Argyle 0 – 1 Cardiff

Argyle narrowly lost 1-0 to Cardiff City in the final pre-season game of the summer.

The game was watched by a crowd of 5,021 who saw Kenneth Zohore score the winner in the 49th minute.

Argyle were a good match for the Championship team who surprisingly chose to kick lumps out of the players wearing Green with playmaker Graham Carey the focus of some particular close attention.

Derek Adams’ team had plenty of possession in the first half and kept the ball moving, Carey had the best chance with a long range shot well saved, midfielder David Fox also came close when shooting just wide to finish off a good move.

The first half was played at a slow pace, not helped by the stoppages for free-kicks conceded by a physical Cardiff team.

The second half was more lively but Argyle were caught out by a quick free-kick early in the half and Zohore ran through and finished past the stranded Luke McCormick.

Substitutes Nathan Blissett and Ruben Lameiras came close for Argyle but the raft of late subs hindered the flow of the game.

The Argyle defence has strolled through the pre-season friendly games, apart from Torquay, so it was good that Cardiff gave them a good test

The zonal marking when defending corners which we’ve used since January and all pre-season was abandoned for this game.

Centre-backs Sonny Bradley and Ryan Edwards picked up injuries, Bradley was ok to continue but Edwards was replaced at half time although that might have been the plan anyway.

Yann Songo’o was our best deep midfielder, ahead of Fox, Antoni Sarcevic and youngster Cameron Sangster.

Carey was brilliant, frustrating and a showboater in equal measure.
Gregg Wylde was good, bad and indifferent, one cross from him was fantastic for Blissett.

The two full backs, Aaron Sinclair-Taylor and Oscar Threlkeld, were the only two players to play the full game.

Lameiras played in the middle with Carey out wide, this was the same at Torquay, and gives a clue as to who Adams thinks should play in the middle if they are both on the pitch, although they did swap late in the game.
Both players played better when in the middle.

It’s been obvious all through pre-season that we need another striker or two and this game highlighted it further.

Argyle – Luke McCormick (Robbert te Loeke 82); Oscar Threlkeld, Ryan Edwards (Jakub Sokolik half-time), Sonny Bradley (jordan Bentley 82), Aaron Taylor-Sinclair; Yann Songo`o (Cameron Sangster 82), David Fox (Antoni Sarcevic half-time); Lionel Ainsworth (Gregg Wylde half-time), Graham Carey (Alex Fletcher 82), Joel Grant ( Ruben Lameiras half-time), Jake Jervis (Nathan Blissett half-time).