After the euphoria of last week’s home win against Macclesfield; it’s back to Earth with a bump this weekend losing 2 – 0 to Crawley town at the Broadfield Stadium. Matt Tubbs scored both goals for the home side, one in the fifth minute and the other in the 61st minute which highlighted the inexperience of the Argyle squad. Crawley Town made the Pilgrims looks like a bunch of amateurs (which isn’t far from the truth) having the lion’s share of the possession; 66% compared to Argyle’s 34%; and Plymouth didn’t have a single shot on target which just goes to prove that former manager Peter Reid was the fall guy for the dire situation the club finds itself in!
In other news I have been reading about former directors Paul Stapleton, Tony Wrathall and Phill Gill were attempting to deal with main creditor Lombard to usurp the James Brent deal. The current preferred bidder is offering considerably less money than Bishop International were to creditors which means that the three former directors who are guarantors on the mortgage for Home Park from Lombard will be liable for around £450,000 each. The Argyle Fans’ Trust have reacted angrily to this news and rightfully so after what these three men have allowed to happen to a formerly financially stable Championship football club! Former chairman Stapleton gave up any right to ownership of Plymouth Argyle when he went on holiday to Dubai while the club was about to enter administration and players and staff were going unpaid. This is pure self preservation by the trio who would face a half million pound bill each and have nothing to show for it! No way are Stapleton, Wrathall and Gill concerned about the club, players or staff as they have sat back and watched the players and staff struggle for nine months having to rely on public donations!
Moving 250 miles up the M60 to Goodison Park; Liverpool won the first Merseyside derby of the year. The Reds came away with a 0 – 2 win over Everton but the result was somewhat skewed as Everton had Jack Rodwell sent off by referee Martin Atkinson half way through the first half for a challenge on Luis Suarez. Atkinson got it really wrong; it was barely a foul, let alone a straight red card offence. There were far worse offences perpetrated later in the game that went unpunished, another case of poor inconsistent refereeing in the Premiership. Liverpool frankly weren’t that great out there until a double change in the 67th minute bringing on Craig Bellamy and Steven Gerrard which opened the game up for Liverpool. Andy Carroll scored the opening goal four minutes after the double substitution in the 71st minute and Suarez doubled the lead in the 82nd minute which killed off the game. It could have been 0 – 3 but Tim Howard saved Dirk Kuyt’s rather tame penalty at the end of the first half! It’s three points for the Reds but it feels like a hollow victory to me because of the piss poor refereeing in the game, Atkinson sent a player off for a non-foul and allowed far worse challenges, time for the FA to look into refereeing standards!