I had a most enjoyable evening this evening watching my football team, Plymouth Argyle, beat AFC Wimbledon 4-2. After a terrible start to the season which brought just one win and two draws in the first twelve or so games Argyle’s form since October has been nothing short of remarkable. At first, the improvement was built on grit and determination – it was hard to watch but reassuringly effective. Now they are playing with attacking flair and swagger on a scale that I have hardly seen in the 25+ years I have been a regular at Home Park. Tonight, especially in the first half they looked like they could score every time they attacked with slick, fast and skillful play carving open the Wimbledon defence. But, it takes two teams to make a good game and Wimbledon had certainly not come to sit back and admire Argyle’s play, throwing men forward quickly and causing Argyle’s unusually hesitant defence a lot of problems. In particular, they made good use of the fact that their goalkeeper had what was probably the longest kick that I have seen from a ‘keeper.
Argyle scored first. Wimbledon equalized, but then Argyle took the lead again almost instantly with an absolute screamer of a goal from the edge of the area after a corner was headed clear. A third goal for Argyle just before half-time gave them a comfortable lead that was deserved on attacking quality if not entirely convincing. The second half was a more scrappy affair and Wimbledon scored a second, although the goal was really a complete gift after a monumental cock-up between an Argyle defender and goalkeeper. At that point the game looked like it might be in the balance. Argyle then scored a cracking fourth goal which ought to have been game over but then gave away a penalty, which, fortunately, was saved, sparing us a very dodgy end to the game. As well as the six goals and the saved penalty, there were three ‘goals’ disallowed for offside (2-1 to Argyle) and both teams hit the post in the first 5 minutes of the game. Overall, then, it was a thoroughly entertaining spectacle and the night ended with Argyle up to 8th place in the league and only 3 points off the play-off places.
I always like evening games but there haven’t been so many of them this season. Tonight’s game was billed as the last evening game before the renovation of the old Grandstand and so I thought I would capture that little piece of ‘history’ with a photo, taken before the game as the two teams lined up…
Tim O'Hare 