Plymouth Deny Alex For A Second - Reaction

Last updated : 21 October 2002 By Site Staff
Do we deserve King Bram?
From the first whistle Crewe were not them selfs, balls were going astray and the fight in midfield was not there. Brammer tried to get the team going with his battling performance but with players like Jones, Rix, Lunt and Walton all passing into blank spaces there was no reason for the Alex crowd to cheer as they remained more or less silent for the first 45 minutes. Plymouth started the game with more energy and willingness to win the game and with the players trying to invite them to put the pressure on it wasn't going to be a repeat of the Stockport game. Plymouth pushed with no acutal threat, but you always felt there was about to be a mistake from the back four with Walton not getting stuck in like Walker and Sodje kicking balls straight at players and his passing being awful it was only the consistant Foster and fantastic David Wright who were keeping the back four standing.
That mistake may have come when a Plymouth free kick from the left flanks was thought to be safley caught by Ince who dropped it in front on a Plyumouth player, thankly he had his back to goal and gave Ince time to collect the ball. There were then ironic cheers as a long cross/shot sailed towards the far corner of Inces goal but it never troubled the Trinidad star. For Crewe the service for the front three, Jack ,Hulse and Jones, was quite frankly poor in the first half, however ome good play down the right saw a Lunt cross headed out to as far as Jack who tried an acrabatic overhead kick which sailed wide and high, that was after he shot over from 5 yards from a Wright throw in, the goal was shouting for the ball. The game looked to be heading to a 0-0 draw when even a mistake from Foster was neatly cleared up by Foz , but maybe those thoughts came to soon. Bram gave away the ball in Crewe's half when he passed it to a green shirt, they said thank you and set Norris free to cut past Walton and smash it in off the post as the game hit the 45 minute mark.
Crewe were crying out for some creativity and some of that came after Argyles goal. Alot of patient build up was taking place down the left went on, first chance from it was Jones cutting into the middle from the left to unleash a bullet which went skimming over the bar. Sodje then got the crowd on their feet when it looked as though his header from a corner hit the net, the side netting. that was it till half time, quite a despressing performance from the Reds while the Pilgrims went in 1-0 ahead. as news spread around the ground that no-one above us was winning it was the chance to go top of the table and the when the team came out for the second half they were giving a lift from the roaring Railtrack stand. Crewe came out the better side, thank god, with waves of attacks and the ball rarley goign Inces way. It was just a shame those waves of attacks rarley proved to be of any use, the first one being headed wide by Hulse. There was a problem though, Sodje being used as a winger. He's a defender,nothing else, the amount of times he went charging to the byline to find he can't cross or pass for that matter was unbelievable and it was something Plymouth found out as they closed him down quickly. Brammer tried it aswell, picking up a layoff from Hulse he took it a yard forward and smashed it from 25 yards but someone just didn't like us as the ball came back off the post and out for a goal kick. It was a performance where you just wanted to cry for no reason - we were either awful or lady luck had gone for a little nap. The next best chance and frustrating one was when sodje put in a low cross for Hulse to pounce on and while he was with his back to goal with the keeper to beat he waited till 2 defenders were round him till he turned and smashed it against a green shirt leaving all of the 6,738 to have their heads in their arms!
Jones' diving header was neatly caught by Argyles keeper to deny the ginger haired forward of his 4th league goal. When Dean Ashton came on it was perfect for him to plant him name back into the fans' good books and should have done when his first run at goal saw him come down the right to neatly pass players and with great foot work got a glimmer of the goal from 8 yards out and if he had the chance 2 years ago he would have either buried it or curled it into the top corner but this time he passed it back to Lunt and the move just completley broke down!
It was just a depressing game all round. The first half the players gave up trying till Plymouthscored and in the second half chance after chance went begging, and when you heard the news we could have gone second you just felt it was over! But it's not! We're still only 5 points off the top and with a couple of easy(ahem) games coming up we have time to regain the gap on our promotion rivals.
Maybe it was the fact that everyone was so confident we were going to beat this team that we ignored, maybe if we went into the match thinking it was going to be hard match we would have been as shocked as we were!!! Nothings guarenteed in this game!