Sunday 6 April 2008

10 Men and The Ref? Argyle v Charlton


There's no way we can lose this now, was my thoughts as I saw the Charlton goal keeper handle the ball outside the area only 3 minutes after kick off. How wrong was I?

I felt for the Charlton fans, knowing how I would have been feeling if it was our keeper that had been sent off, but my feelings of excitement at a possible 3 or even 4 goals soon took over.

Although we had most of the play in the first half the teams went in without scoring.

Charlton decided the way forward for them was to waste time and at every opportunity this is what they did. When the fourth official's board only said 4 added minutes I couldn't believe it. Obviously he had been napping for most of the half.

Easter was the first to break the dead lock between the teams with a goal for Argyle in the 60th minute. Outwardly I was ecstatic but inwardly I was worried. Plymouth have this horrible habit of falling asleep just after they score and my worries were justified as Charlton got hold of the ball and put it past our keeper, who had gone out to collect the ball but had missed it, just 5 minutes later.

Charlton were now looking the better team and with just 10 men (and the ref the crowd sung) they scored again in the 76th minute all due to a mistake by our keeper who let the ball slip out of his hands for Lita to tap in into the back of the net.

All in all a disappointing game and one we should have won and in fact needed to win if we were going to be in any hope of reaching the play-offs.

Plymouth's next game isn't until the 14th when we play Sheffield Wednesday. Let's hope we can do better then as the whole nation will be able to watch the game live on Sky.