One Game at a Time: You’re Only Here for the Parmo's
Middlesbrough (A) February 24th
It’s late. I know. It’s been a bit of a week. I once went to Park Asterix near Paris and they have a roller coaster that inverts seven times. I hate rollercoasters but I was hosting for work, so….three times. And it was still more fun than rewatching the Albion game.
The game was made worse by the fact we let slip those two points against Coventry….which in turn was made worse by them being trounced by “Badges” Lowe at home. Leeds, well no-one thought we were winning that, including by selection choices made, Fozzie, but by common consent we gave the form side of the Division a game.
Albion, we all had a hope, would be the game that would maybe give us a win that would be a huge step towards safety. Low scorers, we could have won at their place, second highest home scorers in the League. Rested strike force.
And? Nothing. Literally nothing. Not a shot on target. Not an attacking highlight on the Sky highlights reel. Schooled. By a coach who was banished to the stand and a set of players who spent the entire second half playing, “after you, Claude” with the goal attempts.
So the reaction, as much as it is an overreaction to a single game was both inevitable and immediate. And the new coach gets the brunt of it. In particular one answer where the misuse of the pronoun you instead of we has been seized on as a sign he is aloof.
In the same week as this we also had the second part of the revealing, interesting, and to this fan at least, the reassuring open frank and honest interview of Simon Hallett. Our Chairman is not a man who sounds like he is prone to rashness, knee-jerking decisions or panic. Although wife Jane might argue buying your boyhood football club edges towards rash. His response to an earlier question about our departed coach was that if he was told that Schumacher had lost the dressing room he would build new dressing rooms.
He described the process that led to the appointment of our new coach, saying the candidates interviewed were all so good he asked if they should save the time and cost of the interview process and simply toss a coin. That’s the man you need in charge. One with a three-sided coin.
He also talked about how being Chairman means if he wants to lead the discussion he speaks first. Otherwise, he takes his chosen boards opinions first before speaking and then the Board decides. We know he believes in data driven solutions and the fact that with the lowest budget, as a club we have to trade on the inefficiencies of the other clubs. That is how we buy a twenty-million-pound player for a million. Or get a very good young defender for free from a premier League club
I suspect therefore he is not swayed by whether his coach makes a mistake on a pronoun in an interview after a very poor home performance, how he stands on the touchline, whether his hands are in his pockets or waving around like a dervish or any of the other inconsequential reasons given for why our new coach has lost the players, his support staff or even his mind.
He also made a telling comment. He said one philosophy in business (and Argyle remains a business) he adheres to id that if you haven’t failed you haven’t taken enough risk. He also is on the record as saying that he is more interested to see how people react to adversity than how they ride success.
Simon Hallett will know that his customer base, his fellow fans are unhappy with that last result. Football has a ridiculously short-term horizon as far as many fans are concerned. Using data based on a very small sample is universally acknowledged to be a flawed methodology, but at the same time clubs frequently make choices and changes based on those short-term reactions. Ask Darren Moore. Fired twice and already under pressure at Port Vale after a less than auspicious start.
It is also true that the best way of becoming a better player is to be not in the side when a game goes wrong. We have seen in the last few days a number of names, previously disparaged for being not of “Championship quality” now being suggested as the solution to all the wrongs of the current side. Players who were absent through illness and then injury “dropped”. Other players being undroppable due to their loan agreements.
Such detailed knowledge of things that are clearly not public domain. The wisdom of crowds distilled from the posts of the vociferous.
Sport is about success and failure. One flows from the other. If a home defeat by three nil is that damaging that it makes you that angry maybe the sport, or the club are not the one best suited to your psyche. I was there for the three nil home defeat by Arfon Griffiths and Wrexham. A season when we went up. No social media but the Match of the Day cameras broadcast the humiliation to the nations and the millions who tuned in. Our goal this season is less lofty than that season but one defeat will not, in the end define the whole season.
Michael Jordan knows a thing or two about sport and winning.
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life.
And that is why I succeed.”
Which brings us neatly to the remedy to the situation. There is always a next game to allow you to put things right. Or try to. And where better to go than to a ground where we have not tasted defeat for over thirty-one years and where we have a one game one hundred percent record, the Riverside in Middlesbrough, courtesy of a Jamie Mackie finish.
Middlesbrough who at the start of the season were the only side to be having a worse time of it than Sheffield Wednesday. Who then dragged themselves up the table to the fringe of the play-offs, then slumped back down again to mid table mediocrity before last weeks unexpectedly morale boosting win at Leicester City, whose two game form matches Argyle after last nights defeat at Leeds.
Before we discuss the finer points of the City, home to a naval hero in Captain Cook, let us address the elephant in the room. And not because since arriving in the industrial port he has been gorging himself on the two thousand calories Parmo, the local delicacy of deep fried breaded pork with a béchamel sauce beloved of the Smoggie locals and their XXL replica shirts.
One thing we can all agree on is Finn Azaz, playing at a level that was always making his remaining at Home Park in the long term an unlikely proposition, departing in the loan window, was a blow to the side. His immediate impact at the Riverside was limited, causing one local to contact an Argyle fan to ask if the player had an on switch. His goal later in the game at Preston showed that they had found said switch and he has continued to demonstrate he has a talent destined for higher things.
Indeed Middlesbrough, a side led by a man so dour and humourless are the very definition of a mid-table side this season. Had they, as form expected , lost at Leicester, and Mikel Millers clearance not fortuitously bounced back and into the Argyle goal the sides would sit two points apart in the table. They have three home wins in their last ten home matches, admittedly including against West Brom and Leicester City, alongside a romp at home to PNE.
For goals they may well be looking for a contribution from not just Azaz, the one who got away, but also past Argyle targets Coburn and Silvera.
Argyle fans, who always travel in hope rather than expectation, will doubtless give Finn the reception he deserves, and then hope he doesn’t send the visiting hordes in search of the Transporter Bridge, the only bridge in the UK that you can bungee jump from, although again, best not after a Parmo or two.
Argyle will hope for a bright opening, and the local industrial landscape provided anything but that in the past, being the inspiration for local boys Ridley Scott’s mournful opening of Blade Runner.
The place has also almost been the end for others. Terry Scott, of Terry and June and Carry On fame almost died when he drove his jaguar of the end of the Transporter bridge and was only saved by the safety netting in place for such an eventuality.
For Argyle and Fozzy we hope for a shot at redemption. The performance matters more than the result. Our form is still above a number of the chasers, and we have the chance to ensure they stay below us when later games come along.
In the meantime, in the spirit of Terry Scott, lets Carry On Up the Table.
COYG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Middlesbrough (A) February 24th
It’s late. I know. It’s been a bit of a week. I once went to Park Asterix near Paris and they have a roller coaster that inverts seven times. I hate rollercoasters but I was hosting for work, so….three times. And it was still more fun than rewatching the Albion game.
The game was made worse by the fact we let slip those two points against Coventry….which in turn was made worse by them being trounced by “Badges” Lowe at home. Leeds, well no-one thought we were winning that, including by selection choices made, Fozzie, but by common consent we gave the form side of the Division a game.
Albion, we all had a hope, would be the game that would maybe give us a win that would be a huge step towards safety. Low scorers, we could have won at their place, second highest home scorers in the League. Rested strike force.
And? Nothing. Literally nothing. Not a shot on target. Not an attacking highlight on the Sky highlights reel. Schooled. By a coach who was banished to the stand and a set of players who spent the entire second half playing, “after you, Claude” with the goal attempts.
So the reaction, as much as it is an overreaction to a single game was both inevitable and immediate. And the new coach gets the brunt of it. In particular one answer where the misuse of the pronoun you instead of we has been seized on as a sign he is aloof.
In the same week as this we also had the second part of the revealing, interesting, and to this fan at least, the reassuring open frank and honest interview of Simon Hallett. Our Chairman is not a man who sounds like he is prone to rashness, knee-jerking decisions or panic. Although wife Jane might argue buying your boyhood football club edges towards rash. His response to an earlier question about our departed coach was that if he was told that Schumacher had lost the dressing room he would build new dressing rooms.
He described the process that led to the appointment of our new coach, saying the candidates interviewed were all so good he asked if they should save the time and cost of the interview process and simply toss a coin. That’s the man you need in charge. One with a three-sided coin.
He also talked about how being Chairman means if he wants to lead the discussion he speaks first. Otherwise, he takes his chosen boards opinions first before speaking and then the Board decides. We know he believes in data driven solutions and the fact that with the lowest budget, as a club we have to trade on the inefficiencies of the other clubs. That is how we buy a twenty-million-pound player for a million. Or get a very good young defender for free from a premier League club
I suspect therefore he is not swayed by whether his coach makes a mistake on a pronoun in an interview after a very poor home performance, how he stands on the touchline, whether his hands are in his pockets or waving around like a dervish or any of the other inconsequential reasons given for why our new coach has lost the players, his support staff or even his mind.
He also made a telling comment. He said one philosophy in business (and Argyle remains a business) he adheres to id that if you haven’t failed you haven’t taken enough risk. He also is on the record as saying that he is more interested to see how people react to adversity than how they ride success.
Simon Hallett will know that his customer base, his fellow fans are unhappy with that last result. Football has a ridiculously short-term horizon as far as many fans are concerned. Using data based on a very small sample is universally acknowledged to be a flawed methodology, but at the same time clubs frequently make choices and changes based on those short-term reactions. Ask Darren Moore. Fired twice and already under pressure at Port Vale after a less than auspicious start.
It is also true that the best way of becoming a better player is to be not in the side when a game goes wrong. We have seen in the last few days a number of names, previously disparaged for being not of “Championship quality” now being suggested as the solution to all the wrongs of the current side. Players who were absent through illness and then injury “dropped”. Other players being undroppable due to their loan agreements.
Such detailed knowledge of things that are clearly not public domain. The wisdom of crowds distilled from the posts of the vociferous.
Sport is about success and failure. One flows from the other. If a home defeat by three nil is that damaging that it makes you that angry maybe the sport, or the club are not the one best suited to your psyche. I was there for the three nil home defeat by Arfon Griffiths and Wrexham. A season when we went up. No social media but the Match of the Day cameras broadcast the humiliation to the nations and the millions who tuned in. Our goal this season is less lofty than that season but one defeat will not, in the end define the whole season.
Michael Jordan knows a thing or two about sport and winning.
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life.
And that is why I succeed.”
Which brings us neatly to the remedy to the situation. There is always a next game to allow you to put things right. Or try to. And where better to go than to a ground where we have not tasted defeat for over thirty-one years and where we have a one game one hundred percent record, the Riverside in Middlesbrough, courtesy of a Jamie Mackie finish.
Middlesbrough who at the start of the season were the only side to be having a worse time of it than Sheffield Wednesday. Who then dragged themselves up the table to the fringe of the play-offs, then slumped back down again to mid table mediocrity before last weeks unexpectedly morale boosting win at Leicester City, whose two game form matches Argyle after last nights defeat at Leeds.
Before we discuss the finer points of the City, home to a naval hero in Captain Cook, let us address the elephant in the room. And not because since arriving in the industrial port he has been gorging himself on the two thousand calories Parmo, the local delicacy of deep fried breaded pork with a béchamel sauce beloved of the Smoggie locals and their XXL replica shirts.
One thing we can all agree on is Finn Azaz, playing at a level that was always making his remaining at Home Park in the long term an unlikely proposition, departing in the loan window, was a blow to the side. His immediate impact at the Riverside was limited, causing one local to contact an Argyle fan to ask if the player had an on switch. His goal later in the game at Preston showed that they had found said switch and he has continued to demonstrate he has a talent destined for higher things.
Indeed Middlesbrough, a side led by a man so dour and humourless are the very definition of a mid-table side this season. Had they, as form expected , lost at Leicester, and Mikel Millers clearance not fortuitously bounced back and into the Argyle goal the sides would sit two points apart in the table. They have three home wins in their last ten home matches, admittedly including against West Brom and Leicester City, alongside a romp at home to PNE.
For goals they may well be looking for a contribution from not just Azaz, the one who got away, but also past Argyle targets Coburn and Silvera.
Argyle fans, who always travel in hope rather than expectation, will doubtless give Finn the reception he deserves, and then hope he doesn’t send the visiting hordes in search of the Transporter Bridge, the only bridge in the UK that you can bungee jump from, although again, best not after a Parmo or two.
Argyle will hope for a bright opening, and the local industrial landscape provided anything but that in the past, being the inspiration for local boys Ridley Scott’s mournful opening of Blade Runner.
The place has also almost been the end for others. Terry Scott, of Terry and June and Carry On fame almost died when he drove his jaguar of the end of the Transporter bridge and was only saved by the safety netting in place for such an eventuality.
For Argyle and Fozzy we hope for a shot at redemption. The performance matters more than the result. Our form is still above a number of the chasers, and we have the chance to ensure they stay below us when later games come along.
In the meantime, in the spirit of Terry Scott, lets Carry On Up the Table.
COYG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
