A Pilgrimage with Plymouth

ScottT I feel like it was a very good point as we didn't really create much. I'm just disappointed in the manner we lost the Swansea game in!

Monthly review of August

We started the month with a great result against Luton, Arnold Garita looked a class act and probably my main striker for the season. I was a little bit annoyed that we didn’t keep a clean sheet but McGeehan’s free kick was quality and no keeper was stopping that. Our next match was Cardiff in the EFL cup and I couldn’t of even looked for a better display from our lads, we were quality and we stopped them from having a shot on target. Then we travelled to Carlisle and we were horrific and that was defiantly 3 points dropped and easily our worst performance of the season. I thought we would of been up for it after the Cardiff result but the 2-0 shorelines proves wee weren’t. Then we travelled to Nottingham to play Notts County and in the first half we looked class, 2-0 up and we could of scored 10! But this game screamed out a game of two halfs after County scored a goal after half time and another with 8 minutes left, thankfully Songo’o scored an 88th minue winner to spare our blushes. We then welcomed Mansfield to Home park and it resulted in a 2-0 win, with Garita and Healey scoring late goals. The scoreline shows we were comfortable but we were the opposite we hardly tested their keeper and made hardwork of a poor Mansfield side. Swansea away in the EFL cup 2nd round was a tough result to take after having done all the hardwork to get the game back to 1-1 to then conceding the eventual winner with 6 minutes to go. We should of took them to extra time as they weren’t that good and the only player who really stood out for them was Cornet. A 0-0 draw away with Blackpool could prove vital towards the end of the season as despite their league position at the moment I believe they will be there up the top of the league come May. We have to thank Luke McCormick for that point as it could of been 3 or 4 for Blackpool but he made some top draw saves. Our last game of the month was another trip to Swansea in the Checkatrade trophy, a disappointing 3-0 defeat and conceding all 3 goals in the last 7 minutes was very disappointing as we should of won the game, all in all I’m not too bothered because of the competition itself. All in all I think this has been a very solid start to the season and only one bad result which was Carlisle away.

League table:

1 Colchester 12
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2 Doncaster 10
3 Carlisle 10
4 Plymouth 10
5 Yeovil 10
6 Crewe 9
7 Cheltenham 9
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8 Newport 9
9 Leyton Orient 8
10 Barnet 8
11 Cambridge 7
12 Portsmouth 7
13 Notts County 7
14 Exeter 6
15 Accrington 6
16 Grimsby 6
17 Mansfield 6
18 Wycombe 5
19 Hartlepool 4
20 Luton 4
21 Morecombe 4
22 Blackpool 4
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23 Stevenage 2
24 Crawley 2

Player of the month




Arnold Garita

No other contender really, Garita has had a quality start to the season and I’m very confident he can get me 20 goals this season. He has 5 goals in all competitions already and has been named POTM 3 times already this season.

Injury news

No injuries to report.

Next months fixtures:

Cheltenham (H)
Cambridge (H)
Exeter (A)
Hartlepool (H)
Leyton Orient (A)

All tight at the top, but you're in a strong position! Anything can happen now, and you would expect your promotion-chasing rivals to drop points sooner or later, so keep getting positive results and you'll find yourself in an even stronger position in no time!

Going strong man, a place in the play offs would be a sign of a good season in my books!

Justice & mgriffin2012- Cheers lads, still very early on in the season. I hope we can finish in the automatics but who knows.

Cheltenham (H)

Plymouth 1 (Garita 1) (Songo’o sent off 82)
Cheltenham 3 (Holman 6, 50, Winchester 92)

After a disappointing defeat vs Swansea U23s we were looking to get back onto winning ways in the league. We welcomed 7th placed Cheltenham to Home Park and this had all the ingredients to be a tasty affair. We started brilliantly and Arnold Garita scored after 48 seconds after Tanner’s cross somehow found him. We were pegged back after 6 minutes when a Cranston cross was met by Dan Holman to guide his header past McCormick.

Chances came and went but there was nothing more to report during the first half. Holman made it 2-1 early into the second half after Barthams low cross found him in the box. Rhys Healey had been very lacklustre all game and I took him off for Ryan Taylor hopping that he could grab a goal. I then took off Oscar Therlkeld and Tanner for Conor Smith and Graham Carey in the hop we can bring something different to the midfield and get an equaliser and possibly a winner.

McCormick denied Holman getting his hat trick after a superb diving save to push the ball over the bar. Yann Songo’o then got sent off after his second bookable offence which all but stopped us at least getting a point from the game, it was a tackle that didn’t need to be made. When trying to push forward to get an equaliser we conceded a 3rd goal a long ball over the top for Carl winchester to chip over McCormick.

A very poor display and I am very unhappy with that result due to the way we performed after scoring first and the red card.

Plymouth starting line up:
McCormick, Packwood, Songo’o, Bradley, Sawyer, Donaldson, Sarcevic, Therlkeld (Smith 62), Tanner (Carey 62), Healey (Taylor 51), Garita.

Unused Subs: McCallum, Sheaf, Fox, Spencer.

Cheltenham starting line up:
Brown, Boyle, Gjokaj, Onariase, Bartham, Cranston, Storer (Hall 69), Winchester, De Girolamo (Dayton 62), Holman, Wootton (Pike 51).

Unused subs: Kitscha, Wright, Rowe, Lymn.

POTM: Holman- 2 goals and was a constant threat to us.

Attendance: 9,167 (180 away)

Tough result to take, especially when you were in an early winning position. Chin up, I'm sure you'll bounce back immediately!

Cheltenham are an absolute nightmare to play against, trust me! Hopefully you can bounce back quickly.

Poor performances offer you plenty of scope to grow man so take the positives and build on them!

Justice: Thought we were going to score another few goals after the early start and hopefully, my next game will be up in a minute.

ScottT: They were very hard to break down considering we scored so early on!

mgriffin2012: I totally agree with that mate! I have made a few changes for my next game!

Sorry for the lack of posting this weekend, I actually went to Plymouth believe it or not!

Cambridge (H)

Plymouth 2 (Sarcevic 74, Garita 80)
Cambridge 0

We came into this match looking for our 1st win in 6 matches (in all competitions). We faced a Cambridge side who were down in 15th with 7 points. The changes made for the game were Sheaf for Songo’o who dropped out of the squad due to last weeks sending off, Kennedy came back from Scotland U21 duty for Donaldson, Carey and Fox came into the middle of the park for Therlkeld and Sarcevic.

Cambridge started quick and after 6 minutes Berry’s low drive was kept out by a great save from Luke McCormick. Our first change of the match was Sarcevic on for Ben Sheaf and we played a 3-5-2, then I took off Carey on for Taylor to change to a 3-4-3 and Donaldson came on for Tanner. The next big chance of the game came from the penalty spot when Sarcevic tucked his penalty away after Taylor was fouled in the box. Ryan Taylor then threaded a ball through the defence for Garita to put his shot past the Cambridge keeper.

Plymouth starting line up:
McCormick, Packwood, Sheaf (Sarcevic 52), Bradley, Sawyer, Kennedy, Fox, Carey (Taylor 64), Tanner (Donaldson 64), Healey, Garita.

Unused Subs: McCallum, Miller, Smith, Therlkeld.

Cambridge starting line up:
Norris, Halliday, Legge (Roberts 58), Wharton, Carroll, Mingoia, O’Neil, Dunne, Clark (Dunk 64), Berry, Hennen (Ikpeazu 64).

Unused Subs: Gregory, McGurk, Coulson, Cunningham.

POTM: Packwood

Referee: Brendan Malone

Attendance: 8,788 (122 away)

A great and late victory for Plymouth! That's a morale-boosting victory - not one, but two goals in the final ~15 minutes of the game!

That's a big win for you, hopefully this is the start of something good and the form can be carried onwards. COYG

Great result man, onwards and upwards!

Justice: We were all over them, you should of heard the sigh of relief when we got the 1st goal!
ScottT: A masive win and hopefully we can go on a nice little streak.
mgriffin2012:Thanks mate