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New Season… New Manager… Still Out In The First Round

Plymouth Argyle have been knocked out of the Carling Cup for the third year in a row by a solitary goal by Notts County. Plymouth came closest to scoring in the first half with Bradley Wright-Phillips firing narrowly wide. But Notts took their chance when it came, John Spicer picking up on a loose ball to fire past Romain Larrieu to give the visitors the lead. The Notts goal has to be blamed on poor Argyle defending allowing Spicer to get to the loose ball in the danger zone. This was a common problem last season and it seems to be continuing this season. Hopefully Peter Reid and his coaching staff can stop the rot early unlike last season. Steve MacLean has an excellent opportunity near the end of the game but fired straight at Stuart Nelson and the Notts keeper was equal to  the effort! This is hardly a surprise result as Argyle have gone out at the first round stage of this competition 15 out of the last 18 attempts. So I find myself saying the same thing as I have done for the last three years; now Argyle can concentrate on their league performance without the worry of additional games, with the exception of the FA cup of course.

The English cricket team have continued to show good form beating Pakistan by nine wickets in the second test at Edgbaston. Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first and were bowled out for a measly 72 runs, James Anderson and Stuart Broad claimed four wickets each while Steven Finn claimed two. England went on to set a total of 251 all out with Kevin Pietersen top scoring with 80 runs backed up by Jonathan Trott who hit 55 for the cause. In their second innings the tourists put up much more resistance with Z Haider hitting 88 runs and Saeed Ajmal scoring 50 runs to help post a total of 296 from 117.5 overs. England started their second innings needing 117 runs with more than a days play and 10 wickets remaining! The Englishmen hit their total in less than 37 overs, the only wicket to fall was that of Alistair Cook who was cleaned bowled on four runs. Andrew Strauss and Trott both ended the innings on 53 runs not out to give the home team a 2 – 0 lead in the test series with two tests left to play. England are looking good going into the Ashes tour with Australia this winter, let’s hope this good form continues; it’s been many years since England won the Ashes down under! Or at least not get humiliated like last time out!

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