Brief Synopsis

[pastiesforlife]

Gillingham's only threat in the first half came from Argyle pratting around in their own box. Ironically, from such a dalliance we broke away and scored - Jephcott again moving off his marker and finishing well.

Second half we played well for 5 minutes, so we've obviously improved from a 45 minute team to a 50 minute team. After that, Evans made two changes and Lowe failed to respond. Graham became the best player on the pitch and Grant failed completely to stop the supply. It was interesting that when he got hooked, it was Opuku coming on, rather than Byron Moore. Lowe had obviously noted Moore's shortcomings in the week.

As Gillingham pushed for a winner, Lowe took off the speed of Hardie and the movement of Jephcott. It was going to be a tough last fifteen. Argyle survived purely by the ineptitude of Gillingham. The clearance off the line by the Gillingham player in the third of five minutes extra time was wondrous. A game saving clearance but we were unable to heap praise on an Argyle player.

Great to start the new year with three points. Cooper probably had his worst ever game for Argyle yet kept a clean sheet. That will only fuel his critics and possibly Luke will return for the F. A. Cup game (make sure you sign up for free to the FA App to watch the game for free next week).

 

[cheshiregreen]

Good to get the points even if it was hard work.

This will sound negative, but, where are we going to turn when the goals dry up for Luke?

Most strikers and especially young ones have barren runs, so, it wouldn't be a surprise if Luke has a poor goal return for a few games at some point. There are so few goals in the rest of the team/squad ..unless Hardie can rediscover his shooting boots but despite this the defence must still be the priority for any recruitment this month.

 

[djg145]

3 points in the safety bank, that's all that matters.

 

[Raul 1]

Very happy with the win, but there are some issues there, for sure. The Cooper dilemma has been done to death already, but we either commit to him playing the season and getting experience and put up with some wobbles, or we don't.

One massive frustration for me is Nouble. Is he supposed to put pressure on their tired defenders and bring us further up the pitch, like Taylor used to do? Or is he supposed to score goals?

 

[chunks]

It was a stand in playing the music today cause the usual guy wasn’t available. That maybe why Semper was missed when the teams came out for the second half. Cut him some slack though, it was his first time.

 

[Dorset Green]

Great to get the three points but I found the last 30 mins exhausting to watch. Watts just couldn't defend or prevent crosses coming in, which was why Opoku came on. We played so deep that the midfield were ineffective defensively as Crawley looked to get crosses in at every opportunity.

I don't like RL's practice of substituting both Jephcott and Hardie, particularly so early. I'm sure they both had a lot of running left in them and Nouble and Telford offer so little by comparison.

 

[Abbotts Ann Green]

A win just masks how poor we were.

Second half was atrocious as soon as Evans changed it tactically.

We can only thank Gillingham players for poor finishing and inexplicably helping us to defend by clearing off the line for us.

Lowe did nothing once more. Just changed like for like. My only conclusion is that he is tactically lacking because why would you just do nothing when your team is being swamped by the opposition.

New players won’t solve this. Unfortunately, we will keep seeing the same thing because that’s what we see every game.

Someone has to be honest with Lowe and telling him his system doesn’t work. A proper honest and open discussion. All l imagine currently is people pandering to him telling him to stick what he believes in. Well if he sticks with this system with these crop of players then we will get relegated, or survive by the skin of our teeth due to the incompetence of other clubs.

I like Lowe. I don’t want him sacked. However, at the end of the season if we are currently still seeing the same problems and same issues as we do now then unfortunately he will have proven that currently Argyle aren’t learning.

Yes it’s a great 3 points. Yet in the grand scheme of things we haven’t seen anything different today to our worries and concerns we have been having over the past two/three months.

Very worried.

For a system that doesn’t work he hasn’t half got an excellent win ratio. We have got 26 points from 21 games which would make us comfortably safe if we can carry on at the same rate for the rest of the season. This season is all about consolidation and there will be ups and downs.

 

[PL2 3DQ]

It was a stand in playing the music today cause the usual guy wasn’t available. That maybe why Semper was missed when the teams came out for the second half. Cut him some slack though, it was his first time.

Cheers, although it was the same on Tuesday.

 

[WoodsyGreen]

I don't agree with the theory that Cooper will improve with experience. Yes he's young but he's got, what, ten years' experience of catching footballs? Despite that he looked like an outfielder in goal at times today. It wasn't just once or twice, it was almost every time a cross came in. I can't remember the last time I've seen a keeper have such a nightmare.

I'd love him to succeed as much as the next fan, but it's time to accept he just isn't good enough and probably won't ever be. Like I've said before, he's no better than James Dungey and his career will probably go the same way.

As for the performance in general, the 1st half/2nd half thing is clearly on the players' minds and it's going to take something pretty special from Ryan Lowe to get them out of this weird pattern.

 

[rsp4]

A win just masks how poor we were.

Second half was atrocious as soon as Evans changed it tactically.

We can only thank Gillingham players for poor finishing and inexplicably helping us to defend by clearing off the line for us.

Lowe did nothing once more. Just changed like for like. My only conclusion is that he is tactically lacking because why would you just do nothing when your team is being swamped by the opposition.

New players won’t solve this. Unfortunately, we will keep seeing the same thing because that’s what we see every game.

Someone has to be honest with Lowe and telling him his system doesn’t work. A proper honest and open discussion. All l imagine currently is people pandering to him telling him to stick what he believes in. Well if he sticks with this system with these crop of players then we will get relegated, or survive by the skin of our teeth due to the incompetence of other clubs.

I like Lowe. I don’t want him sacked. However, at the end of the season if we are currently still seeing the same problems and same issues as we do now then unfortunately he will have proven that currently Argyle aren’t learning.

Yes it’s a great 3 points. Yet in the grand scheme of things we haven’t seen anything different today to our worries and concerns we have been having over the past two/three months.

Very worried.

Agree with MGM to the word. Happy with 3 X points but not celebrating. 2nd half was really poor.

Just to add Cooper was a liability today and even Brian Mc in the commentary bought up how quiet he is. Clean sheet by luck and a good Gills front line who did our defending for us.

3 points towards the 50 goal but it's going to be a long season on November. December and today's showing :thumbdown:

 

[Tugboat]

Speaking after the game Steve said: "Without a shadow of a doubt, the best team lost. We were the better side until they scored, they were then the better team until half-time.

"I thought we started the game really well; we were on the front foot and winning the 50/50's. Their goal was a good finish but you can't mark space.

"In the second half I don't know how many times we have put balls into the box, how many patterns of good play, but we never made the keeper work enough for sure.

"I was really pleased with the second half, we were outstanding. If there were fans they would have been applauded off because they gave everything. We have run over the top of them; they had no answer, which gives us confidence moving forwards. We played some great stuff.

"We deserved to win the game, never mind get a point. We move on; we are pleased with this performance but gutted with the result. It was total domination in the second half, but you need to score a goal.

 

[demportdave]

Delighted with the win and 3 much needed points but defend like that, and we will lose more often than not.

Cooper had a bit of a 'mare yet came away with a clean sheet. The lack of a defensive leader was all too apparent once again. A good Captain would not let us drop so deep into our own box, both in open play and at set pieces against us.

For those who have been purring about Conor Grant, we saw today what a poor defender he is. Like other teams before, Gillingham were getting down our left at will and it seemed only a matter time before they scored from a right wing cross. Lowe eventually realised this and mercifully took Grant off. Perhaps with McLean getting injured again he will put Grant into the holding midfield role for which he is better suited.

Call me old fashioned but the number one job of the Full Back, Wing Back or whatever you call him is to stop the opposition getting down you side. Grant is no better than Cooper defensively but arguably, less of a threat going forward despite todays assist. More often than not, he passes backwards due to his lack of pace and his inability to get past opponents.

We are all crying out for a dominating Centre Back, but good Full Backs actually stopping crosses - particularly from our left - would make life a lot easier for our Keeper and the Defenders in front of him.

 

[demportdave]

Effing predictive spelling, McLeod.

 

[Quintrell Green]

Great to get the three points but I found the last 30 mins exhausting to watch. Watts just couldn't defend or prevent crosses coming in, which was why Opoku came on. We played so deep that the midfield were ineffective defensively as Crawley looked to get crosses in at every opportunity.

I don't like RL's practice of substituting both Jephcott and Hardie, particularly so early. I'm sure they both had a lot of running left in them and Nouble and Telford offer so little by comparison.

Nouble has certainly declined in his game contribution since the start of the season. For a guy of his size his non-
ability to successfully challenge in the air is a big issue IMHO. In fact I would rather see a fighting fit Ryan Taylor come on a substitute striker. At least he competed and held up the ball in advanced positions.

 

[DenverDugout]

Good to get 3 points which are obviously greatly needed, however the performance was very similar to our recent matches. It is confusing how our game can fluctuate from being very good in the first half to terrible in the second. Why RL brings on Nouble and Telford when our two strikers are having a decent game is bewildering, the reason they are not seeing much of the ball is because yet again we are lumping the ball forward bypassing our midfield and neither of them are going to win an aerial battle. We were very lucky to-day however I can see a very hard season with our current group.