Tomorrow will be the first time that Plymouth Argyle play Leicester City since Holloway’s (Hollowords as some Argyle fans have dubbed him) departure from Home Park and it’s safe to say that it will be a bit of a grudge match! So the Argyle faithful will be very vocal about their feelings from the away stands at the Walkers Stadium (or Crisp Bowl as Argyle fans has dubbed it). But it will be a grudge match because of Argyle chairman Paul Stapleton’s statement about the recent departures from Home Park blaming Holloway for many of the departures. Stating that the former manager had a hand in many of the players departure from Plymouth during January! Holloway reacted angrily saying he would call his lawyers about possibly legal action. I don’t know what actually happened, but I am more likely to believe Stapleton over Holloway any day as Holloway’s words are clearly not worth the breath expelled while saying them. The rumour is that Paul Wotton will be on the bench, it would be wonderful to see the skipper back on the field and it would be so sweet to see him come on a score one of his long range free kicks to claim all three points for the Pilgrims.
Now I want to talk about the midweek performance from England against Switzerland at Wembley. In the first 45 minutes I thought England were very disappointing, giving the ball away far too easily and not having a serious shot on goal until the 40th minute, Joe Cole running down the left flank and whipping in a cross for Jermaine Jenas to scored his maiden international goal. The second half started off as lacklustre as the first with England being caught napping allowing the Swiss to break with Eren Derdiyok firing home in the 56th minute to level the scores. Then a minute later Shaun Wright-Phillips replaced Jermaine Jenas and Peter Crouch replaced Gareth Barry and suddenly England looked sharper moving into a more conventional 4-4-2 formation. Steven Gerrard started a move from the right wing to whip in a cross for Shaun Wright-Phillips to fire home from close range just minutes after coming on as a substitute. Peter Crouch also had an excellent chance to make it 3 – 1 but didn’t get hold of the ball properly as he was falling away from the ball but still made the Swiss keeper earn his money! So Capello’s reign as England manager started with a win but that isn’t saying much as Switzerland are hardly top rate opposition. But I like Capello’s manifesto stating that players shouldn’t take their place for granted, they’ll have to earn their spot in the national team. Something that successive managers haven’t done. If there is more competition for places, the players are going to try harder to obtain or maintain their place in the national squad, which is as it should be in my opinion! I have high hopes for England for the first time in years; yes I’ve been against a foreign coach being employed but Capello seems to be the right sort of manager for England, someone that has a great footballing brain and isn’t afraid to upset players to achieve his best possible XI, and has the passion of an Englishman for his team to win and be the best they can possibly be!
Not much good news for English cricket fans though, England have been bowled out for 130 in 49.4 overs in the 1st One Day International against New Zealand in Wellington. England’s top order batsmen could only muster 85 runs between them with Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen failing to get into double figures. Stuart Broad put up a valiant rear guard action but ran out of partners finishing on 18 not out. Right now as I type New Zealand are 43 runs for no loss of wicket and looking comfortable to breeze past England’s total in less than 30 overs. Frankly this comes as no surprise to me, yet again the English selectors have stuck with players that have consistently underperformed and yet again that has shown in the results. Or is it simply that we no longer have any genuine cricketing talent in this country? As like football teams, cricket counties are simply recruiting players from overseas!