding themselves in the basement tier of English football. Paul Sturrock and Paul Mariner led the Pilgrims to relegation from the championship and there was little Peter Reid could do in League 1, as he couldnt find any crumbs in the cookie jar left by the previous coaching team. With a team barren of experience determination and confidence will be crucial if the Pilgrims wish to stay up.

Some of the lads (Pilgrims)

Will Atkinson LW - The 22 year old is currently on loan at Argyle from Hull City. The winger had enjoyed loan spells away from the KC stadium on numerous occasions, he has made 6 apps for Hull and numerous ones for Port Vale, Mansfield, Rochdale and finally Argyle, he has allready impressed the Home Park crowd with an impressive goal against Rotherham for the Pilgrims.

Warren Feeney ST - The 30 year old Northern Ireland international certainly cant complain about a shortage of clubs, spending time at Leeds, Bournemouth, Stockport, Luton, Cardiff, Swansea, Dundee, Sheffield Wednesday and finally Oldham before making the trip to Devon. However Warren has a barren scoring record in recent times and has been unable to score a goal in 27 matches.

Tom Hitchcock ST - Tom Hitchcock is currently on loan from Blackburn at Plymouth Argyle, the 18 year old has never played pro football before coming to Argyle and making the 3 apps he has done sofare. However Hitchcock holds a strong scoring record in the Blackburn reserves and broke into Rovers Reserves in 2009.

Some of the lads (Railwaymen)

Luke Murphy MID - Murphy has never been at another club apart from Crewe Alexandra, being a product of their extensive youth set up. The 21 year old has made 80 pro starts for The Alex since breaking into the first team in 2008 and scoring his first league goal against Hartlepool that year.

Shaun Miller ST - The 23 year old striker is another product of the youth set up Crewe have. Miller started in the youth ranks with Crewe in 1995 and has been brought up into the first team. Since breaking into the first team Shaun has made 135 starts scoring 35 goals. In 2007 he had a brief loan spell with Witton Albion after an injury.

Steve Phillips GK - Unlike the previous two Steve Phillips was not brought up through the ranks at Crewe, instead he had to settle for a club much further down, Paulton Rovers. In 1997 the 33 year old joined Bristol city and claimed an impressive 257 apps at Ashton gate. He has played for a host of other clubs before signing for The Alex after a loan spell with them.

In terms of league position the home side would look likely to win it however they recently lost Stephane Zubar, Carl Fletcher and Robbie Williams are expected to be match fit which will hopefully boost the side.

Lets hope for a good game

Cheers

With the record that Gradi has he's wasted at Crewe, he should be managing us!

GOB wrote:

With the record that Gradi has he's wasted at Crewe, he should be managing us!

GOB,i remember him saying once that he was approached three times by Argyle about the vacant HP job but turned it down each time-he didn't expand on the reasons,maybe he had a cushy number and a job for life at Crewe.He certainly produced some good players for them-Ashton,Jones,Savage,Lennon,Maynard,Varney,Hulse to name but a few.