Plymouth Argyle start their 2012/13 League 2 campaign in anger this Saturday against Aldershot at Home Park. This will be the Pilgrims first full season since exiting administrations and there has been a lot of activity over the closed season to strengthen the squad for the upcoming season.
The biggest news is that last season’s captain and top scorer, Simon Walton has decided to make a move away from Home Park to be closer to his family, which is understandable while goalkeeper Ollie Chenoweth, defenders Robbie Williams, Durrell Berry, winger Joe Lennox and striker Warren Feeney have all signed new contracts, keeping them at Home Park until the end of the season.
So far, six new players have come to Home Park, goalkeeper Rene Gilmartin on a free transfer from Watford, midfielder Jamie Lowry, winger Andres Gurrieri on a free transfer from Burton Albion, striker Rhys Griffiths from Port Talbot for an undisclosed fee and finally winger Johnny Gorman joined Argyle on loan from Wolves. The most interesting of these signings for me is Griffiths, who scored 237 goals between 2001 and 2012, an average of 22 goals per season, let’s hope he can find the target as frequently for the Pilgrims to help achieve promotion back to League One.
Maybe promotion is a bit optimistic, but it doesn’t hurt to be positive, I’d be happy to finish in the top 10 this season, some times slow and steady wins the race, just ask the tortoise. The best thing about this season is that the Pilgrims start the season in the black, we feared that we wouldn’t be starting the 2012/13 season at all until a deal was finally done to save the club from oblivion.