One Game at a Time: You’re Only Here for the Pasties
The Chisits (A) December 9th
“You usually have to wait for that that is worth waiting for.”
This quote from Canadian businessman Craig Bruce was never more appropriate than in the ninety seventh minute of the home game against Stoke.
The lead up had been so this season. A slow start, with a dopey goal conceded, this time the error belonging to previous paragon of virtue Lewis Gibson, whose momentary switch off led to a simple one v one for Tyreece Campbell that the striker eagerly accepted. More chances followed, but then, switching on the progressive football we have grown accustomed to, KKH found space advanced on the right and delivered the pluperfect cross into the six-yard box.
Meeting it was our very own Moose, running rampant in the box to apply a sublime finish into the roof of the net to send the sides in level.
The second half was a war of attrition between the charging Greens and the oh so brave Stokies, who battled on despite the plethora of traumatic injuries that befell them at regular intervals. In the end, the Stoke City strategy was to hang on for a point, and they almost made it. In the time added on for their bravery however, Schueys finishers arrived and combined for an assault on the Stoke lines that delivered almost a quarter of our on-target shots for the game in one ten second three-pronged attack. First Callum Wright cut in and had his shot beaten away. Luke Cundle followed up, beat the keeper but not the man on the line. The ball then rebounded out to the waiting Adam Randell. Rands, playing in his hundredth first team game for his hometown club, drilled the ball low into the corner and, I believe the vernacular for the reaction, is limbs.
Certainly, another three Stoke players, and their manager Alex Neil hit the deck clutching their heads. Like I say. So brave.
The net result was Argyle climbing to a respectable sixteenth, a near meltdown of the Stoke fanbase regarding losing to “the likes of Plymouth” and a near universal demand in the Potteries for the head of the manager online.
It is of course that time of year, when trigger happy chairmen and owners, anticipating the arrival of the January window, suddenly begin to spring into action. By midweek the number of Championship clubs who had changed boss was up to nine with the departure of Sunderland’s Tony Mowbray and Swansea City’s Mike Duff, both with in club tenures of lesser length than Shuey. With Neil at Stoke and Wagner at Norwich, as well as some bloke called Lowe at Preston also under pressure after poor runs of form, it seems like the managerial merry-go-round has kicked up a gear. And let us not forget that the Wendies are on head coach number three of the season. Suddenly Watford look like a bastion of managerial stability.
The only consequence for Argyle of course, given that we are run by someone who takes a more rational view of the process, is that the gaffers reputation makes him a Schue-in for the betting fraternity whenever a so -called “big job” appears (or Preston). The usual histrionic online noise followed until the sparks of rumour were dampened down by the man himself.
The hectic run up to Christmas continues with a much-anticipated trip to the club that briefly became almost everyone’s second favourite team in 2016, Leicester City. The Chisits, as folk from the tenth largest city in England are known (from their accent making the phrase “how much is it” sound like “I’m a chisit”) are spending what they fervently hope is a one-year exile from the EPL they won so spectacularly in the last decade, by winning the title they have won the joint most times of any club in the Championship. Once again Argyle will be squaring up to a club who have spent heavily, despite having to divest themselves of multiple talents after their demise, and, despite their recent form including two defeats and a draw in their last six, they sit atop the table, narrowly holding off the world’s best football team in the world ever, Ipswich Town.
Historically Leicester have spent much of their history at the second-tier level, with only one brief season at the third division, where they were taken by gnomic talisman Ian Holloway, after he was tempted away from Home Park.
City started life in 1884 as Leicester Fosse (after the road in which they were formed) and are the junior side in the City as Leicester Football Club, now known as Leicester Tigers, the rugby side were formed in 1880. The club started out in the Midland League and applied to the Football League second division in 1904. After two seasons of relative mediocrity, the club won promotion to the top division in 1908, but their first season was a disaster, and the club quickly were relegated including a record 12-0 defeat at the hands of near rivals Nottingham Forest.
The club struggled financially, and after the Great War hiatus the Fosse club folded, to be reconstituted as Leicester City FC. This incarnation of the team had its then high-water mark in 1928/9 when they finished as runners up to The Wednesday, something that looks highly unlikely to be repeated this season for sure.
And, as for geography, so it was for football, generally Leicester spent their seasons stuck in the middle of the league in the middle of the pyramid, occasionally bursting forth on the back of talented individuals, who are then sold off to so-called bigger clubs and the process begins again. Banks, Shilton (Peter not Sam), Weller, Birchinall, Lineker, Smith, right up to the modern day of Kante, Mahrez and Maddison, and of course maverick Frank Worthington.
Signed from Huddersfield after Bill Shankly and Liverpool decided high blood pressure was an issue, Franky Wortho as Leicester fans knew him was the working-class George Best possessed of an inate talent, a devotion to Elvis that imbued his dress sense and behaviour, and a reputation as a Lothario. His autobiography was entitled One Hump or Two?
With undeniable talent, he drove managers to distraction. He would insist on Elvis being played on long team coach journeys and, when at Bolton, his manager threw said tape onto the autobahn on a pre-season German tour, refused to speak to the manager for the rest of the tour.
Jimmy Bloomfield, the manager who signed him, once looked up from a training team talk to see Worthington on the pitch smashing volleys from crosses from two apprentices into an empty net. He simply shrugged when someone suggested getting Frank back into the huddle, saying what was the point, he doesn’t listen anyway.
Alan Birchinell, no mean player, recalled Worthington refusing to chase back once the ball was lost. Berating him for lack of effort Worthington simply told him that chasing back was for ordinary players. Pointing up the pitch to the goal he said, you go get it, I go that way.
Occasionally the club would burst forth with a cup run, and despite several near misses in the post war years to the 1960’s in the FA Cup, it was the League Cup that was to provide their first real silverware of note. In order to win the trophy in 1965 they had to overcome a stubborn Argyle side over two legs in the first major semi-final of the Argyle story. It was a season where we would come to regret the fact that, whilst not playing them in the league for many seasons either side, we were to play then three times in less than a month, only to be bundled out of both cup competitions.
Other than the season of cup woe, the paths of the clubs cross only intermittently, as City made it to the higher echelons and Argyle juggled their even lower mid league existence.
Indeed, until the signing of the green bleeding (or so he professed) Holloway to be their manager under Milan Manderic, the only significant managerial cross over was a six-week period under Gary Megson, before Bolton came calling to steal the ginger one away. There is a reason why Megsons nickname as a manager was suitcase.
Reflecting back on the game that followed Holloways departure, whilst not broadcastable on a family site such as Pasoti, gave an example of one of the more united crowd and team performances of the recent past, with a one nil win from a Peter Halmosi special, and the final league table showing Argyle a respectable thirteenth and City heading to the third tier for the first time in their history.
Since then, the two clubs have had very different trajectories, and the arrival of their Thai owners, investing their duty-free empire wealth in a club that otherwise had never significantly threatened the status quo, and who under Nigel Worthington, narrowly escaped relegation in the 2014/15 season, resulted in the greatest upset of said equilibrium the following season.
It was postulated that for one brief season fans united behind a story that, driven by Vardy’s goals, Kasper Schmeichel’s saves, Mahrez’s exquisite wing play and Kante’s innate ability to win the ball, masterminded by Claudio Ranieri in his managerial role as “the Tinkerman”, in the 5000-1 shot that paid off. The side was anchored By Wes Morgan, a remarkable turnaround for a man who the great Sir Gordon Sparks derided after a shocking performance for his previous club Forest at Argyle.
But footballing gravity took over, and as players departed, followed by managers, and with a tragic fatal helicopter crash claiming the lives of their inspirational chairman, Leicester finally succumbed to the pull of their spiritual home, the Championship.
Make no mistake, as a club they possess the resources to jump straight back, with signings like England past internationals Coady and Winks, and retained talent like Vardy, presumably playing on to recoup his wife’s legal costs, and the local spa resort Keinan Dewsbury Hall pulling midfield strings and scoring regularly.
Under Pep graduate Maresco they lead the table but are not scoring goals in a free-flowing way, and whilst defensively tight already have two defeats at the King Power, to Hull and Leeds United.
Argyle of course travel still seeking that elusive first away win, and as high odds against have already been tipped as the outside value bet by pundit George Elik. Of 109 away teams we have played in our history, results wise today’s opponent are our 107th best. Sometimes I hate Greens on Screen.
Presuming Randell has recovered from the crush injuries inflicted in the after-goal celebrations, Schuey faces a selection problem he will relish with close to a full squad to choose from. The return of Galloway, Hardie and Callum Wright may allow for some rotation, and rest for a couple of players whose form has dipped recently.
We will hope to see crisp passing at the former Walkers Stadium, and whilst parking can be expensive in the area, and risky with the threat of archaeologists unearthing dead kings under your Renault Clio there will be no sign of the pink away strip of yore, unless the kitman makes the mistake of washing it in the polluted River Soar, which used to run pink in the days of untrammelled contamination by the textile industry.
Free hit or footballing lesson? Away breakthrough or a realisation of the order of things that whilst it can be changed for a season or so, eventually money talks.
One thing is for sure. One of the most talked about young football coaches in the country will be doing his best to drive the narrative of the game.
And he won’t be in the home dugout.
COYG!!!!!!
The Chisits (A) December 9th
“You usually have to wait for that that is worth waiting for.”
This quote from Canadian businessman Craig Bruce was never more appropriate than in the ninety seventh minute of the home game against Stoke.
The lead up had been so this season. A slow start, with a dopey goal conceded, this time the error belonging to previous paragon of virtue Lewis Gibson, whose momentary switch off led to a simple one v one for Tyreece Campbell that the striker eagerly accepted. More chances followed, but then, switching on the progressive football we have grown accustomed to, KKH found space advanced on the right and delivered the pluperfect cross into the six-yard box.
Meeting it was our very own Moose, running rampant in the box to apply a sublime finish into the roof of the net to send the sides in level.
The second half was a war of attrition between the charging Greens and the oh so brave Stokies, who battled on despite the plethora of traumatic injuries that befell them at regular intervals. In the end, the Stoke City strategy was to hang on for a point, and they almost made it. In the time added on for their bravery however, Schueys finishers arrived and combined for an assault on the Stoke lines that delivered almost a quarter of our on-target shots for the game in one ten second three-pronged attack. First Callum Wright cut in and had his shot beaten away. Luke Cundle followed up, beat the keeper but not the man on the line. The ball then rebounded out to the waiting Adam Randell. Rands, playing in his hundredth first team game for his hometown club, drilled the ball low into the corner and, I believe the vernacular for the reaction, is limbs.
Certainly, another three Stoke players, and their manager Alex Neil hit the deck clutching their heads. Like I say. So brave.
The net result was Argyle climbing to a respectable sixteenth, a near meltdown of the Stoke fanbase regarding losing to “the likes of Plymouth” and a near universal demand in the Potteries for the head of the manager online.
It is of course that time of year, when trigger happy chairmen and owners, anticipating the arrival of the January window, suddenly begin to spring into action. By midweek the number of Championship clubs who had changed boss was up to nine with the departure of Sunderland’s Tony Mowbray and Swansea City’s Mike Duff, both with in club tenures of lesser length than Shuey. With Neil at Stoke and Wagner at Norwich, as well as some bloke called Lowe at Preston also under pressure after poor runs of form, it seems like the managerial merry-go-round has kicked up a gear. And let us not forget that the Wendies are on head coach number three of the season. Suddenly Watford look like a bastion of managerial stability.
The only consequence for Argyle of course, given that we are run by someone who takes a more rational view of the process, is that the gaffers reputation makes him a Schue-in for the betting fraternity whenever a so -called “big job” appears (or Preston). The usual histrionic online noise followed until the sparks of rumour were dampened down by the man himself.
The hectic run up to Christmas continues with a much-anticipated trip to the club that briefly became almost everyone’s second favourite team in 2016, Leicester City. The Chisits, as folk from the tenth largest city in England are known (from their accent making the phrase “how much is it” sound like “I’m a chisit”) are spending what they fervently hope is a one-year exile from the EPL they won so spectacularly in the last decade, by winning the title they have won the joint most times of any club in the Championship. Once again Argyle will be squaring up to a club who have spent heavily, despite having to divest themselves of multiple talents after their demise, and, despite their recent form including two defeats and a draw in their last six, they sit atop the table, narrowly holding off the world’s best football team in the world ever, Ipswich Town.
Historically Leicester have spent much of their history at the second-tier level, with only one brief season at the third division, where they were taken by gnomic talisman Ian Holloway, after he was tempted away from Home Park.
City started life in 1884 as Leicester Fosse (after the road in which they were formed) and are the junior side in the City as Leicester Football Club, now known as Leicester Tigers, the rugby side were formed in 1880. The club started out in the Midland League and applied to the Football League second division in 1904. After two seasons of relative mediocrity, the club won promotion to the top division in 1908, but their first season was a disaster, and the club quickly were relegated including a record 12-0 defeat at the hands of near rivals Nottingham Forest.
The club struggled financially, and after the Great War hiatus the Fosse club folded, to be reconstituted as Leicester City FC. This incarnation of the team had its then high-water mark in 1928/9 when they finished as runners up to The Wednesday, something that looks highly unlikely to be repeated this season for sure.
And, as for geography, so it was for football, generally Leicester spent their seasons stuck in the middle of the league in the middle of the pyramid, occasionally bursting forth on the back of talented individuals, who are then sold off to so-called bigger clubs and the process begins again. Banks, Shilton (Peter not Sam), Weller, Birchinall, Lineker, Smith, right up to the modern day of Kante, Mahrez and Maddison, and of course maverick Frank Worthington.
Signed from Huddersfield after Bill Shankly and Liverpool decided high blood pressure was an issue, Franky Wortho as Leicester fans knew him was the working-class George Best possessed of an inate talent, a devotion to Elvis that imbued his dress sense and behaviour, and a reputation as a Lothario. His autobiography was entitled One Hump or Two?
With undeniable talent, he drove managers to distraction. He would insist on Elvis being played on long team coach journeys and, when at Bolton, his manager threw said tape onto the autobahn on a pre-season German tour, refused to speak to the manager for the rest of the tour.
Jimmy Bloomfield, the manager who signed him, once looked up from a training team talk to see Worthington on the pitch smashing volleys from crosses from two apprentices into an empty net. He simply shrugged when someone suggested getting Frank back into the huddle, saying what was the point, he doesn’t listen anyway.
Alan Birchinell, no mean player, recalled Worthington refusing to chase back once the ball was lost. Berating him for lack of effort Worthington simply told him that chasing back was for ordinary players. Pointing up the pitch to the goal he said, you go get it, I go that way.
Occasionally the club would burst forth with a cup run, and despite several near misses in the post war years to the 1960’s in the FA Cup, it was the League Cup that was to provide their first real silverware of note. In order to win the trophy in 1965 they had to overcome a stubborn Argyle side over two legs in the first major semi-final of the Argyle story. It was a season where we would come to regret the fact that, whilst not playing them in the league for many seasons either side, we were to play then three times in less than a month, only to be bundled out of both cup competitions.
Other than the season of cup woe, the paths of the clubs cross only intermittently, as City made it to the higher echelons and Argyle juggled their even lower mid league existence.
Indeed, until the signing of the green bleeding (or so he professed) Holloway to be their manager under Milan Manderic, the only significant managerial cross over was a six-week period under Gary Megson, before Bolton came calling to steal the ginger one away. There is a reason why Megsons nickname as a manager was suitcase.
Reflecting back on the game that followed Holloways departure, whilst not broadcastable on a family site such as Pasoti, gave an example of one of the more united crowd and team performances of the recent past, with a one nil win from a Peter Halmosi special, and the final league table showing Argyle a respectable thirteenth and City heading to the third tier for the first time in their history.
Since then, the two clubs have had very different trajectories, and the arrival of their Thai owners, investing their duty-free empire wealth in a club that otherwise had never significantly threatened the status quo, and who under Nigel Worthington, narrowly escaped relegation in the 2014/15 season, resulted in the greatest upset of said equilibrium the following season.
It was postulated that for one brief season fans united behind a story that, driven by Vardy’s goals, Kasper Schmeichel’s saves, Mahrez’s exquisite wing play and Kante’s innate ability to win the ball, masterminded by Claudio Ranieri in his managerial role as “the Tinkerman”, in the 5000-1 shot that paid off. The side was anchored By Wes Morgan, a remarkable turnaround for a man who the great Sir Gordon Sparks derided after a shocking performance for his previous club Forest at Argyle.
But footballing gravity took over, and as players departed, followed by managers, and with a tragic fatal helicopter crash claiming the lives of their inspirational chairman, Leicester finally succumbed to the pull of their spiritual home, the Championship.
Make no mistake, as a club they possess the resources to jump straight back, with signings like England past internationals Coady and Winks, and retained talent like Vardy, presumably playing on to recoup his wife’s legal costs, and the local spa resort Keinan Dewsbury Hall pulling midfield strings and scoring regularly.
Under Pep graduate Maresco they lead the table but are not scoring goals in a free-flowing way, and whilst defensively tight already have two defeats at the King Power, to Hull and Leeds United.
Argyle of course travel still seeking that elusive first away win, and as high odds against have already been tipped as the outside value bet by pundit George Elik. Of 109 away teams we have played in our history, results wise today’s opponent are our 107th best. Sometimes I hate Greens on Screen.
Presuming Randell has recovered from the crush injuries inflicted in the after-goal celebrations, Schuey faces a selection problem he will relish with close to a full squad to choose from. The return of Galloway, Hardie and Callum Wright may allow for some rotation, and rest for a couple of players whose form has dipped recently.
We will hope to see crisp passing at the former Walkers Stadium, and whilst parking can be expensive in the area, and risky with the threat of archaeologists unearthing dead kings under your Renault Clio there will be no sign of the pink away strip of yore, unless the kitman makes the mistake of washing it in the polluted River Soar, which used to run pink in the days of untrammelled contamination by the textile industry.
Free hit or footballing lesson? Away breakthrough or a realisation of the order of things that whilst it can be changed for a season or so, eventually money talks.
One thing is for sure. One of the most talked about young football coaches in the country will be doing his best to drive the narrative of the game.
And he won’t be in the home dugout.
COYG!!!!!!
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