One Game at a Time: You’re Only Here for the Pasties
Rotherham United (H) December 17th
If.
The seminal work of the youngest ever Nobel Literature laureate, Rudyard Kipling and without doubt the most overworked piece of poetry in the football managers motivational arsenal. Well, maybe not Colin, but all the others.
Sometimes though, it is simply the only appropriate way to go.
A Wednesday night in foggy wet West London, with almost £40 sods a ticket, trains their usual shambles and a six pointer against one of the teams that, having started the season promisingly badly under the wild-eyed Rover Ainsworth, had discovered a scintilla of form under new continental “I am not a genius” Marti Cifuentes.
Just the eight changes from the side that was decapitated efficiently by Leicester City at the weekend, although only one of those was enforced, as Hazard replaced Cooper, injured by a high late challenge at the King Power that was not considered worthy of a card.
Cifuentes, whose playing style has been more considered than the long ball mantra of his predecessor, made three changes, but his playmaking duo of Chair and Willock, fresh from recent match winning performances, were both starters.
And for twenty minutes they passed the ball out of defence. The only problem being for the Rangers faithful that when they played a killer ball it was largely to a man in green, with a clear run at goal. Four times Argyle had effective one on ones, and only once did they force a save from Begovic. If, as they say, you can keep you head over the ball and the shot on the goal….
And then the moment that changed the game. A poor ball from Mumba to Houghton. A borderline two footed challenge on Houghton that sprang Chair, who flicked the ball away from Scarr.
If. Accounts vary, but which at full speed looked like a textbook definition of a late high lunge, that caught Chair fractionally before the sniper’s bullet that sent him spinning in agony through the air. Red card, and over an hour to play ten v eleven. Chair bravely recovered from his bullet wound.
Post-match and manager Schumacher agreed the sending-off decision was correct. Using the metric of what would we have wanted had the challenge been say, Cook on Whittaker, that is hard to argue against. If you take any decision back far enough you can find a reason for the incident to be voided, but the reality is if you give the referee a decision to make, some of them you won’t like.
For me, this is not about that decision being wrong, but that we have seen several decisions this season that were clearer than that, not be treated in the same way. One hundred percent consistency of decisions is impossible when humans are involved, but it would be nice for Argyle to at least be getting in the mid to low eighty percentiles for consistency. Cue Gavin Ward. Gulp.
What followed was a masterclass in defensive organisation, led by Galloway and Gibson, plus the subbed on Pleggy, with a block so low the excellent Rangers website “Loft for Words”, full of praise for the Argyle defensive display, described it as being in the Westfield car park.
In truth, Rangers fiddled and faddled in front of goal, with Chair and Willock taking centre stage in wastefully slow build up play. Two decent chances were missed by Kelman and Willock, the latter masterfully blocked by a sliding Galloway, and in a game management masterclass that the dearly departed Ainsworth would have been proud of, an unlikely and excellent point was secured in front of an appreciative two thousand plus greens.
We will never know what would have happened if Scarr had not pulled his hair trigger to tackle….if the tide would have continued to surge towards the Rangers goal or if Cifuentes would have pulled a tactical change that would have overcome the threat, but if we do stay up by a single point, this may have been the night.
No email this week therefore from Howard Webb of PGMOL for Schuey, unless of course it is to beg a couple of tickets for him to watch his beloved Rotherham United on their trek South to Home Park for Saturday’s fixture. United are bottom of the division, and of the Sheffield Championship mini league after they and the Wendies both lost in mid-week, on goal difference and some ten points adrift of Argyle.
Having dispensed of the services of ex Grecian boss Matty Taylor, they have now appointed Leam Richardson, the former Accrington and Wigan boss, who, having taken the Latics up after Paul Cook had abandoned them for his ill-fated Suffolk adventure at Ipswich learned the hard way about loyalty and the value of contracts in football management.
Richardson has signed a three-and-a-half-year contract, six months longer than the one he signed seven games before the chaotic then Wigan ownership dismissed him, with the club adrift at the bottom of the Championship. Linked with almost every significant lower league job since, he has taken his time and plumped for Rotherham, taking the reins in time for their midweek defeat at home to West Brom.
United came into existence as their current formation in 1925, but that doesn’t really tell the story of the town that was so seemingly determined to have a football club, it spawned several.
There was a Rotherham FC in 1870 and a later Rotherham Wanderers in 1872, before Thornhill FC, later Thornhill United were formed in 1877. A year later Lunar Rovers were formed, named for their playing in moonlit conditions, although within a year they had changed their name to simply Rotherham, and then added Town a year or so later.
Meanwhile, their local rivals Rotherham Wanderers had folded and been replaced by Rotherham Swifts who themselves folded in 1891.
Thornhill United were very much second fiddle to Rotherham Town, but a house divided does not stand and Town folded in 1896 due to poor attendances. Despite this apparent local clarity within three years two local minor clubs, Rotherham Grammar School and Rotherham Casuals combined to form Rotherham, and then changed name in 1905 to, well why not, Rotherham Town.
That was the final straw for Thornhill who changed name to Rotherham County, and as this side took possession of an area of land called Millmoor.
The two clubs continued side by side but in 1925 they merged to become Rotherham United. They still contrived to ensure that no other professional club could operate by contracting the Town ground to Rotherham Amateurs, who continued on for a few years before disbanding.
And since then, well not very much. They have spent the majority of their history yo-yoing between either the second and third tier, and, when one was created, the third and fourth tier, to the extent that if they were sponsored one day by Duncans Toys, the world’s first yo yo company, then no-one would notice or care.
Like Argyle, they have never graced the top flight, the closest being a third place on goal difference back in the days when third place was the hard luck story seventh place is today.
Having pipped Argyle in the hard luck stakes by one place in the League they also managed to pip them in the League Cup, remarkably being the first losing finalists in the inaugural season of 1960/61, where they lost over two legs to Aston Villa.
In terms of recent seasons it has been a while since Argyle have bested Rotherham with recent defeats coming at the hands of Michael Smiths goal before he abandoned the promoted United for the mighty Wednesday, and before that a Ladapo inspired away defeat on an opening day when, perhaps foretelling his career trajectory, new Argyle signing Niall Ennis pulled up lame in the warm up.
Rotherham also came a raiding to snap up a promising left back when Argyle were climbing out of the abyss, when Ben Purrington made the slightly curious choice of a trip to South Yorkshire to further his career.
The most interesting transfer between the clubs was undoubtedly the signing of classic seventies centre back Neil Hague, who formed a solid pairing with Bobby Saxton, and had a habit of popping up with useful goals, none more so than in the 1973/4 League Cup semi-finalist side when he netted a late winner at Burnley.
In a time when Argyle are once again reaping the benefits of investing in youth and developing their own players, one strong but often forgotten link is Mike Trusson.
Signed from Somerset local football after being released by Chelsea, the Londoner came through a Youth team that also produced talents like Martin Hodge, George Foster, Kevin Hodges and Gary Megson. Trusson was initially a striker who gradually moved back through the side to become and effective goal scoring midfielder, and left Argyle for Sheffield United, then a third tier side (and shortly to become a fourth tier one in his first season).
Trussons goals and performances led to him being United Player of the year as they began their climb back up the League, and then he made the short hop over the M1 to Rotherham under Norman Hunter, where he was successful in the same role.
He left Rotherham for Brighton, and then Gillingham, where he was a teammate of Tony Pulis, and joined him at Bournemouth as Pulis began his managerial career, but injury meant he barely played and he began to coach the youth side, and then after the departure of David Kemp, the first team. Trusson also featured in the bizarre match between Palace and Brighton where five penalties were awarded, four to Palace (of which they missed three) including one that resulted in a red card for Trusson.
Once his playing career ended Trusson was then a successful marketeer, first for the Football Football restaurant, and then the PFA before joining the World Snooker Association as Sponsorship manager.
His association with Pulis saw him return to Sheffield as assistant manager when Pulis was appointed to succeed Garry Monk at Wednesday, but that was a brief foray as Pulis was fired a month after his arrival and Trusson was despatched with him.
Trusson also scouted for several clubs, and his most successful find was a young Jordan Hugill, likely to be the greatest goal threat for United on Saturday. Cheers Mike.
Likely in the crowd, will of course be Neil Warnock, another game of many that allows him to enjoy all three results. Sadly, there will be a maximum of one Chuckle brother, following the demise of Barry (the short one) a couple of years ago, but after Paul Chuckle and Howard Webb we are down to Dean Andrews (Emmerdale) and the bassist from Muse, so it is slim pickings for autograph chasers.
With a number of key lower table battles, Argyle will want to take advantage of the divisions most generous defence which will take us to the almost halfway mark of the campaign.
Having punctured one new manager bounce it would be good to make sure another one doesn’t start to develop. Tired legs maybe, but a good chance to head into the Mr Potato head home game (assuming he survives that long) and Christmas with a couple of solid home wins under our belt.
COYG!!!!!!!
Rotherham United (H) December 17th
If.
The seminal work of the youngest ever Nobel Literature laureate, Rudyard Kipling and without doubt the most overworked piece of poetry in the football managers motivational arsenal. Well, maybe not Colin, but all the others.
Sometimes though, it is simply the only appropriate way to go.
A Wednesday night in foggy wet West London, with almost £40 sods a ticket, trains their usual shambles and a six pointer against one of the teams that, having started the season promisingly badly under the wild-eyed Rover Ainsworth, had discovered a scintilla of form under new continental “I am not a genius” Marti Cifuentes.
Just the eight changes from the side that was decapitated efficiently by Leicester City at the weekend, although only one of those was enforced, as Hazard replaced Cooper, injured by a high late challenge at the King Power that was not considered worthy of a card.
Cifuentes, whose playing style has been more considered than the long ball mantra of his predecessor, made three changes, but his playmaking duo of Chair and Willock, fresh from recent match winning performances, were both starters.
And for twenty minutes they passed the ball out of defence. The only problem being for the Rangers faithful that when they played a killer ball it was largely to a man in green, with a clear run at goal. Four times Argyle had effective one on ones, and only once did they force a save from Begovic. If, as they say, you can keep you head over the ball and the shot on the goal….
And then the moment that changed the game. A poor ball from Mumba to Houghton. A borderline two footed challenge on Houghton that sprang Chair, who flicked the ball away from Scarr.
If. Accounts vary, but which at full speed looked like a textbook definition of a late high lunge, that caught Chair fractionally before the sniper’s bullet that sent him spinning in agony through the air. Red card, and over an hour to play ten v eleven. Chair bravely recovered from his bullet wound.
Post-match and manager Schumacher agreed the sending-off decision was correct. Using the metric of what would we have wanted had the challenge been say, Cook on Whittaker, that is hard to argue against. If you take any decision back far enough you can find a reason for the incident to be voided, but the reality is if you give the referee a decision to make, some of them you won’t like.
For me, this is not about that decision being wrong, but that we have seen several decisions this season that were clearer than that, not be treated in the same way. One hundred percent consistency of decisions is impossible when humans are involved, but it would be nice for Argyle to at least be getting in the mid to low eighty percentiles for consistency. Cue Gavin Ward. Gulp.
What followed was a masterclass in defensive organisation, led by Galloway and Gibson, plus the subbed on Pleggy, with a block so low the excellent Rangers website “Loft for Words”, full of praise for the Argyle defensive display, described it as being in the Westfield car park.
In truth, Rangers fiddled and faddled in front of goal, with Chair and Willock taking centre stage in wastefully slow build up play. Two decent chances were missed by Kelman and Willock, the latter masterfully blocked by a sliding Galloway, and in a game management masterclass that the dearly departed Ainsworth would have been proud of, an unlikely and excellent point was secured in front of an appreciative two thousand plus greens.
We will never know what would have happened if Scarr had not pulled his hair trigger to tackle….if the tide would have continued to surge towards the Rangers goal or if Cifuentes would have pulled a tactical change that would have overcome the threat, but if we do stay up by a single point, this may have been the night.
No email this week therefore from Howard Webb of PGMOL for Schuey, unless of course it is to beg a couple of tickets for him to watch his beloved Rotherham United on their trek South to Home Park for Saturday’s fixture. United are bottom of the division, and of the Sheffield Championship mini league after they and the Wendies both lost in mid-week, on goal difference and some ten points adrift of Argyle.
Having dispensed of the services of ex Grecian boss Matty Taylor, they have now appointed Leam Richardson, the former Accrington and Wigan boss, who, having taken the Latics up after Paul Cook had abandoned them for his ill-fated Suffolk adventure at Ipswich learned the hard way about loyalty and the value of contracts in football management.
Richardson has signed a three-and-a-half-year contract, six months longer than the one he signed seven games before the chaotic then Wigan ownership dismissed him, with the club adrift at the bottom of the Championship. Linked with almost every significant lower league job since, he has taken his time and plumped for Rotherham, taking the reins in time for their midweek defeat at home to West Brom.
United came into existence as their current formation in 1925, but that doesn’t really tell the story of the town that was so seemingly determined to have a football club, it spawned several.
There was a Rotherham FC in 1870 and a later Rotherham Wanderers in 1872, before Thornhill FC, later Thornhill United were formed in 1877. A year later Lunar Rovers were formed, named for their playing in moonlit conditions, although within a year they had changed their name to simply Rotherham, and then added Town a year or so later.
Meanwhile, their local rivals Rotherham Wanderers had folded and been replaced by Rotherham Swifts who themselves folded in 1891.
Thornhill United were very much second fiddle to Rotherham Town, but a house divided does not stand and Town folded in 1896 due to poor attendances. Despite this apparent local clarity within three years two local minor clubs, Rotherham Grammar School and Rotherham Casuals combined to form Rotherham, and then changed name in 1905 to, well why not, Rotherham Town.
That was the final straw for Thornhill who changed name to Rotherham County, and as this side took possession of an area of land called Millmoor.
The two clubs continued side by side but in 1925 they merged to become Rotherham United. They still contrived to ensure that no other professional club could operate by contracting the Town ground to Rotherham Amateurs, who continued on for a few years before disbanding.
And since then, well not very much. They have spent the majority of their history yo-yoing between either the second and third tier, and, when one was created, the third and fourth tier, to the extent that if they were sponsored one day by Duncans Toys, the world’s first yo yo company, then no-one would notice or care.
Like Argyle, they have never graced the top flight, the closest being a third place on goal difference back in the days when third place was the hard luck story seventh place is today.
Having pipped Argyle in the hard luck stakes by one place in the League they also managed to pip them in the League Cup, remarkably being the first losing finalists in the inaugural season of 1960/61, where they lost over two legs to Aston Villa.
In terms of recent seasons it has been a while since Argyle have bested Rotherham with recent defeats coming at the hands of Michael Smiths goal before he abandoned the promoted United for the mighty Wednesday, and before that a Ladapo inspired away defeat on an opening day when, perhaps foretelling his career trajectory, new Argyle signing Niall Ennis pulled up lame in the warm up.
Rotherham also came a raiding to snap up a promising left back when Argyle were climbing out of the abyss, when Ben Purrington made the slightly curious choice of a trip to South Yorkshire to further his career.
The most interesting transfer between the clubs was undoubtedly the signing of classic seventies centre back Neil Hague, who formed a solid pairing with Bobby Saxton, and had a habit of popping up with useful goals, none more so than in the 1973/4 League Cup semi-finalist side when he netted a late winner at Burnley.
In a time when Argyle are once again reaping the benefits of investing in youth and developing their own players, one strong but often forgotten link is Mike Trusson.
Signed from Somerset local football after being released by Chelsea, the Londoner came through a Youth team that also produced talents like Martin Hodge, George Foster, Kevin Hodges and Gary Megson. Trusson was initially a striker who gradually moved back through the side to become and effective goal scoring midfielder, and left Argyle for Sheffield United, then a third tier side (and shortly to become a fourth tier one in his first season).
Trussons goals and performances led to him being United Player of the year as they began their climb back up the League, and then he made the short hop over the M1 to Rotherham under Norman Hunter, where he was successful in the same role.
He left Rotherham for Brighton, and then Gillingham, where he was a teammate of Tony Pulis, and joined him at Bournemouth as Pulis began his managerial career, but injury meant he barely played and he began to coach the youth side, and then after the departure of David Kemp, the first team. Trusson also featured in the bizarre match between Palace and Brighton where five penalties were awarded, four to Palace (of which they missed three) including one that resulted in a red card for Trusson.
Once his playing career ended Trusson was then a successful marketeer, first for the Football Football restaurant, and then the PFA before joining the World Snooker Association as Sponsorship manager.
His association with Pulis saw him return to Sheffield as assistant manager when Pulis was appointed to succeed Garry Monk at Wednesday, but that was a brief foray as Pulis was fired a month after his arrival and Trusson was despatched with him.
Trusson also scouted for several clubs, and his most successful find was a young Jordan Hugill, likely to be the greatest goal threat for United on Saturday. Cheers Mike.
Likely in the crowd, will of course be Neil Warnock, another game of many that allows him to enjoy all three results. Sadly, there will be a maximum of one Chuckle brother, following the demise of Barry (the short one) a couple of years ago, but after Paul Chuckle and Howard Webb we are down to Dean Andrews (Emmerdale) and the bassist from Muse, so it is slim pickings for autograph chasers.
With a number of key lower table battles, Argyle will want to take advantage of the divisions most generous defence which will take us to the almost halfway mark of the campaign.
Having punctured one new manager bounce it would be good to make sure another one doesn’t start to develop. Tired legs maybe, but a good chance to head into the Mr Potato head home game (assuming he survives that long) and Christmas with a couple of solid home wins under our belt.
COYG!!!!!!!
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