J. BACK

Not "Jon", but "JUST" LOL.

It was ALRIGHT and I have seen us play WORSE.

With XI on the pitch we'd have comfortably WUN. Although we weren't TWO grand before the goal, once we'd scored we looked TIDY. The sending off was a strong tackle. I don't think it was 'ORRIBLE or two footed as such, but it was strong and a little RASH. I was surprised that the ref gave a sending off (the league I play in, the ref might have not even given a free kick), but I can ACCEPT that the player gave the ref a DECISION to make.

Oxford then scored after some MEDIOCRE defending of a set PIECE.

Reuben getting STICK from some of the people araind me as appazza disinterested. Apart from being slightly greedy as FOOK I don't think he was terrible, a lot of the time he was isolated second half.

Thought we had some alright players, but make no MISTAKE, this was 3 points dropped.

I was sat next to a WELL FIT BURD who LOLed at some of the stuff I was SHAITING.

No worries abait the report.

oh yea, our corners were shit as feck too.

Thanks Mock. That made me laugh!

A little rash? On another day it could have broken a leg.

Pitbull wrote:

A little rash? On another day it could have broken a leg.

no, a little RASH.

He got the ball, and went through the opponent. As I said, it was a strong tackle. On another day it could have broken a leg, on another day I could have shat myself and smeared it all over my laptop screen.

no need to go mental at me anyway btw...wot a psycho. chill yer beans

He got nothing of the ball.

christ, another paragon of virtue and soft challenges.

I recks I'm just harder than you both, so have a higher bad tackle tolerance...

I'll watch the replay and let you know if I change my mind.

Actually I won't. cos watching replays is for dullards and I'm ait on the lash tonight.

Big up Popester in thaa house, gangstaaa innit

So pissed off I couldn't face going for a pint afterwards incase I had to smile at somebody, definitely not a game we deserved to lose. A clear sending off for Bentley from where I was sat in the Lyndy, a rash, naive, potentially leg breaking challenge that he didn't even need to make on the confluence of the halfway line and the touchline, a harsh lesson learnt for the young lad who must be gutted knowing he's almost certainly cost us 3 points, there's no way we would've lost that game with 11 men, we were 1 up at the time and looking like we could've scored a second before halftime. Until their first goal we seemed to be coping OK with 10 men but split second sloppiness from a freekick and it was 1-1. Still we pushed for the winner and almost nicked it on several occasions, once bringing an incredible save from their keeper, then with about 5 mins left disaster struck, Norburn who imo had been very good until this point with some decent tackles and long range passes gave the ball away in the centre of the pitch and they broke on us and to their credit scored what looked like an excellent goal, a classic suckerpunch and totally undeserved imo. MOM... Alessandra, worked hard and scored a cracking goal, let's hope this is not the start of a major slump in our results, I suppose the team, management and fans shouldn't be too disheartened as our performance after a slow starting 10-15 mins was pretty good even with 10 men.

Blimey, times like this I'm glad I got banned from pasoti because my reaction to some of the knee-jerkers wouldn't have been the most pleasant. Steve Evans out in force I see, but not banned for trolling, for some reason.

I think we can blame two things - the stupid challenge and the odd lack of subs. Both were concerning but I'm sure both were one offs. Bentley doesn't deserve some of the stick he's getting and people thinking he's 'paid and therefore shouldn't make mistakes' clearly don't understand football at all. It was silly, reckless and idiotic, but we shouldn't abuse the lad as a result. I hope he'll come back stronger and he has my support in doing so, because I don't think he's actually a bad defender.

The lack of use of subs thing is weird, two games in three days and no subs in the second is very simply bad management. It's the Shez of late 2013/early 2014, and not something we've seen recently.

As for man of the match then it's between Mellor and Norburn for me. Both Reid's had off days (Reuben especially) and there were other good performances. O'Connor and McHugh weren't great when we went down to 10 but I thought Kellett, Cox and Alessandra did well. McCormick seemed ok but I'll have to watch the replays to see about their goals.

Either way, I hope we'll come back stronger than this and at the end of the day I'm still glad Michael Appleton isn't our manager.

Anyone know when Richards is back?

Good summary mock. Oxford did not look like scoring and then after woeful defending of a set piece they equalised. Their second goal was a great curling strike though.

Strange that we made no subs despite playing from around 35 mins with 10 men?

The subs thing was weird, ish, but their equaliser came ait the blue, and the winner a breakaway goal after Argyle were forcing corners etc pushing for a winner. I'm not saying they weren't tired, but we weren't exactly massively under the cosh either. They were playing well.

Josh Pope wrote:

Blimey, times like this I'm glad I got banned from pasoti because my reaction to some of the knee-jerkers wouldn't have been the most pleasant. Steve Evans out in force I see, but not banned for trolling, for some reason.

I think we can blame two things - the stupid challenge and the odd lack of subs. Both were concerning but I'm sure both were one offs. Bentley doesn't deserve some of the stick he's getting and people thinking he's 'paid and therefore shouldn't make mistakes' clearly don't understand football at all. It was silly, reckless and idiotic, but we shouldn't abuse the lad as a result. I hope he'll come back stronger and he has my support in doing so, because I don't think he's actually a bad defender.

The lack of use of subs thing is weird, two games in three days and no subs in the second is very simply bad management. It's the Shez of late 2013/early 2014, and not something we've seen recently.

As for man of the match then it's between Mellor and Norburn for me. Both Reid's had off days (Reuben especially) and there were other good performances. O'Connor and McHugh weren't great when we went down to 10 but I thought Kellett, Cox and Alessandra did well. McCormick seemed ok but I'll have to watch the replays to see about their goals.

Either way, I hope we'll come back stronger than this and at the end of the day I'm still glad Michael Appleton isn't our manager.

Anyone know when Richards is back?

next month i believe.

I thought it ends at the very end of 2014? Might he be available for the next game?

Yep. Sending off cost us big time.

Their second goal was a fuckin pearler.

Did J Brent look,
a) interested?
b) worried?
c) like a spent force?

Iggy wrote:

Did J Brent look,
a) interested?
b) worried?
c) like a spent force?

lip quivering??

Thanks for the rreports chaps.

AstiSpumante wrote:

So pissed off I couldn't face going for a pint afterwards incase I had to smile at somebody, definitely not a game we deserved to lose. A clear sending off for Bentley from where I was sat in the Lyndy, a rash, naive, potentially leg breaking challenge that he didn't even need to make on the confluence of the halfway line and the touchline, a harsh lesson learnt for the young lad who must be gutted knowing he's almost certainly cost us 3 points, there's no way we would've lost that game with 11 men, we were 1 up at the time and looking like we could've scored a second before halftime. Until their first goal we seemed to be coping OK with 10 men but split second sloppiness from a freekick and it was 1-1. Still we pushed for the winner and almost nicked it on several occasions, once bringing an incredible save from their keeper, then with about 5 mins left disaster struck, Norburn who imo had been very good until this point with some decent tackles and long range passes gave the ball away in the centre of the pitch and they broke on us and to their credit scored what looked like an excellent goal, a classic suckerpunch and totally undeserved imo. MOM... Alessandra, worked hard and scored a cracking goal, let's hope this is not the start of a major slump in our results, I suppose the team, management and fans shouldn't be too disheartened as our performance after a slow starting 10-15 mins was pretty good even with 10 men.

I'll go along with that but would add that Reub looked lethargic and uninterested which isn't ideal considering how much we rely on him. We need another striker even more now that Smalley is out for the season, over to you Jim.

Tbf if you give roobs a chance hell generally stick them away, it's down to the rest of the team to create chances for the strikers, down to 10 would probably account for that, truth is we should have closed the game out at 1 0 and didn't.

Mock Cuncher wrote:

christ, another paragon of virtue and soft challenges.

I recks I'm just harder than you both, so have a higher bad tackle tolerance...

I'll watch the replay and let you know if I change my mind.

Actually I won't. cos watching replays is for dullards and I'm ait on the lash tonight.

Being a serial dullard, just watched the tackle on SSN. Sorry to piss on your chips Mock but.... Fook me, it was a shocker, real Roy Keane/Kevin Muscat type stuff, over the top and a real potential leg breaker, no contact with the ball either. No need for it ,it wasn't a remotely dangerous situation, absolutely ridiculous and the youth card is no excuse. Don't rate the lad much actually, looks lumbering with awful distribution-roll on Hartley and Nelson being fit again.

For my summary of the match, see Asti's just about word for word. Squad needs strengthening, no wonder the manager was trying to sign another centre back on the eve of the last window. Could be some considerable wheeling and dealing going on,a few out and hopefully a few in. Needs to happen, otherwise Argyle won't even reach the play offs. Very bad Christmas but still in 7th I suppose.

Don't agree with your comments about Bentley, greenskin. He is young and naive a touch and so mistakes are more likely, he knew instantly the mistake that he'd made so it wasn't like he went in with the aim of causing serious damage. He'll grow.

I also don't think he's the worst centre back in the world. Sure, he's not really much on our main 3 centre backs (or perhaps O'Connor) but he's not bad. He misplaces a few balls sure but he's still getting used to League 2 football, and his distribution isn't the worst thing in the world anyway. Often he plays simple balls and occasionally tries something a bit fancy. Whilst it doesn't always work I wouldn't call him 'lumbering' anyway as from what I've seen his level of defensive ability isn't actually that bad. Bar that one idiotic mistake his tackling has been good and he's evidently good in the air.

No world beater but IMO he makes a half decent squad player at this level - he's only 19 too. He'd almost certainly benefit from going out on loan to say a Conference or Conference South player.

On another note - how funny that somebody on pasoti seems to think Appleton had a Plan B. That'll be to wait for us to get a man sent off then..

Clearly a site filled with footballing intelligence. Regardless of what goes on higher up there really are some people on that site who you wonder if they've actually ever watched football before.

Bentley is gash...pure and simple,I don't give a fig if he nearly scored at Newport, for every decent touch there were 5 that was abysmal.
Complete liability.
Stick him in the youth team with Lecointe and Harvey.

Punchdrunk wrote:

Bentley is gash...pure and simple,I don't give a fig if he nearly scored at Newport, for every decent touch there were 5 that was abysmal.
Complete liability.
Stick him in the youth team with Lecointe and Harvey.

Lecointe cant stay injury free to warrant being back in that team.