Plymouth Argyle’s excellent start to the season has continued today at the Stadium of Light today beating Sunderland 3 – 2 in an action packed match. The Black Cats took the lead in the first minute courtesy of Daryl Murphy who somehow managed to squeeze a shot off past Luke McCormick from a very tight angle. David Norris levelled the scores seven minutes later lobbing the ball over Alnwick; and new boy Barry Hayles scored his second Championship goal for the Pilgrims in three games, capitalising on a defensive blunder by Kenny Cunningham to give Plymouth a 2 – 1 lead going into half time. But Sunderland came out fighting and got their equaliser 22 minutes into the second half, and it could have been a different story if Chris Brown’s header dipped under the crossbar instead of hitting it! But Plymouth’s ability shone through when Nick Chadwick scored the winner with a scorching low drive from twelve yards out. Plymouth could have score five if Hayles and Norris made the most of their one on one opportunities gifted to them, but that doesn’t matter, its another strong performance away from home, which leaves Argyle in 2nd place in the league at the time of writing. And the worst position the Pilgrims could be in after tomorrow is third in the league, so it’s an excellent start to the season, and long may it continue is what I say! Stoke City could only manage a draw in their home fixture against Birmingham City, so that’s more good news for Plymouth fans, I hope I don’t have to explain why? read last month’s archives for why! Liverpool scraped through the first leg of their champions league qualification match against Maccabi Haifa, beating the Israeli team on neutral ground because of the troubles in the Middle East, 2 – 1 on the night. It was the new additions to the team that saved the reds blushes, Craig Bellamy (33 mins) and Mark Gonzalez (89 mins), so a less than convincing start to the Liverpool season, but things can only get better, right? Guess we’ll get a true representation tomorrow afternoon when they meet Chelsea in the Charity Shield! While I am on the subject of football, I read today that Chelsea are going to charge £94 per ticket for games at the Emirates Stadium this season with Spurs charging £74 for a ticket, either people in these areas have too much money to spare, or these teams are just being optimistic about what people will pay, I seriously hope it’s the latter as that’s silly money to watch 90 minutes of football!
On a sadder note, my mother died in hospital last Saturday night peacefully in her sleep at the age of 66, although I didn’t find out until Wednesday lunchtime, which is annoying really. I asked the hospital to call me if they didn’t expect her to live more than a couple of hours, but no call was received, I gave them my mobile, and work numbers, so there’s no excuse, and even if they called the mobile while I was at work, I would have had a missed call as the phone has been on 24/7 for the last week. The funeral is on Monday afternoon, but I am seriously thinking of giving it a miss, as I really don’t want to have anything to do with the family, who I have numerous differences with, which I am not going to go on about here, I’d rather let sleeping dogs lie, anyway I’ll have to give it some thought tomorrow!