Plymouth Argyle extended their winless streak to six games in the league, eight games including cup competitions. Today’s 0 – 2 loss to Port Vale at Home Park leaves Argyle still four points adrift at the bottom of the table thanks to Hereford and Barnet both losing their respective games against Shrewsbury and Crewe to maintain the status quo. The Pilgrims went 0 – 1 down in the 26th minute; Gary Roberts striking from just outside the 18 yard box. Argyle had an additional man on the field after Marc Richards was sent off for violent conduct in the 51st minute, Argyle simply couldn’t make the extra man count. Argyle had Ladjie Soukouna sent off in the 83rd minute for an unfair challenge on Robert Taylor inside the 18 yard box; Roberts converted the resulting penalty to kill the game off! I’m not sure what manager Peter Reid can do to change the current trend; there is no money to bring in players on loan and many experienced players wouldn’t want to come to Home Park given the current situation and the uncertainty about the future of the club!
Liverpool’s title aspirations were dealt a blow this afternoon being beaten 1 – 0 by Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium while title rivals, Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea all won their respective games today. Despite the scoreline; Stoke were not the better team, Liverpool had 59% of a possession; 11 shots on target compared to Stoke’s 1; which admitted they scored from, and 9 shots off target compared to 2 from the home side. Sadly the scoreline is the only thing that counts, so Jamie Carragher’s foul on Jonathan Walters and subsequent penalty was a costly mistake as the Reds lose ground on United, City and Chelsea while Stoke move up into forth and Liverpool drop back to fifth! The Reds could find themselves down to sixth should Newcastle beat QPR on Monday, Liverpool can’t afford to drop points if they hope to win the title, the top three teams are too strong, four games, one draw, one loss and two wins isn’t good enough!
F1 news; Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel qualified on pole position for tomorrows race at Monza by almost half a second ahead of the McLaren’s of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button in second and third respectively. Fernando Alonso qualified alongside Button in fourth place in front of the adoring Tifosi at Ferrari’s home Grand Prix. Mark Webber qualified the second Red Bull in fifth place almost 7/10ths off pole sitter and team mate Vettel, alongside the Australian is the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa. Renault’s Vitaly Petrov, Mercedes’ drivers Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg and the second Renault of Bruno Senna round out the top 10 in seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth respectively. Briton Paul di Resta was bumped out of the top 10 in the dying moments of Qualifying 2 by Senna by 7000th of a second, which might work to the Scots advantage having a choice of tyres and more fresh tyres. Sauber have been disappointing again; during the first half of the season they were challenging for top 10 qualifying positions and good points hauls every race, now the Sauber duo find themselves in 15th and 17th, just ahead of the three new teams.