Sunday is my reflection time when it comes to Argyle (or Wednesday, if they have a mid-week game - but let’s not get too technical). Others may think differently but, for me, the immediate post-match discussion points when walking back to the car or the thoughts that fill my head on a Saturday evening spent reading PASOTI can often turn out to be drastically modified once I have ’slept on it’ and had time for reflection.
This is not only on the obvious contentious incidents where you leave Home Park incensed at that disallowed goal or penalty that wasn’t given only to see TV coverage later and conclude that what you thought you ’saw’ didn’t turn out to be actually the case. No, my ‘reflection’ time often results in a moderation of my instant opinion and a more measured view, rather than the understandably knee-jerk reaction in the white heat of emotion before the players have had time to shower and grab a pint. Whilst, therefore, I can full understand the intensity of some Saturday evening posters on PASOTI when things have not entirely gone to plan Argyle-wise, I always resist the temptation to add my two-pennarth worth. Admittedly, a lot of that is due to my old Mum drumming into me that ‘if you can’t say anything nice about someone, don’t say anything at all!’
There were a lot of ’not very nice’ things said last night - clearly by the passionate and frustrated - in the face of an admittedly disappointing result. I have no doubt that the incredibly optimistic 'winds of change’ and the commensurate raised expectations caused much consternation for many when an Oldham team that was supposed to be ’there for the taking’ wasn’t railroaded according to the script. Predictable and (hopefully) knee-jerk PASOTI comments forged from the furnace of disappointment included ’That was terrible!’, ‘Worse performance of the season’, ’That was awful’, ’Terrible defensive performance’, ‘Lucky to get a point’, ‘As awful as it can possibly get’, ’Shambles’, ‘Crowds starting to drop’, ‘Dreadful, we were dreadful’, ’Beginning to regret buying a season ticket’. I could go on but just typing that is sending me into a spiral of depression.
And, if I had not been at Home Park yesterday, I think I could be excused for concluding that the fourth horseman of the apocalypse was about to gallop into the centre circle in view of a woefully calamitous performance. Except that I was at Home Park yesterday and whilst I was as disappointed as most over the failure to win I really didn’t think that things were that bad, taking all factors into account.
In case I had lost all sense of perspective and I had, indeed, actually witnessed the ‘worse performance of the season’ (I have seen every first team match at Home Park this year) I braced myself this Sunday morning and watched the complete match again on iFollow. With a much better view of play, the benefit of pauses and replays of incidents and, most importantly, ‘reflection’ I saw an Argyle side that, in my opinion, played with endeavour, structure, cohesion and no little degree of skill and technique against, again in my opinion, a well-drilled, lively, combative (!) Oldham side who, to their credit, always tried to take the game to Argyle and never attempted to ‘park the bus’. I thought that Oldham were far from ‘mugs’ and it would have been necessary for Argyle to be at their very best to comfortably run out as winners.
To be fair to the critics, I don’t think Argyle were at their very best yesterday but neither could I find any reason to account for the negative hyperbole espoused by many, admittedly disappointed, contributors last night. I agree with the equally vociferous posters who seem to accept that ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ and that patience will need to be at the fore as the season progresses. Whether I would have felt the same way when I heard the ref’s full-time whistle yesterday, however, is open to debate - but that’s the benefit of reflection, isn’t it? :scarf:
This is not only on the obvious contentious incidents where you leave Home Park incensed at that disallowed goal or penalty that wasn’t given only to see TV coverage later and conclude that what you thought you ’saw’ didn’t turn out to be actually the case. No, my ‘reflection’ time often results in a moderation of my instant opinion and a more measured view, rather than the understandably knee-jerk reaction in the white heat of emotion before the players have had time to shower and grab a pint. Whilst, therefore, I can full understand the intensity of some Saturday evening posters on PASOTI when things have not entirely gone to plan Argyle-wise, I always resist the temptation to add my two-pennarth worth. Admittedly, a lot of that is due to my old Mum drumming into me that ‘if you can’t say anything nice about someone, don’t say anything at all!’
There were a lot of ’not very nice’ things said last night - clearly by the passionate and frustrated - in the face of an admittedly disappointing result. I have no doubt that the incredibly optimistic 'winds of change’ and the commensurate raised expectations caused much consternation for many when an Oldham team that was supposed to be ’there for the taking’ wasn’t railroaded according to the script. Predictable and (hopefully) knee-jerk PASOTI comments forged from the furnace of disappointment included ’That was terrible!’, ‘Worse performance of the season’, ’That was awful’, ’Terrible defensive performance’, ‘Lucky to get a point’, ‘As awful as it can possibly get’, ’Shambles’, ‘Crowds starting to drop’, ‘Dreadful, we were dreadful’, ’Beginning to regret buying a season ticket’. I could go on but just typing that is sending me into a spiral of depression.
And, if I had not been at Home Park yesterday, I think I could be excused for concluding that the fourth horseman of the apocalypse was about to gallop into the centre circle in view of a woefully calamitous performance. Except that I was at Home Park yesterday and whilst I was as disappointed as most over the failure to win I really didn’t think that things were that bad, taking all factors into account.
In case I had lost all sense of perspective and I had, indeed, actually witnessed the ‘worse performance of the season’ (I have seen every first team match at Home Park this year) I braced myself this Sunday morning and watched the complete match again on iFollow. With a much better view of play, the benefit of pauses and replays of incidents and, most importantly, ‘reflection’ I saw an Argyle side that, in my opinion, played with endeavour, structure, cohesion and no little degree of skill and technique against, again in my opinion, a well-drilled, lively, combative (!) Oldham side who, to their credit, always tried to take the game to Argyle and never attempted to ‘park the bus’. I thought that Oldham were far from ‘mugs’ and it would have been necessary for Argyle to be at their very best to comfortably run out as winners.
To be fair to the critics, I don’t think Argyle were at their very best yesterday but neither could I find any reason to account for the negative hyperbole espoused by many, admittedly disappointed, contributors last night. I agree with the equally vociferous posters who seem to accept that ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ and that patience will need to be at the fore as the season progresses. Whether I would have felt the same way when I heard the ref’s full-time whistle yesterday, however, is open to debate - but that’s the benefit of reflection, isn’t it?
:scarf:
