Park the bus

Yesterday I was at Anfield to watch the mighty Green Army take on Liverpool in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. It was 0-0 so Liverpool are now forced to travel to Plymouth for the replay next week.

I was lucky enough to be in a box in the Centenary Stand with a variety of commercial and professional people, all but one were supporting Liverpool. It is quite interesting how people who are good ( or excellent) at what they do seem to become so one eyed when they enter a football group!

At half time the Liverpool fans and pundit Steve McManaman were complaining that Argyle were not giving it a go, and were, therefore, spoiling the game as a spectacle.  Clearly nobody told Argyle the were supposed to attack in a kamikaze manner, allow Liverpool to score five goals and send everybody home happy!

No, this was the equivalent of  Argyle's first leg away from home in a major European Cup competition. Imagine they were Red Star Belgrade. Their only objectives were to be still in the game at half-time and ideally take Liverpool back to Home Park next week for the Second Leg. It is one thing for a manager to set out the tactics and strategy, but another altogether for the players to execute, especially when they are 66 positions and three divisions between them.

Argyle and their 'spoiling' tactics were not the problem. The young Liverpool team did not play with any pace or imagination and were almost like a fly trapped in a spiders web.

The two games will be worth almost £1m to Argyle. They have only recently paid off all their remaining debts from their period in administration, they have attracted new money through an additional director and a share/bond redistribution and that has allowed them to purchase their ground and now announce plans for a new grandstand and associated  revenue earning facilities on the fourth side of the pitch.
Argyle have one of the last surviving Archibald Leitch main grandstands, and an elegant Art Nouveau entrance to the ground. Plans are said to include both these features in the new stand. That is a noble gesture these days, when so much heritage is demolished in the name of progress.

Things are definitiely looking brighter for Argyle now, they must just ensure they get promoted this season so that the Green Army waggon can keep on rolling.