2020/21 Prediction League; Game 27 v Plymouth Argyle (away)

Div3North · 28-01-2021, 23:15

Plywood Argyle

V

Accrington Stanley

2020/21 Prediction League Game 27; v The ShantyMen

I've got to be honest - it's a headline I never thought to read;

"Rochdale: Are they the great entertainers in English football?"

In their past nine games, the ball has been in the back of the net a whopping 47 times; the only downside if you're a Dale fan - they only won one of the games ..... W1 D4 L4 GF22 GA25 Pts7

It all began with a 4-1 smacking by Posh on 12 December; that was followed by a 5-0 away drubbing of Wigan (#smileyface#wearethechampions), before they lost 4-1 (again), at home to Gillingham ... they began 2021 with three fairly remarkable draws: from 3-0 down against Crewe inside 35 minutes, they rallied to 3-3: in their next match they let a 4-2 lead slip against Charlton, ending 4-4: and a 90th-minute equaliser then helped The Doodles rescue a point in another 3-3 draw (against Wigan): after that (very boringly) they lost 1-0 to Doncaster, conceded on 90 minutes against Gillingham to draw 2-2, and finally suffered a last-gasp 4-3 home loss to Oxford on Tuesday despite leading 2-1 on the half hour ...

The Doodles don't, frankly, have a po pour faire le pipi, but in the summer they signed three new players - all strikers, and including Stephen Humphreys from Southend .... currently they're 18th, one point above the GreasyPole, with a record reading P24 W5 D8 L11 GF 38 GA47, on 23 points, one above the Wombles: Hull are the only other team to have scored 38, but only Swindon (49) have conceded more ...... Na na nah, na na nah, na na nah, na na nah nah nah ....... and two wins in their last 16 doesn't bode too well more generally

And if you could choose to be a professional footballer for a week, you probably wouldn't choose to be Pompey defender Jack Whatmough, who, last Saturday, scored two own-goals in their 4-0 home thrashing by Hull, and on Tuesday was sent off before the half hour - also at home, but this one against Lincoln; another loss for the TubularBellPullers, but only by the odd goal in one, this time .............

The Pilgrims were founded simply as Argyle FC in 1886, but was disbanded in 1894, before being resurrected in 1897 as one part of a general sports club, the Argyle Athletic Club. They turned professional and entered both the Southern League and Western League as Plymouth Argyle in 1903 (they're the most southerly and westerly League club in England, and the only professional club named Argyle). They were elected to the Third Division in The Big Expansion of 1920; finishing as runners-up on six consecutive seasons (1921/22 to 1926/27), they eventually won promotion as Div3South champions (under manager Robert "Bob" Jack , who was a Scottish football player and manager; born in Alloa, he played in the League for Bolton , PNE and Glossop, and in the Southern League for Plymouth Argyle and Southend United as an outside forward - who managed them for 27 years in all) - in 1929–30. They've played at Home Park since 1901; Plymouth is the largest city in England never to have hosted top-flight football.

This week's Starter for Ten, then; it's claimed that Home Park is sometimes referred to - think "Theatre of Dreams" and "Stadium of Light" - as ........... what?

Argyle picked up their nickname of course because of Plymouth's association with the Founding Fathers, headed by John Bunyan, who was in charge of progress, even though they (the FFs) pre-dated the football club by about 266 years; the club crest features the Mayflower, the ship that carried the pilgrims to Massachusetts; the team has predominantly played in green and white throughout its history, with a few exceptions in the late 1960s and early 1970s (when they played in white). A darker shade of green, described (by some) as "Argyle green", was adopted in the 2001–02 season, and has been used ever since.

Argyle's 20-year stay in Division Two came to an end in 1949–50 after finishing 21st – two points short of survival. They were back in Division Two before long though, winning Div3South again in 1951–52. The closest they ever came to playing in the First Division was in 1952–53, when they reached fourth place in the Second Division - 9 points behind promoted Huddersfield and 10 behind the Blades - which is their highest-ever League place. They were relegated again in 1955–56, 3 points behind Notts County, and their reputation as a 'yo-yo club' continued apace, the team wavering mostly between the 2nd and 3rd tier, before being double relegated in 2010–11 - directly due to the club having been declared insolvent, following which they were deducted the 10 points they needed for survival. Most recently they reached League One in 2016/17 as L2 runners-up, went down again in 2018/19, and snook back up again in Covid 2019/20 season in third behind Swindon and Crewe, and four points (or in PPG terms, 0.06) ahead of Cheltenham ............

They sold two, free-transferred two, and released 8 in the Summer Clearout; two went to Tiverton Town (striker Alex Field and CB Michael Peck), GK Harry Townsend joined the Missouri State Bears (and now performs twice a day and three times on a Saturday in the Big Top), CB Isaac Burdon joined Plymouth Parkway, where I assume he's inspecting tickets, and AMF Jude Boyd signed for Mousehole AFC (pronounced "Mowzell") - based in Mousehole, Cornwall and members of the South West Peninsula League Premier Division West, who play at Trungle Parc; unsurprisingly to those of you who know Cornwall, they're called "The Seagulls", and for those of you who know Mousehole, the ground capacity is 6 ..........RW Joel Grant went to Swindon, strikers Ryan Taylor and Dom Telford to Newport, Antoni Sarcevic to Bolton and Callum McFadzean to Slumberland ....

Eight signed on, including ex Swindon GK Luke McCormick, Colchester's CF Frank Nouble, Guinea-Bissau born AMF Panutche Camará from Crawley, Irish AMF Ben Reeves from the Dons, and Scottish GK Jack Ruddy from Leganés in Spain among them; LoanSigned include Fulham's LB Jerome Opoku and striker Timmy Abraham

They've got a very 'steady' record so far; P24 W9 D6 L9 GF33 GA39 for 33 points and 13th place ..........they're something of a home-side (W7 D3 L3), whereas away its W2 D3 L6 ........ between late November and the end of the year they had a run of games where they won just one, drew one and lost seven, but they're unbeaten in their last four (W3 D1), beating Gillingham 1-0, Swindon 2-0 away, and Sunderland 2-1, also away ........... they put Charlton, Lincoln and Huddersfield out of the FA Cup (1-0. 2-0 and 3-2) before being cut up by the Blades (gerrit?) 2-1; they lost 3-2 at Leyton Orient in Round Two of the EFL Cup; and their foray into the EFL Troffy saw them fail to exit the Group ...........

Manager, as you'll know, is Scouser Ryan Lowe, who started at Burscough, and played 626 games (185 goals) in the following 18 years, playing for Bury three times, Crewe twice plus a loan spell, and Shrewsbury amongst hoardes of others.......... Assistant Manager (you may not know) is Steven Schumacher, and the Club Mascot is Pilgrim Pete (complete with moustache!) ... Biggest league win is 8-1 (v Millwall in 1932 and v Hartlepool in 1994), record defeat being 9-0 v Stoke in 1960 ..... Most appearances is held by Kevin Hodges (1978-1992) with 620, record goal scorer is Sammy Black with 184, most goals in a season is 33 by Jack Cock (no, honestly) ......... and Argyle hold the record for the fastest scoring of five goals in a game; in January 2004 they played TwistySpires United at home; they won 7-0, but the first five of those seven were scored in just 17 first half minutes (4 mins by Lee Hodges, 11 (Tony Capaldi), 12 (Nathan Lowndes), 16 (David Frijo) and 17 (Lowndes again))

Between 2011/12 and 2018/19 we've met 14 times in the League, and we hold bragging rights by virtue of five wins to four, with five drawn ...... and we've won four of the last five ...... and last time out (27th April 2019) we did them 5-1 at ours (one from Billy Whizz, one from Armstrong, and three from Sean McHattrick)

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time - I can't keep up with these! - which is 3.00pm on Saturday 30th January ............. Welcome back to Paul Smyth, who I thought played well for us first time round .... and Home Park - allegedly - is know as "The Theatre of Greens" ........ what flippin' idiot called it that? If they did ..........

Good luck top everyone! ..... Get the Jab to Stay Safe and Keep Well! ....And thanks for playing!