Even though the home side were head and shoulders above Argyle for most of the first 45 minutes I told the journo that if they scored before Rovers got a third, panic would set in and that’s exactly what happened.
My clipping from today's paper
Bradley Wright-Phillips pulled one back in the 58th minute and then co-striker Joe Mason prodded home an equaliser eleven minutes later as the Gas deflated and imploded.
Midfielder Stephane Zubar stole all three points in the 81st minute poking home from about four yards after team mate had pumped a 45 yard free kick forward to the unmarked Frenchman.
The ‘oles’ that greeted Rovers passing game in the first half we replaced with jeers of derision as the game wore on and the only round of applause was saved for keeper Mikkel Andersen who appeared to be saying goodbye before returning to parent club Reading as his loan deal has now expired.
I left the ground with Mikkel and while he wouldn’t be drawn as to what his plans were, he did say:
“I want to be playing regularly and will be hoping to start against West Brom in the Cup on Saturday.”
It appears he now has is eyes focused on making a claim for involvement at Reading, but he did see some positives for Rovers.
“There are some very good younger players here,” he said “And I thought Elliot Richards was great tonight. In fact a lot quicker than I thought.”
Rovers caretaker boss Darren Patterson saw his own career path fade before his eyes in the second half and groaned:
“We are obviously very disappointed. From probably playing the best football we have done all season we gifted the game away. That’s what we did, absolutely gift it away.
We had to work pretty hard for our goals, but we simply don’t do the ugly side of the game very well and it’s simply killing us.
We have lots of technically gifted players at the club, but maybe we need people who can do the horrible things when we need to protect a two goal lead.”
Patterson understandably refused to even discuss the vacant manager’s position given the result and - after the first question on the subject – made a point of telling the rest of the assembled reporters not to ask it again.
If the players did want him to take on the job full time I’m afraid that they really didn’t do him any favours at all with their second half collapse and with 81% of readers in a local paper stating that they do NOT want him as manager, any interview the board grant him now will be given as a mere courtesy.
Why the board sacked Paul Trollope with no fallback position though remains a key question. With no game this weekend, the board better sort out an acceptable replacement in the next few days before the Gas faithful turn their frustration on them.
Argyle’s players haven’t received their wages from the club now for two months, the club is under a football league transfer embargo and it is selling key squad members to clear debts and so manager Peter Reid praised their fighting spirit after the game.
"The players deserve every bit of credit," said the Argyle boss. "Away from home, 2-0 down and then to get a result speaks for itself. We started slowly. They dominated us early on and we could not get out of our half. But towards the end of the first half we were threatening and I felt if we could get one goal, a foothold, we would be back in it and I was right. It was fantastic. The second half was so exciting.
It’s a balancing act at the moment. We have to sell players to pay off our debts so that we can get the transfer embargo lifted and then try and bring in loan players, but it is what it is and we just have to get on with it and the players have shown a great spirit after what they’ve been through.”
Rick Guard
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