A Rory Fallon header and a dubious Luke Summerfield penalty either side of half-time consigned Saints to a fourth defeat in a row.
Saints made four changes to the side that started the defeat against Nottingham Forest last week. The centre-back partnership was changed completely - Olly Lancashire was recalled to the side and lined up alongside Jack Cork. Alex Pearce dropped down to the bench, while Chris Perry didn’t travel to Home Park. Adam Lallana was rested after turning his ankle in training and Jason Euell also missed out, which allowed Simon Gillett and Oscar Gobern to return in the centre of midfield and Ryan Smith got a place on the right wing.
Saints started brightly, not showing the lack of confidence that appeared to be evident against Forest, and forced a number of corners in the opening twenty minutes. Unfortunately, Gillett’s delivery from the set-pieces often failed to beat the first man - a problem we seem to have had all season regardless of who’s been taking them. On the occasions they did get past the first man, Plymouth’s physical and height advantage ensured they weren’t unduly troubled.
David McGoldrick looked a lot brighter than in recent weeks, linking up well with Andrew Surman early on and also with wide men Smith and Lee Holmes, and he had Saints’ best chance of the first half when Smith’s shot looped up into the air but Roman Larrieu in the Plymouth goal made himself big and blocked McGoldrick’s header with a good save.
Kelvin Davis was also tested as the game opened up a bit. Saints’ defence seemed to be dozing as they allowed Chris Clark a free shot which hit Davis’ legs and then Rory Fallon’s header was parried to safety. That should have acted as a lesson learned by the back four, but unfortunately they were punished for another lapse a couple of minutes later. Lancashire’s clearance didn’t reach the intended safety of the touchline where Craig Noone collected the ball and put an inch-perfect cross onto the head of Fallon who made no mistake from six yards.
While Plymouth’s opener was of the self-destruct variety, their second was symptomatic of the sort of luck and refereeing decisions teams tend to get when they’re struggling. Paul Gallagher did well down the right flank and had muscled his way past Rudi Skacel, who was fouling the on-loan Blackburn striker. Referee Roger East played a good advantage to allow him to continue, and he pulled the ball back for Fallon about 12 yards out. Lancashire threw himself in front of his first-time shot and the ball appeared to rebound off his face and away to safety. However, East adjudged Lancashire’s block to have been made with his hand and awarded a penalty.
So incensed were the entire Saints team at the decision that they surrounded the referee in protest, but the only outcome was a series of yellow cards, to Lancashire for the initial “handball” and to Davis and Skacel for their protests. Luke Summerfield stepped up to take the spot-kick and sent Davis the wrong way to double their lead.
Jan Poortvliet responded by making a double substitution and switching to a more attack-minded line-up. Gillett was replaced by Matt Paterson, who went up front with McGoldrick hovering just behind him, and Academy scholar Kayne McLaggon was handed his senior debut in place of Holmes.
Paterson was in the thick of the action straight away as Ryan Smith teased the Plymouth defence and then put a great ball across the face of goal. Paterson threw everything at the ball but agonisingly couldn’t quite get enough contact on it to put it in the back of the net.
Saints were now dominating possession and were pegging Plymouth back to the edge of their own area, and it was only a number of desperate last-ditch blocks from various defenders which prevented Smith, McGoldrick, Skacel and Gobern from testing Larrieu. The best chance for Saints to get back in the game fell for McGoldrick, who spotted that the keeper had wandered completely out of position and from a wide position 25 yards out he tried to curl it round the keeper and into the vacant goal, but such is the luck at the moment that we shouldn’t really have been surprised when the ball rebounded off the post and away to safety.
Smith collected a knock with a few minutes to go and Poortvliet decided to send centre-back Alex Pearce up front as a last-gasp target man. It was fellow young centre-back Lancashire who would have the last chance of the game, and ironically having failed to create any chances from numerous first-half corners, he rose above the defender but his header went about a foot past the post.
While the performance was a marked improvement on the Forest game last week, there was also the impression that Plymouth knew exactly what they had to do in order to take the points. We’ve conceded a hell of a lot of goals in the first half of games this season (particularly in the minutes before half-time) from a sheer lack of concentration, and today was no different. While it was hard to see the penalty decision from the other end of the ground, the supposed evidence that Lancashire has from the block he made would suggest we’ve been hard done by on that one. That said, had we taken our own chances in the first half, particularly when McGoldrick’s header was well saved by Larrieu, we might not have needed to lament a dubious refereeing decision.
Despite defeat, I feel a number of players came out of the game with a fair amount of credit. David McGoldrick had one of his better games, looked lively and willing to chase lost causes and get involved. Oscar Gobern profited from a slight change of position from his previous first-team appearances as he shifted inside as part of a midfield three alongside Surman and Gillett. Lloyd James started the season looking completely lost at right-back and was given a few weeks off to get his confidence back and that spell on the sidelines appears to have done wonders for him. Final mention goes to Ryan Smith, who looked as though his loan spell was probably going to peter out in the reserves, but he’s battled back from a couple of niggling injuries and his second half performance today in particular was exactly the sort of performance you want to see from a tricky and pacey winger. He was always willing to run at the full-back and was happy to either cut inside or go out wide even on his weaker right foot. If he can put in another similar performance against Reading on Sunday, he might have a chance of having his loan from Millwall extended.
While the results are certainly a concern right now, we’re also being kept out of jail by the failing of others. Forest managed to undo all the good work they put in at St Mary’s last week by spectacularly losing 4-2 at home to Doncaster, a result which has cost Colin Calderwood his job. Charlton still seem completely unable to pick themselves up from the slump that’s engulfed them since the summer, but with the players at their disposal you would still fancy them to be able to string a few results together. That means one or two of the clubs above us are going to have to get dragged back into the mix. There is currently a 4-point gap which can only be reigned in by us collecting some more points. With none of the group of teams above us seemingly able to pull away properly, it really will only take a couple of positive results to bring them back in touch.
