Jekyll & Hyde Argyle Lose Again

Argyle 0 – 1 Chesterfield 1. Richards 66.

Attn: 5,711

Gilmartin 6, Berry, Nelson 7, Blanchard 5, Bhasera 6, Cowan-Hall 6 (Madjo 6), Hourihane 6, Molesley 8, Gurrieri 6 (Lennox 5), MacDonald 6, Chadwick (R Griffiths 5).

Subs not used: Cole, Richards, Lowry, Harvey.

Another home game where a very average visiting team walks away with the three points. That’s five defeats at Home Park this season.
Argyle have been very inconsistent this season and this was typified in this game where the attacking swagger of the first half was replaced with long hopeful punts upfield for the second half.
If football games lasted 25 minutes Argyle would be top of the league – if those 25 minutes matched our now regular purple patch!

Argyle boss Carl Fletcher, who last collected three points when the clock was on still on summer time, kept faith with Nick Chadwick up front rather than play a goal scorer in Guy Madjo.
Jamie Lowry was surprisingly dropped in favour of new signing Mark Molesley, so we still haven’t seen the same starting 11 from one game to the next this season.
Alex MacDonald was given a chance as a striker rather than a winger.

The heavy rain this week may have put this game in doubt, if only, but the unpaid-for pitch with its elastic bands and good drainage ensured that we had to suffer. Thanks Inscapes!

The game was a sedate affair for the first 20 minutes with both sets of players acclimatising to the wet conditions, however, Argyle sprang to life midway through the half and lay siege on the Chesterfield goal.
The Greens forced a series of corners and free-kicks and chances fell to Gurrieri, MacDonald, Nelson and Cowan-Hall but the damn round white thing just wouldn`t go into the net.

I’m sure everyone noticed that Chesterfield had one of the smallest keeps in professional football in Tommy Lee (no, not the Motley Crue drummer) so surely high balls into the penalty area was part of the game plan?

Molesley was at the centre of all things good with his tidy feet and passing while Chesterfield offered nothing in attack. Argyle nearly grabbed the goal they deserved when a deflected shot hit the crossbar, so close!

The team left the pitch to warm applause at half-time.

With the rain still pouring down the pitch was playing a blinder.

Chesterfield brought on Luis Boa Morte for the second half and he made a huge difference and suddenly Chesterfield offered an attacking threat.
The rampant Argyle from 20-odd minutes of the first half retreated into its shell and resorted to pumping long ball in the general direction of Chadwick. Hold on, where has my Argyle from the first half gone?

Chances were rare, good football was extinct and Chesterfield where now the better team and took a deserved lead when Marc Richards fired home after the Argyle defence failed to clear a cross. Another soft goal to add to the soft goal collection for this season.

Molesley, who was so influential in the first half, ran out of steam and so did the team. Fletcher rolled the dice and threw on two strikers but the creativity from midfield and the wide areas was gone.
At the end the players looked desperate and lacking in confidence and at the final whistle the warm applause from earlier was replaced by loud boos and jeers.

The two halves were like chalk and cheese. It’s so frustrating to see how well we played for the majority of the first half and then lose a game against a Chesterfield side that offered nothing. League Two is a poor league and of a poor standard – what does that say about our team? At 45 minutes you’d be thinking why sack Fletcher when he gets the team playing this well, at 90 minutes you’d be thinking please sack Fletcher because the gets the team playing badly.

Eight defeats from nine games and one point from a possible 21 will surely see a change in management, sadly.
The squad of players is good enough for a top 12 finish but they are not performing for 90 minutes.
Time for a change or someone brought in to help the inexperienced manager.

It’s now five consecutive seasons fighting relegation, we deserve better.

Man of the match: Molesley.