The new football season is upon us and it’s been a good start for Argyle starting off as the finished last season with a 2 – 3 win away at the Kingston Communications Stadium. The home team started the game better catching Argyle sleeping when Dean Windass got on the end of Nick Barmby’s rebounded shot off the post to put The Tigers ahead after four minutes. The ever dependable David Norris levelled the scores eleven minutes later drilling a pin point Barry Hayles pass home through the Hull defence. Plymouth took the lead at the start of the second half off the head of Rory Fallon, guiding Gary Sawyer’s cross goalbound. Hull hit back immediately forcing a penalty when Dean Marney was brought down by Peter Halmosi, Plymouth were unlucky to be back on level terms as Romain Larrieu parried Marney’s penalty shot but Marney beat the Frenchman to the ball to tap in the follow up. The game was settled in the 81st minute when Sylvan Ebanks-Blake picked up on a loose ball and fired an unstoppable rocket from the edge of the 18 yard box. There’s no dispute that Argyle were the better team on the day, but there’s still worrying signs of a leaky ship at the back. The Pilgrims need to try to plug that leak at the back, I’m sure the players we have are good enough, maybe they’ll gel together better as the season progresses. The back four will have to be tighter when we come up against the teams than came down from the Premiership last season. Plymouth are joint fourth, but league positions mean nothing after one game, if Argyle are still up there after twenty games then things will be looking good.
Liverpool also secured a narrow win over Aston Villa, Liverpool created plenty of chances but lacked the finish on many occasions. Liverpool were gifted the lead when Martin Laursen mistimed a clearance sending the ball into the back of his own net. Villa pulled level in the dying moments of the game from the penalty spot after Jamie Carragher’s handball. But it’s the ever present Stevie Gerrard that sealed the win moments later with a almost Beckham-esque curling shot from 30 yards out. So it’s a good start to the 2007/08 campaign, currently occupying fourth spot in the league, but as I mentioned above, league positions mean nothing at this stage of the season, but an encouraging start for the Reds.
Sadly it’s not such good news in the cricket, England finished day three of the third test 326 – 9 in response to India’s massive first innings target of 664. England are really staring down the barrel of the gun, facing the probability of having to follow on. England still need 139 runs to avoid the follow on and with Chris Tremlett and Monty Panesar at the crease, It’s not looking hopeful. A 2 – 0 series victory is looking inevitable as things stand and could even lose this final test with an innings to spare. England played well in the first test and were screwed by the weather but frankly have been substandard in the second and third tests. Michael Vaughan and Andrew Strauss both fell for diminutive scores, Prior went for a duck; Alistair Cook, Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell all made half centuries, but fell soon after for 61, 62 and 63 respectively. There is only one way for England to get out of this predicament, and that is to pray for rain as I can’t see them batting their way out of trouble, so time to look forward to the one day series and hope for a better performance, but based on the performance against the Windies, I can’t see the English turning over the Indians.