Player performances....

Pilks stood out (not difficult), everyone else was average. i thought Peter C was poor by his standards. Peltier was out strolling with his dog all night.

Kadar looks good, needs to get to know the others. My mate who's a Newc fan reckons he's a decent centre back

in my opinion

I wouldn't disagree with any of that but to put a bit more flesh on the bones. Pilkington showed flashes of real class, with some brilliant crosses - particularly with his left foot. But on other occasions he made some poor decisions and some poor passes. From excellent to poor and back in minutes. Roberts just never seemed to get into the game at all. Novak and Rhodes both worked hard and both missed some really good opportunities to score. (In fact, by my reckoning, if we'd scored every really good chance we created [including some free headers] the score would have been about 9 - 2) Both should have done better but off hand, I don't recall either of them giving the ball away.

Arfield seemed invisible at times and didn't contribute much at all. Kilbane had a very poor game and was responsible for the farcical second Plymuff goal. Free kick to Town on half way line with Pilks and KK by the ball. Plymuff down to 8 men, with one sent off (rightly) and two waiting for the ref to let them on, one after a boot change, the other after an injury. Instead of sending the ball into the box where we outnumbered them, a short free kick was taken and KK sent a slow pass to a player who had the 2 players coming back on bearing down on him. Town player robbed, pass to one of their players who was then one on one with Smithies. Somehow Pelts managed to get a tackle in but the ball bounced in off the attacking player. Like a scene from Monty Python's Flying Circus.

KK also gave the ball away on occasions, particularly in the second half which was dire. P Clarke and Kay both gave the ball away, ballooned it up when trying to clear, passed behind players otherwise in the clear and on a number of occasions passed it straight out for a throw in. They just lost the plot completely.

Peltier worked hard and got forward a hell of a lot, but often dithered and didn't get many crosses or passes in. Smithies didn't make any mistakes and had little to do. The new left back defended well when he had to, but given the 10 men and 9 men scenario had the freedom of the park to go forward, and did so very effectively.

I'd've given Town MOM to Pilks if it wasn't for his horrendous inconsistency, so on balance my MOM would be the new lad. A real prospect.

I'll not get into the booing argument again, save to say I still disagree with it as being counter productive and wrong.

The ref should be complimented in my view. The sending off was spot on, it denied a clear goal scoring opportunity but was very brave given how early in the match it was and the fact that the Town player wasn't actually brought to ground. He didn't stand for any nonsense and the second yellow for the Plymuff idiot could have come one foul earlier when the ref called him and his captain over to say, one imagines, look you've had one yellow, that probably ought to be another yellow, calm down. But he didn't.

My son looked at Sky Sports for mobiles at one stage and Town had 80% of the possession, and the frustration of not being able to convert that into goals was palpable. LC was nearly having a heart attack.

Coming away from the ground, shaking my head at one of the strangest matches I've seen for years, and a very poor Town performance, I couldn't make up my mind what I'd do if I was LC.

a) give the players the biggest bollocking of their lives, or
b) say - don't ever put in a performance like that again, we got the 3 points, let's move on.

Answers on a postcard please.
:udders:

i wouldnt pay them in tap washers

Kadar looked class, mostly solid defensively, great going forward and linked well with Pilks and Kilbane down the left. Him and Kilbane where the only one's showing any desire to up the tempo in the second half.

Peltier had a shocker, as did Kay. His inability to pull of passes is a liability wherever he plays. Positioning was also shockng. Arfield did ok, but maybe not good enough. Not convinced with Rhodes and Novak but what are the alternatives. Roberts was also poor and I reckon got subbed for slowing things down to much. In the end Carey was little better, lacking the form and confidence of a few months ago that saw him give numerous RB's an education.

They'll be 7s and 8s because we won. They always are.

For me:

Smithies - 7 - Did pretty much what was expected of him. He could have come for the second goal in my opinion but it would have been tight and probably not worth the risk.

Peltier - 6 - Some horrendous passing and a lack of support meant that he didn't offer much.

Clarke - 5 - Didn't cover himself in glory for the second goal, and failed to dominate against a loan forward.

Kay - 5 - Poor passing, and a lack of distribution meant that Town failed to put Plymouth under constant pressure even when down to 9.

Kadar - 7 - Pick of the defence. A million times better on the ball than Ridgehalgh and some great distribution accompanied forward forays.

Pilks - 8 - MOM for me. He really is back to his best. Took on his full back time and time again, and provided some very decent balls into the box.

Kilbane - 4 - A terrible pass put us 2-0 down and totally failed to put his mark on the midfield. No movement and some very, very poor passing.

Scott Arfield - 5 - Bypassed all to easily by Plymouth, and while he did alot of running much of it was pointless. Slow passing allowed Plymoth to get back in numbers.

Roberts - 5 - Combined well with LB well in the first half, but totally faded. Some shocking balls into the box.

Rhodes - 4 - Despite his (lucky) goal he offered very little. Totally static and made it all to easy for Plymouth the cut out through balls.

Novak - 4 - Alot of running when we didn't have the ball but no end product when we did. Again virtually no movement whatsoever.

SUBS

Carey - 5 - Was willing to take on his man and often beat him, but his final ball was appalling.

Gudjonsson - 7 - Make a difference when he came on. Knocked the ball around well which stretched Plymouth. I'd have brought him on earlier.

MANAGER

Clark - 5 - Started with the team that I think most of us would have picked, but he could have been quicker to push men forward when we had a numerical advantage. We simply didn't need 4 defenders marking one forward. His persistence with short corners is also really starting to grate with me, particularly given the fact we had an extra two men.

Some interesting reviews!
Just seems the players really need to move up a gear and start performing to their full ability!!!

I'd go with:

Smithies - 7 - Had nothing to do apart from the 2 goals... Distribution and handling was good when he had to.

Peltier - 5 - Bombed forward unchallenged but his distribution was very, very poor. Got the wrong side of his man a few times as well.
Kay - 4- The first half defending from Kay and Clarke was akin to a Laurel and Hardy sketch, they were awful... Put themselves under pressure with hideous distribution and their positioning was terrible...
Clarke - 5 - Only gets a 5 as he got the winning goal otherwise would have been a 3... He was worse than Kay defensively.
Kadar - 7 - Decent, crisp distribution but largely untested. Promising debut but needs a decent test before we go overboard on this signing

Pilks - 7 - Pilks! Pilks will tear you apart... Again! a 25 minute spell of sheer quality from Pilks won us the game.. Poor 2nd half like everyone else.
Kilbane - 5 - Poorest performance yet for me... Some good early balls in the firs thalf but 2nd half was very poor.
Arfield - 4 - Not sure he played to be honest...
Roberts - 5 - Had a 10 minute spell at the end of the first half where he played quite well but was subdued at best...

Rhodes - 5 - Good hold up play in the first half at times but should have scored more than once..
Novak - 4 - Another poor Novak performance for me, only this time he didn't even do his usual running about...

Tom Clarke - no time to do anything
Joey G - 7 - Actually looked bothered for once and hit some decent quick passes around.

Me too .................................... and kay was very poor!!

Smithies 6
Peltier 6
Kadar 6
Arfield 5
P Clarke 6
Kay 5
Pilkington 6
Kilbane 6
Rhodes 6 (MOTM)
Novak 5
Roberts 5

Subs

Carey 5
Gudjonsson 5
T Clarke 5