By Jack Watson
Another frustrating game, another point for The Tigers in our backyard. Today we drew 1-1 against newly promoted Plymouth Argyle, who thrashed Norwich City last week and were looking to do the same against us. This same scoreline has occurred three times this season and we have only won one game at home, which is quite annoying as we are bringing in crowds of 20,000+. Away from home we seem to be great and clearly that is how we are going to pick up most of our points. Nonetheless, we have extended our unbeaten run to eight and are making it very difficult for teams to beat us.
Argyle have picked up six points in their previous five games, winning two and losing three, which put them near the middle of the table heading into this game. I have not been following this side much, but I knew they came out on top against an excellent side, Norwich, who we were unable to beat at the start of the season. For us, we picked up nine points in our previous five games, winning two and drawing three. Also, we comfortably beat Stoke at their stadium last week and earned a vital point against Leeds before that. This was set to be an exciting game.
Our starting line-up was unchanged from our win last week, save for Sean McLoughlin replacing suspended Jacob Greaves. That meant our team was as follows: Ryan Allsop, in goal; Cyrus Christie, Sean McLoughlin, Alfie Jones and Ruben Vinagre, as the back four; Tyler Morton and Jean Seri were distributed above Adama Traore, Regan Slater and Jaden Philogene, who were above the man on fire, Aaron Connolly. We really needed Greaves today and Lewie Coyle should have been included. Plus, Allahyar and Tufan were not even named on the bench. Also, I thought there were some very poor performances from certain players.
In the first 45 minutes, I have to admit, we were lacklustre and did not perform to our fullest ability. On the other hand, for the first 15 minutes we showed some good quality and were playing like we did last week; threatening on the attack, fighting for the ball back when we lost it and pinging the ball around superbly. Philogene had the best chance during this spell, but he skied it over the bar. In the 20th minute, somebody flicked a switch and the opposition took it from there.
In the 21st minute, the visitors took the lead; Bali Mumba found a pocket of space on the left wing and his cross was parried to the right by Allsop, but the ball landed perfectly for Randell who steered it in from a tricky angle. A lot of teams have been able to do this; take the ball from us, counter-attack and stick it in the back of the net. Even though we dominated at the beginning, it shows how we really need to start taking our chances.
Then, minutes after they took the lead, they had two opportunities to double it; in the 27th minute, Argyle pressed us in our own box and won the ball on the edge of the box, but Finn Aza’s attempt hit the post and trickled across the line, before being booted away by our defender. We did not learn from this mistake as minutes after, Allsop passed the ball to McLoughlin, who was being charged at by their attacker and he was able to get some contact on the ball, which required a quick reaction time from Allsop to snuff out the danger. I had no idea what we were doing here; clearly, other teams have done their homework and we need to try something new. Further, I do not think Allsop made a long ball over the top this game, which was galling because that was how we scored our second goal against Stoke.
Thankfully, we picked ourselves up after 40 minutes and started creating some decent chances, one of which was a Traore header which sailed over the bar. Not to worry, we did not stop pressing them after this and it resulted in our equaliser in the 44th minute. Gillesphey tried to earn Plymouth a goal kick on the right, but Philogene was able to outmanoeuvre him, pick up the ball and swing it into the box, which met Slater, who smashed it into an open goal. This was a brilliant end to a mediocre half, which gave us some hope for the next period.
The next half was much better and we controlled the game in every aspect; our defence was tight, we were determined to get a winner and we did not make any silly mistakes. However, there were some individuals who let us down: Vinagre and Seri. Vinagre was good with the ball until got to the left corner of the box; he would not swing the ball in and when he drove towards the goal, he either fell over the ball or got tackled. This wasted heaps of time, which we could have used properly to score another goal. We only started to make more opportunities when Coyle replaced him. As for Seri, he lacked the quality required for a CM. Passing the ball is his strong point, but when it came to holding the ball and going forward, he would retreat back or get bullied off the ball. We really needed Tufan today.
Nevertheless, we made three changes: Traore came off for Twine, Delap replaced Slater and Coyle for Vinagre. This is when we really put our foot on the gas and looked like a time who wanted to win. Towards the hour mark, Connolly had one of the best chances of the half; he received the ball on the edge of the box and had a lot of space available for him to slide the ball into the net, but his attempt fizzled past the post.
Argyle did not put much of a show on for the travelling fans, until the 71st minute; Randell’s half volley inside the box was pawed over the bar by Allsop. Fortunately for us, they went quiet after this and what followed next was the most frustrating part of the match. Near the 90th minute, Delap beat his man on the right and had the goal in sight, but his powerful strike was tipped over the bar by Hazard. Then, in extra time we had three crucial attempts to take the lead. First, Morton, who had just the keeper to beat, smashed one on target, but it was, again, saved by Hazard. Second, Alfie Jones connected with the ball from a cross, but before it could go over the line, Hazard stuck a leg out and snuffed out the danger. Finally, Morton neatly put the ball over all their players, which released Philogene, but his effort was denied by Hazard. A minute after, the final whistle was blown and that was the end of that.
I cannot believe that we did not take all the three points! We had 21 shots, compared with their 11, 66% of possession, completed 609 passes to their 327 and had 10 corners in the second half. It is safe to say we dominated, but just could not put the icing on the cake, which was the same case against Leeds. One day we are going to take them and thrash a team (hopefully Leeds at their stadium).
Two very big games follow before the international break; Ipswich away, which I am not going to, and Millwall away, which I will be going to. But, as we don't struggle on the road, we should have no difficulties with taking anything from these games. We must start doing the same at home.
