Match report from Argyle site

[leicspotter]

They don't seem to like us much! ;D

Argyle 2 Stoke City 2

SEB 44 Cresswell 8
Timar 67 Shawcross 57

Hoult (Stoke) sent off 82.

Attn: 13,692.

Larrieu 6, Connolly 6, Timar 7, Seip 7, Hodges 7, Martin 5 (Abdou 6), Norris 8, Nalis 7, Halmosi 7, SEB 7, Easter 6.

Subs not used: Sawyer, Doumbe, Hayles, Fallon.

A fast and furious bruising battle ended all square with only the team in green prepared to play football and at least show some skill.

As you would expect from a Pulis team, the game was filled with time-wasting, long throws, set pieces, time wasting, some more time wasting and players straight from Land of the Giants.
Argyle refused to be bullied and twice came back from behind to level the score and could have and should have won in what would have been a huge 3 points, but a draw keeps the scoreboard ticking over.

Sturrock brought back Easter and Martin with Hayles and Abdou dropping to the bench, again there was no sub keeper.

A pacy start to the game saw an excellent cross from Halmosi cut out by Hoult in the Stoke goal with SEB waiting to pounce.

But then disaster and as ever it came ffrom a long throw. Delap sent a long throw into the box, Larrieu came out amongst a group of players but missed the ball and there was Connolly to clear the ball off the line but Cresswell was on hand to stab the ball home to make it 1-0 to Stoke.
Argyle's habit of conceding soft goals continues.

Halmosi arrived at the far post to meet Martin's cross but his scuffed shot was easily saved by Hoult, with the pace of the game showing no signs of letting up with Stoke content to play for corners and set pieces while Argyle also mixed their football up with short passing and long balls.
The thing is, where Stoke have ten foot giants as strikers, Argyle have SEB and Easter who were dwarfed by the Stoke skyscrapers masquerading as centre-backs.
Argyle needed to direct their long passes towards the corners, behind the defence rather than through the middle.

SEB had a shot saved before Fuller danced through the Argyle defence and easily beat Larrieu but luckily his shot cannoned off the post. A 2-0 lead at that stage of the game would have meant even more time wasting from Stoke and the game would have been finished as a spectacle, still Pulis isn't worried about that!

Argyle were given a life-line just before half time when SEB played in Martin but Shawcross handled in the area and Argyle were awarded a penalty. A similar passage of play to when Argyle won a penalty against QPR.
Upstepped SEB to thump the ball in as usual, except this time he didn't because Hoult saved the spot kick, no matter because SEB tapped home the rebound from 6 yards out to make it 1-1.

Will the Land of the Giants be content to waste time and settle for a draw in the second half?

Argyle began the second half on the front foot and closed down the Stoke players, stopping them from hoofing the ball to the strikers.
Another Delap long throw that seemed more like a corner was hurled into the Argyle area where Larrieu saved a shot from Lawrence at the expense of a corner.
From the spot kick the unmarked Shwcross headed in with ease, 2-1 to Stoke and yet another soft goal conceded by Argyle.

Argyle now had the stuffing knocked out of them, for all their hard work in harrying and closing down Stoke they had gone a goal behind. The crowd were now quiet and the players totally deflated and Stoke could have made it 3-1 when Fuller broke away but Larrieu dived low to make the save.

But Argyle rallied and Connolly did very well to win a corner, Halmosi swung the flag kick in to his mate Timar who headed in from close range, 2-2 and a goal Made in Hungary.

Abdou came on for the disappointing Martin with Norris moving out wide.
Stoke went down to ten men when a ball over the top from Timar sent SEB racing away, Hoult came running out and brought down SEB and earned a red card. It wasn't nice to see Halmosi waving an imaginary red card at the ref in an effort to get Hoult sent off.
Parkin, who had only just come on as a sub, was taken off and sub keeper Simonsen took his place between the sticks.
The resulting free kick from Norris amounted to nothing.
You could say that Argyle were robbed, I would have prefered for SEB to go through and score rather than get Hoult sent off.

Suddenly the Stoke players started picking up mysterious injuries, falling down and calling for the physio. How can these big strapping 7 foot players get injured so easily?
Of course, the plan was to break up play and it worked.

Argyle's last chance fell to SEB who tried a fantastic over head kick but Simonsen pushed the ball out for a corner. Argyle couldn't take advantage of having an extra player and the game ended all square, Pulis got what he came for.

If Stoke get promoted then the Premier League will have a shock.
Pulis' tactics served Argyle well when we were threatened with relegation but when you see another team use the same tactics you realise that it just isn't football.
Argyle played their share of hoofball but also tried to play football on a very difficult pitch.

Norris ran and ran and proved that he is a vital player for Argyle.
Timar and Seip were again rock solid, but where they? We see excellent defending from these two in open play but where are they at set pieces? Argyle still concede soft goals, especially at set peices, so who takes the responsibilty? Is it other players coming back to defend at corners who don't actually mark their player?

Connolly's mind seems to be elsewhere, his concentration levels have dropped and he's making mistakes.
Nalis did well in the middle of the park and stood up well to the Stoke bullies.
SEB and Easter had the beating of the Stoke defenders on the deck with their pace and movement but had no chance when the ball was booted up to them.

Martin is still getting back to match fitness and didn't contribute much although he did win the penalty.

It would have been worthwhile to try Fallon for the last 10 minutes or even put Timar upfront because Stoke put nine men behind the ball and were not interested in going forward once Hoult was sent off.

The pitch looked in a bad way for the second half and there were divuts everywhere.
How the hell does Anthony Pulis merit a place on the Stoke bench?

Credit must go to the players for sticking "at it" against a very difficult team and for twice coming back from a goal down.

It's a point but it wasn't pretty.

MOM: Norris.

[tazi]

Who spilt their fcukin shandy?.

[BraveSirRobin]

Arent centre halfs usually tall?

[ChrisEvans]

Plymouth fan on 606 tonight said Plymouth were lucky to get a point, and that we were a very good side, but not as good as the Baggies. Opinion is a wonderful thing!! lol

[RedandWhite4ever]

Who cares what they have got to say, fcuk em, the league table doesn't lie..Fcuking dumb yokels, they are just pissed off cos whilst they are at the match, the sailors are shagging their women

[caine]

Dont know why people bother reading shite off other boards i got bored after the two last match reports!
Nice to see we are getting noticed alot more now and frankly the plymouth fans wish the had TP back ;D
More worryingly i didnt know they had a peno, seem to be giveing alot of penos away recently hmmm

[stokecityscott]

SAME OLD JUST CUT AND SHUT JOBS FROM THROUGH OUT THE SEASON.

[SneydGreenStokie]

Pathetic match report. They are more concerned with stoke's players and their size than actually commenting on the game itself. They also seem very obsessed with Pulis. They slag him off, yet do it frequently. A touch of denial imho. Maybe they are bitter that he left them for us and see where we are and think "that could be us". Luckily, Plymouth will be nowhere near.
All in all, a very one sided, unprofesisonal match report. Whoever wrote it will never get a job out of the plymouth area with such bias and open criticism of an opposing team. I wonder if Watford will get/got the same type of report??? Totally unprofessional report. The guy responsible must lead a very sad existence to be so obsessed with slagging of pulis. I pity him.

SGS

[stokecityscott]

Bets bbm

[bloody56]

Everyone appears to be frightened of us. Its good to be a Stoke fan today.

[harrystaxi]

Thats funny!! I spoke to a few Argyle fans on the way out today' who said we were the best side they'd seen this season & were very happy with a point. Also said they'd like Fuller & Simo in thier team - just another sterotypical match report

[Deleted]

Funny isn't it how we all feel a little pissed that we drew yet according to that report they should have won easily.

[MarkWolstanton]

"Argyle now had the stuffing knocked out of them, for all their hard work in harrying and closing down Stoke they had gone a goal behind."

All that hard work that had proceded it. What a fucking joke. So the all footballing greens had run their legs off trying to stop a side not trying to play any football!

The whole thing is a fucking joke, mind. Completely unrepresentative of the real game and clearly most of the bile had been written before the match even began.

Just ignore it.

[Deleted]

MW the first bit of the report had me convinced it was true account honest ;D

[banburypotter]

i was talking to some argyle fans on the way down to the pennycomequick afterwards and they said it was a good even game and they were surprised to see the football we played and not just the hoofball they all believed happens for 90 minutes when stoke are in town.
In the pub one 'special' started going on about the time wasting,but i said we do no more than any other teams
i did tell him and the other lads in there that i thought the majority of the plymouth fans,certainly the ones to our left have to rate among the most whinging bunch i have heard.
They called for every decision and were moaning all match.,obviously the wonderful piece of reporting above hgas been (pre)written by one of them.

[stokieg]

I liked this one ;D


Argyle hang on against 'big-bloke Stoke'
By Gerald Taylor - 30/12/2007 16:59
Plymouth Argyle maintained their fingernail grip on the shirt-tails of the play-offs with this home draw against a big bunch of blokes from the Potteries.



Indeed, if the rules were fairer the Greens should have had three points as the red card given to the cynical and cheating Stoke debutant 'keeper Russell Hoult for his goal-stopping foul on Ebanks- Blake deserved greater punishment than the subsequent dismissal and free-kick.

The veteran Stoke stopper had played in an ugly smug "I'm a professional" swagger most of the match with dreadful deliberate timewasting ignoring the fact that people had paid hard earned money to watch him play. Tony Pulis had picked him in place of Steve Simonsen and it is not justice that his plan did not backfire.

Argyle also deserved the three points for playing some great football. Paul Sturrock, who brought back Lee Martin in place of Jimmy Adbou and Jermaine Easter for Barry Hayles, saw his team play the ball on the ground. They clearly understood that playing the ball in the air was a waste of time as Pulis has populated the Stoke side with giants. To give Stoke their due, they were also capable of occasionally playing football and ensured that this match was a credit to the Championship.

Ricardo Fuller is a fabulous striker, but Krisztián Timár and Marcel Seip just about had him under control even if he did hit the post once. The Stokegoals were in reality the result of some sloppy Argyle defending. The first for Richard Cresswell came as early as the 8th minute when Romain Larrieu failed to get to a cross into the box, the ball fell to the Stoke striker on the corner of the six yard area who then drilled it hard and low into the middle of the goal.

The second City goal came in the 57th minute and has been credited to Ryan Shawcross, who is on loan to Stoke from Man United. A corner from the Stoke right was whipped in, Timár and Lee Hodges went for it, collided and it looked very much that it was a headed own goal from the Argyle left-back. I am looking forward to seeing the replay on TV.

The Argyle goals followed a similar pattern to those against QPR on Wednesday; one from a penalty and the other from a corner. The penalty came in the 44th minute as Lee Martin burst into the Stoke area. Shawcross tangled with the Argyle winger, but in doing saw the ball strike his hand. Ebanks-Blake struck his penalty with unerring precision to the same spot that he always puts his penalties, but Hoult was well briefed and saved. However, the old 'keeper only managed to parry it back to Ebanks-Blake who gratefully tapped it back into the net with his left foot for his twelth of the season.

The second Pilgrim's goal came from a corner in the 67th minute that saw Timár score with a pile driver of a header. This equaliser was fully deserved.

Stoke City's poor, but nonetheless vocal away following, were singing at the end as they knew that they had seen their team get away with floodlight robbery. It is embarrassing to think that this Pulis team may find itself in the Premiership next season. They are equipped and coached to bully and cynically get the points, and based on this performance, people will forget they are capable of playing football if allowed to and will only remember their bad points.

Argyle, meanwhile, need to remember that when they play attractive entertaining passing football they are winners. It is such a shame that it is highly likely that this squad could change in the January transfer window.



Argyle (4-4-2): 1 Romain Larrieu; 2 Paul Connolly, 5 Krisztián Timár, 19 Marcel Seip, 17 Lee Hodges; 29 Lee Martin (26 Jimmy Abdou 74), 7 David Norris, 4 Lillian Nalis (capt), 16 Péter Halmosi; 9 Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, 36 Jermaine Easter. Substitutes (not used): 10 Barry Hayles, 13 Mathias Kouo-Doumbe, 14 Rory Fallon, 18 Gary Sawyer. Booked: Norris 78

Stoke City (4-4-2): 25 Russell Hoult; 28 Andy Wilkinson (21 Gabriel Zakuani half-time), 5 Leon Cort, 17 Ryan Shawcross, 14 Danny Pugh; 7 Liam Lawrence, 4 John Eustace (capt), 24 Rory Delap, 9 Richard Cresswell; 10 Ricardo Fuller, 11 Mamady Sidibe (8 Jon Parkin 60, 1 Steve Simonsen (gk) 80). Substitutes (not used): 26 Anthony Pulis, 31 Carl Dickinson Sent off: Hoult 80. Booked:Shawcross 43, Fuller 86

Referee: Steve Tanner (Somerset).

Attendance: 13,692 (638 away).