Plymouth Argyle’s faint hopes of gaining a play-off place evaporated on Saturday afternoon as Home Park hosted Preston North End. Despite Argyle having a 2 – 0 lead with 15 minutes left to play, Plymouth only managed a disappointing 2 – 2 draw. Manager Paul Sturrock elected to start Jamie Mackie and the young lad made an impact in the 12th minute unleashing an optimistic shot from 35 yards out that took a fortuitous deflection on its way into the top of the net. Paul Wotton doubled the lead from the penalty spot after Krisztian Timar was bought down by Youl Mawene. Then it all went horribly wrong; Neil Mellor reduced the deficit one minute after Wotton’s penalty kick capitalising on Argyle’s defensive frailties. Then the win was snatched away from Argyle in almost the last kick of the game in a goal mouth scramble that Plymouth failed to clear! So basically Plymouth threw the game away in the final 15 minutes with defensive lapses allowing the visitors to score two late goals. Argyle are now seven points adrift of 6th place with only six points left to play for, so the premiership dream is over for this season, now we need to concentrate on finishing in our highest league position ever; we have 10th to beat, which is where we finished last year!
Liverpool have all but secured fourth spot in the Premiership with their 2 – 0 win over Fulham at Craven Cottage. The Reds are now 8 points ahead of Everton who lost to [Liverpool’s midweek rivals] Chelsea at Goodison Park with three games left to play this season. But there is a slim chance that Liverpool could still catch Arsenal as the Gunners are only five points ahead with nine points available! Anyway, manager Rafa Benitez decided to rest Steven Gerrard who has a neck strain and Fernando Torres who was on the bench but wasn’t played. Jermaine Pennant opened the scoring on the counter-attack picking up Lucas Leiva’s threaded ball to unleash an earlier shot that Kasey Keller wasn’t expecting. Pennant turned provider for Peter Crouch 53 minutes later with a neat little pass for Crouch to run onto to release a low drive that Keller couldn’t stop! So the next big game for Liverpool is Tuesday against Chelsea at Anfield in the champions league, hence Benitez effectively playing his ‘B’ team at Craven Cottage, but sadly Steven Gerrard is still a doubt!
