PSF:Torquay v Plymouth Argyle 13th July2010

Gawd blimey, you're beginning to morph into one of those modern day Gooners, playing around with your latest gizmo instead of watching the football Dave.

Nice of you to report, but no-one expects you to forego watching the action in favour of fiddling away on your iphone, and for your information the goal was scored by Noone..............so you did'nt really miss anything did you!

It ended up being a rather enjoyable return to Plainmoor but it didn't start out that way. Very early on the ball was hit behind and to the left of our defence, catching it napping. The ball was taken near the by line and into the penalty area and then strongly crossed to Noone beyond the far post to head an uncontested header home.

Then, in the first part of this half, Plymouth were looking, bigger, stronger and we were making very little headway. In fact, a neutral observer could well believe that a conference side was playing a championship side.

But then, the tide began to turn. Halpin was the first to make an impression with a couple of runs into the penalty area and shots at goal. O'Kane tricked the defender on the right wing to draw out the foul. Macklin had some nice touches and also troubled their defence. Also, Zebroski, always full of running and commitment startring to work well together with Gritton and this is where the goal came from. After some good interaction between them, Macklin was put free on the right of the penalty area but instead of shooting with his right foot jinked inside and shot with his left with the ball pinging in off the base of the right hand post to finish the first half well.

Wholesale changes were made in the second half with only Nicholson and Ellis playing in the same positions. I thought Benyon and Kee played well together with some nice touches, applying more pressure on the defence and we certainly started better than in the first half.

The second goal came via a long throw from the right touch line and Ellis in the middle of two defenders managed to flick on the ball backwards to Benyon to little more than tap the ball into the empty net. In doing so, Ellis took a knock on the head and eventually had to be replaced by LRT coming back on under a nom de plume. ;D

I thought Wroe came on and played well and O'Kane on the right wing certainly had more of an impact in the second half. Stevens was OK but was at times double marked and I know the Plymouth number 3 took an early decision to shepherd the ball out as Danny scampered after a through ball. I don't think either keeper had to make a spectacular save although Bevan did have to get down smartly to his right at one stage.

The final goal when it came was typical route one over the top but with Plymouth relatively high up and Benyon always running early for this type of ball, he found himself in the area and taken out by the defender with the lino signaling a foul straight away. The penalty was taken by Wroe as two minutes of extra time was announced with the ball just rolling in after the keeper guessed the right way.

Final score 3:1 and bragging rights to Torquay. It is starting to look good for the new season.

I thought Pelentrides was a painkiller

Certainly heard some complaints from the Argyle fans leaving the gtound last night. To be honest I can't see that Peter Reid will be able to do a lot with his squad; we held them 1-1 in the first half and looked the better team inthe 2nd half.

Thanks for your match report Rob and you sure saw Macklin's goal differently than I did and giving it some thought I think your take on it is the correct one.

I may have been a bit hard on him believing he did not have the confidence to hit the shot with his right foot when the space opened up for a shot.

That may have been due to the fact I felt he never looked like he believed he could get around the defender when he was out wide and as a result hit tame crosses that were so easily blocked.

I'm sure with more games under his belt for us his confidence will grow and on the whole I did not think he had to bad of a game.

I have to agree with Paulr the Nico needs to have Zebs playing in front of him and now we have Grittens here who showed he can play the target man for us so well, it might be best to keep Zebs back out on the wing.

You're quite right about their kit. It's not very nice is it?

I see Plymouth are off to Holland for a pre-season tour and will play AZ Alkmaar, NAC Breda and SC Cambuur Leeuwarden. My friend in Utrecht always gives me stick for the way I say "Cambuur". Double voweled peasantry as far as I'm concerned How I would love us to go on a Tour. Maybe I should start playing the lottery.