Graham Coughlan is an average joe soap defender thread (luton match)

After watching the first half, most people would have said that Luton looked pretty decent going forward. They were clearly the better team. 2nd half whatever Shez said completely changed the game. Dunno to what degree Lutons crapness after the break could be attributed to our vastly improved showing, but it was a fairly classic case of 'game of two halves'. Even when Luton came forward 2nd half they never looked like troubling Luke.

On their first half showing a playoff place would not be an unreasonable prediction. Play like they did 2nd half and they won't be far from the trap door.

Funny old game innit.

quote="Czarcasm"]After watching the first half, most people would have said that Luton looked pretty decent going forward. They were clearly the better team. 2nd half whatever Shez said completely changed the game. Dunno to what degree Lutons crapness after the break could be attributed to our vastly improved showing, but it was a fairly classic case of 'game of two halves'. Even when Luton came forward 2nd half they never looked like troubling Luke.

On their first half showing a playoff place would not be an unreasonable prediction. Play like they did 2nd half and they won't be far from the trap door.

Funny old game innit.[/quote]



I still say Luton Town never really troubled Argyle. I will take the three points though and move on to the next game at Morecambe, which looks a tough one [how sad it is to say that !!] ..

Yeah Luton were crap throughout. They played some okay passing football, but like VG says, never really troubled. We just went from being more crap to not as bad as.

I've seen us play a lot, lot worse than that over the years spowell, in fact I quite enjoyed it, probably mostly due to us picking up 3 points away from home, that's something to be cherished because it's pretty rare these days !! The performance is secondary IMO.

Oh I still had a great day out Asti. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the match and the result. But it was hardly the most convincing performance, but I went home happy. Indeed we've played much worse, but its disappointing when you know we can play MUCH better - Orient & Exeter for example. Played terrific passing football at a quick pace. Sure Exeter are crap, but Orient aren't and we gave them a tough ride after starting the game poorly. If we want to challenge seriously at the top end then we need to improve, but I don't think we're far off being a very good side in this division. And it's good that despite not having always played particularly well, we've had a decent start to the season results wise.

Not troubled isn't really a fair way of putting it. They tore us apart in that move the ref started and would have scored but for Luke. If they posed us no problems, Luke wouldn't be pushing Reid very very close for MOTM.

What about the other way around - take Blizzard's excellent goal out of the equation, and what problems did we cause them?

spowell92 wrote:

Banton is more of a number 10 imo, not a left winger. Not in a side without any attack minded midfielders with at least an ounce of creativity anyway.

Banton is poor on the wing because he's out of form, and he would be poor in the number 10 role because he is out of form.

Banton would be an unstoppable number 10 when on form. Banton would be an unstoppable left winger when on form.

The crucial part is he has lost confidence and is a waste of a shirt. Bray literally showed more excitement in 2 mins, and JS accredited the changing flow of the game to this substitution.

Thomas or Bray must start until Banton sorts his head out. He looks scared, nervous and uncomfortable right now.

ejh wrote:

Not troubled isn't really a fair way of putting it. They tore us apart in that move the ref started and would have scored but for Luke. If they posed us no problems, Luke wouldn't be pushing Reid very very close for MOTM.

What about the other way around - take Blizzard's excellent goal out of the equation, and what problems did we cause them?

Blizzard should have scored one more than he did, Lewi missed two that he could have done better with in the first half (one of them a stinking one on one) and we should have had two stonewall penalties second half. One for handball and one for McHugh being manhandled.

That said, Bray should have been sent off for dangerous play before he had a chance to get injured so there's an example of luck evening itself out.

What about Nelson's handball. Could have been a straight red. Bray could have had a red. Nelson could have scored an own goal. Luton could have scored 2 in the first half alone - Rooney couldn't keep his down, and Luke saved a 1 on 1.


It was a good game of football but hardly comfortable from start to finish. Luton let us off the hook at times, they made good chances.

ejh wrote:

What about Nelson's handball. Could have been a straight red. Bray could have had a red. Nelson could have scored an own goal.  Luton could have scored 2 in the first half alone - Rooney couldn't keep his down, and Luke saved a 1 on 1.


It was a good game of football but hardly comfortable from start to finish. Luton let us off the hook at times, they made good chances.

i agree and i brought it up too

ejh wrote:

What about Nelson's handball. Could have been a straight red. Bray could have had a red. Nelson could have scored an own goal.  Luton could have scored 2 in the first half alone - Rooney couldn't keep his down, and Luke saved a 1 on 1.


It was a good game of football but hardly comfortable from start to finish. Luton let us off the hook at times, they made good chances.

Don't think it was a clear goalscoring opportunity at all for the Nelson one. There were covering defenders who could have easily got in there if the foul wasn't made.

I agree we should have had ten men and I agree it wasn't comfortable from start to finish looking at what took place in the game. But Bray should have gone if the letter of the law was applied correctly, not Nelse.

Just back. A what is becoming a typical Sheridan performance. Strange team shape with the first and second halfs being chalk and cheese. Dependent on RR doing a shedload of work to carve out his own half chances.

A vacuum in midfield. Can't figure it out entirely because I think Cox had a good game whereas I think Blizzard was quite awful save for his wonder goal - maybe that equals out to less than average. Mind you it's a hard watch from the away end at Luton.

Defence all over the place at times. Though Luke was our man of the match. More than kept us in it.

Goal was lovely. A pleasing waltz right in front of the away fans.

Bray should have been sent off. It was like someone lit the blue touch paper and off he went to clobber the Luton player.

To be promotion contenders we need to play with more consistency and if you like more swagger and self belief.

Overall we were less crap than them and less crap than we have been. I'm left with the feeling that another manager with the same squad would get a lot more out of them. I think we should be flying.

Did you walk back FFS !!

ejh wrote:

spowell92 wrote:

Banton is more of a number 10 imo, not a left winger. Not in a side without any attack minded midfielders with at least an ounce of creativity anyway.

Banton is poor on the wing because he's out of form, and he would be poor in the number 10 role because he is out of form.

Banton would be an unstoppable number 10 when on form. Banton would be an unstoppable left winger when on form.

The crucial part is he has lost confidence and is a waste of a shirt. Bray literally showed more excitement in 2 mins, and JS accredited the changing flow of the game to this substitution.

Thomas or Bray must start until Banton sorts his head out. He looks scared, nervous and uncomfortable right now.

Yeah, I personally wouldn't start Banton at all atm based on form (then again, we're hardly spoiled for choice), but I think he suits a system where he plays centrally more than one where he's out wide. He's better centrally than out wide, regardless of form.

spowell92 wrote:

ejh wrote:

spowell92 wrote:

Banton is more of a number 10 imo, not a left winger. Not in a side without any attack minded midfielders with at least an ounce of creativity anyway.

Banton is poor on the wing because he's out of form, and he would be poor in the number 10 role because he is out of form.

Banton would be an unstoppable number 10 when on form. Banton would be an unstoppable left winger when on form.

The crucial part is he has lost confidence and is a waste of a shirt. Bray literally showed more excitement in 2 mins, and JS accredited the changing flow of the game to this substitution.

Thomas or Bray must start until Banton sorts his head out. He looks scared, nervous and uncomfortable right now.

Yeah, I personally wouldn't start Banton at all atm based on form (then again, we're hardly spoiled for choice), but I think he suits a system where he plays centrally more than one where he's out wide. He's better centrally than out wide, regardless of form.

Even more so now given Bray has been sent back to Swansea to have treatment on his Knee.

spowell92 wrote:

ejh wrote:

spowell92 wrote:

Banton is more of a number 10 imo, not a left winger. Not in a side without any attack minded midfielders with at least an ounce of creativity anyway.

Banton is poor on the wing because he's out of form, and he would be poor in the number 10 role because he is out of form.

Banton would be an unstoppable number 10 when on form. Banton would be an unstoppable left winger when on form.

The crucial part is he has lost confidence and is a waste of a shirt. Bray literally showed more excitement in 2 mins, and JS accredited the changing flow of the game to this substitution.

Thomas or Bray must start until Banton sorts his head out. He looks scared, nervous and uncomfortable right now.

Yeah, I personally wouldn't start Banton at all atm based on form (then again, we're hardly spoiled for choice), but I think he suits a system where he plays centrally more than one where he's out wide. He's better centrally than out wide, regardless of form.

I sense there was more willingness to pass to Bray whether this was an instruction from Sheridan to get it out wide or the other Argyle players trusted him more who knows.  I would say Banton was often in a great position to receive a ball but the play would stutter while the midfield did a big about turn to the to the other wing to make a pass.  It wasn't a surprise to see Banton substituted even from Banton himself - seems out of sorts and down in the dumps.

Forget the (lack of) eccentric dribbles, Banton's crosses were awful and so badly timed.

Thomas or Smalley deserve a start instead IMO.