Plymouth Argyle FC: The Pilgrimage To The Premier League

Griffo The future matches against Forest Green and Walsall are super important

ScottT They got it and it was well deserved we played like crap that day

Justice It is nice to be this far in the cup and I am shocked how good we have been

Winter 2020 Transfers

The winter 2020 transfer window has officially closed. From the start my main goal of this transfer window was to start looking for players who I could get on loan both from Arsenal and elsewhere. One plan is to hope they want to stay another year for loan or even more permanently. I feel that this current group of players is perfect and I do not want to mess with a good thing.

The first signing was a loan from Arsenal midfielder Matt Smith then a few weeks later Trea Coyle. Finally on deadline day we added attacking midfielder Michael Olise form Reading. Olise has an advantage of being multidimensional and in our system that is what I want from my players.

The only signing was getting to keep keeper Alex Palmer from West Brom. He has done such a good job and has enjoyed his time here. With a contact that runs through 2022, he will be a key towards our goals of promotion and is the top guy for next season if we move to League One.

Outside of loaning key youngsters such as Jephcott and Fletcher we moved on from both George Cooper and Ryan Taylor. With both the lack of playing time and the addition of Coyle George Cooper was getting less and less time with us, so he returned to Peterborough. For Taylor we were able to see him to Shrewsbury for a nice 6k. He really did not play much and with the play of Telford and Rudden he rarely saw action.

must have been tough for the chairman to reach down the side of the sofa for that £79! Might be my favourite transfer sum ever!

2020-01-10 19:59#265137 LittleLaney11 : must have been tough for the chairman to reach down the side of the sofa for that £79! Might be my favourite transfer sum ever!

Hahahaha thank the soda sales

£79 for Palmer? An absolute bargain!

Good little summary update mate

I think you can be happy with these deals, it’s certainly what’s needed to bring a final push in the second half of the campaign

League is looking very tight at the moment. Hopefully these deals can help push you on!

ScottT Someone in accounting really messed up there

Griffo Thank you

Jack So far they have been a great fit and what we needed as the race is getting way too tight for my liking

TheLFCFan It's getting to a point I keep watching the other scores and table during the match more than the match itself

"Michael first of all what do you think your team today and their performance?"

"Overall the team played really well and we did enough to win but there is still some room for improvement."

"Where do you feel the improvement needs to be and why?"

"It totally has to be in the final 25 minutes or so in the match, there have been many games where we have had a nice lead but allowed our opponent to score, this needs to be fixed somehow, and have addressed it with the players."

"It appears Michael Olise suffered an injury but could still play, why did you sub him off so early?"

"Michael appeared to pull his hamstring and was slowing down, I did want him to get hurt even worse so I had Billy (Clarke) take is place, that ended up working as Clarke scored a goal today."

"In the match there was some controversy and your reaction of the stoppage time announcement, what happened?"

"For some reason and none of us know why the ref had announced 6 minutes of stoppage time as the game flowed seamlessly, this caused a bit of a panic for us all. This was true as Rooney scored for them and the ref didn't blow the whistle until almost nine minutes of stoppage time. Kind of interesting if you ask me."

"So you feel that this was planned or anything of that sort of nature?"

"This will probably get me in trouble with both the FA and even the United community but yes. I along with many others feel Salford City are given so many advantages due to the Class of 92 link and all, I find it unfair and you could tell there in this match and others they get the advantage, look they are not that good currently in 16th so I can see why things like this happen."

"Thank you so much for your time."

"You're welcome"

Big words from Carrick!

Interesting interview that! Wonder what will come from it.

ScottT and TheLFCFan We will see where it goes

MATCH REPORT: Argyle 4-2 Peterborough
26 February 2020


Argyle 4
B Moore 18,21 Rudden 77 Telford 90+5

Peterborough 2
Toney 44,75

Argyle get chance to win their first Leasing.com Trophy in club history and their first trip in the final thanks to a 4-2 beating of League One side Peterborough. An afternoon witnessed by an incredible 6068 of the Green Army and friends got to see a really exciting match as Michael Carrick deployed the 4-2-2-2.

For both sides the refereeing seemed question with a few disallowed goals,ten yellows and one red card. Referee Jeremy Simpson was not in a lenient mood this day.

The match started off to a flyer 18 minutes in as Byron Moore lead with a header to get the day underway for the Pilgrims. He added his second goal a few minutes later with a volley inside the six yard box.

For the visitors Ivan Toney he pulled one back 44 minutes in with a finish inside the right corner of the net. Another particularly interesting turn of events a Peterborough goal was ruled out due to an infringement.

Nathan Thompson, playing as a right-back, then summed up his teams performance by nearly giving Argyle a goal in the 63rd minute. Few minutes later the second disallowed occurred but this time Plymouth were the victims.

Toney added his second goal of the day equalizing in the 75th minute off the woodwork.

An error from Christy Pym allowed Zak Rudden to score a header for Plymouths go ahead goal. With five minutes to Peterborough Nathan Thompson received his second yellow and thus a red card due to a handball in the 85th.

Finally as the final seconds in stoppage time came striker Dominic Telford scored the definitive goal to give the Pilgrims the victory. He currently leads the competition with six.

"Today is a great day in Argyle history and I am proud to bring this club closer to our first cup trophy since the 1930's, we look forward to facing fellow League Two side Grimsby," quoted by Carrick after the victory.

Plymouth will travel to London to face fellow League Two side Grimsby Town. The final is set for a 1:30Pm kick off on 29 March.

Grimsby made it to the final by topping Group A in the Northern Section beating Shrewsbury, Sunderland and Wolverhampton U-23. After the group stage Grimsby defeated Blackpool, Carlisle, Crewe and Burton.

In League Two play Plymouth won 2-0 back in November. What is interesting the two will face each other the following week in their final League Two clash.

Great stuff. However, the FA Trophy is a separate competition to the Leasing.com Trophy - the competition in which you are in. The Trophy is a competition for clubs within non-league, whereas the Leasing.com Trophy is a competition in which involves L1, L2 and an assortment of invited youth teams from Premier League sides.