After Saturday’s blip at The Hawthorns, Plymouth came back with an emphatic 4 – 1 win over bottom of league Colchester United at Home Park. It didn’t start well for The U’s when they went behind in the 11th minute to an own goal. Philip Ifil beat Peter Hamosi to Gary Teale’s cross but inadvertently headed the ball into the back of his own net to make it 1 – 0 to the Pilgrims. Despite Argyle’s pressure, Colchester held firm and resisted all further attempts to extend the lead until 12 minutes after the half time break when under fire (from some fans) striker Jermaine Easter beating the Colchester defence to the punch to poke home from close range. Steve MacLean made it 3 – 0 three minutes later from a free kick from just outside the 18 yard box that barely left the ground as it curled its way around the Colchester wall to beat Dean Gerken for the third time. Kevin Lisbie pulled one back for Colchester in the 64th minute wrong footing the Argyle defence with run and shoot effort to deny Luke McCormick a clean sheet. Gary Sawyer killed off any remaining hopes that Colchester may have had of salvaging something in the 67th minute directing Peter Halmosi’s free kick from the wing goal bound to make it 4 – 1. It was a convincing performance from the Pilgrims after their drubbing at The Hawthorns three days earlier. Plymouth are now back in the play-off spots because Ipswich could only manage a draw against Sheffield United at Portman Road who Argyle play on Saturday, let’s hope that Argyle have better luck against The Blades on Saturday afternoon. I have been noticing a lot of so-called fans coming out of the woodwork recently because of our form and these same people were saying it’s over for Argyle’s play-off hopes after being beaten by West Brom on Saturday. It’s never over until we mathematically have no chance of obtaining a play off place. This performance certain answers the critics and the people saying that Argyle are punching above their weight, we are where we are on merit! I am enjoying Argyle’s resurgence in the league after the uncertainty of Hollowords leaving and the multiple departures during the January sales, more of the same please, a trip to Wembley would be amazing, but I am a proud Argyle fan no matter what happens in the league now!
On Saturday I engineered my first gig in a week despite working all week long, far too many club nights for my liking, easy money but boring and tedious. Anyway that’s beside the point, the venue was nearly packed out, close to 200 people through the door and it sounded amazing because of it. But it’s an annoyance for me as it was two covers bands, both acts were very good, but that’s not the issue. The issue for me is the fact that people will pay £3 to see one or two covers/tribute acts but not pay £3 to see four quality original local acts, that’s 75 pence per band. It was great to see the venue busy, close to £600 taken at the door and £1400 taken at the bar. I shouldn’t be surprised really as Plymouth is rubbish when it comes to live (original) music and if I was in a band or advising bands I would advise every non local band to steer clear of the backwater known as Plymouth! Another week of club nights for me, Alternation tomorrow and Dark Angels on Saturday, Phil is working on Friday night so another week of non engineering live music, which is not what I really want to do, I have a love for engineering live music, not babysitting DJ’s.