FAN’S VIEW: 24/25 – No.26: PLYMOUTH AT HOME

OXFORD UNITED 2 PLYMOUTH ARGYLE 0

“You’re getting sacked in the morning” sang the Oxford fans. The visitors from Devon joined in. The Oxford fans then delivered “Wayne Rooney, we want you to stay”. There was no repetition from the away section.

Pre-match I’d asked a Plymouth fan I’ve got to know from going to the Green Taverners Fan Fest when we’ve visited Home Park if he’d be coming to the match. He replied that work commitments meant no and added “We are shocking so should be quite an easy 3 points for you and another nail in Rooney’s coffin”.

Comments like that make me uneasy although I had been confident enough to include an Oxford win in a free Coral bet builder.

He was right though, Argyle are the worst team I’ve seen this season. Give their travelling fans a massive amount of credit for selling out (never in any doubt) and nearly all of them staying to the end. Many away followings would have been well diluted come the final whistle if their team had been this woeful and unable to score against little Oxford.

I’ve lifted a few posts from Argyle message boards.

“Held on for a whole 15 minutes before going 1-0 down. Well done Rooney and the players!!!”

“Oxford in total control and will score at least 3 or 4. We are beyond shit. There is no description of how shit this team and ‘head coach’ are. Embarrassing isn’t the word! Total laughing stock!” (Posted at 3:30)

“Getting beat away from home and you bring on two teenage subs. Is Rooney trying to destroy these two lads completely?”

“Hallett needs to explain to the fans why he is refusing to sack Rooney after this latest horror show”. (Simon Hallet is the owner. He became the majority shareholder in 2018. He’s from Plymouth but is now based in the USA)

“Any normal club would have sacked Rooney weeks ago. In fact no other club would have appointed him in the first place based on his record. This makes me think Hallett will do nothing”.

At the start of the season the sensible ones amongst our fan base were trying to identify three clubs who could well finish below us. Plymouth was pencilled in as soon as Rooney was appointed. Proof some owners are truly clueless. I am so pleased our owners are not in that category.

I can’t see how he can survive and think it more likely than not that he will be gone before I get this FV published. I’d just love it though if he were still in charge when we go down to their place in a couple of weeks’ time.

After this their odds on relegation shortened to 1/6 before going back to 1/5.

Walking around the ground pre-match I thought the atmosphere was very subdued. Perhaps we didn’t know how to react given that we were favourites to win. A different sort of pressure for a change but apprehension about not building on the Cardiff win?

I thought we looked like a proper team. We’re more direct under Gary Rowett and I say that in complimentary fashion. No dallying about at the back with little clue of what to do next.

I’m not meaning to denigrate in any way what Des achieved by writing the above and it will soon be time to move on but for now the debate is still there regarding his dismissal. It goes without saying that we will never know how things would have played out if he were still here. Quite a few have expressed the opinion that he should have been given the two “easy” home games that were deemed “very winnable” against Cardiff and Plymouth before a decision was made.

I disagree. The team was playing with so little confidence and clearly a lack of belief in the manager that I don’t think we’d have had the six points in the bank that we’ve got under Rowett.

Post-match callers to Radio Oxford overlooked what had happened at Vicarage Road. Prior to Sunday Watford’s home record read P11, W9 and D2. Cardiff went there and won 2-1. Perhaps not the mugs some, including their own fans, thought.

A question I will pose though is if a fully fit Przemyslaw Placheta had been available throughout this campaign thus far would the Pole have been Des’s 2024/25 equivalent of Josh Murphy at the back end of our promotion season and have made us look like a comfortable mid-table Championship team?

Ciaron Brown opened the scoring on 14 minutes with his second goal in two games. Again it came following a corner. This really is one of our strengths. I’m guessing we’re working on set pieces, especially corners, more and more. Focussing as much on this now as keeping possession? The objective is to win football matches and without scoring goals that ain’t going to happen however much possession a team has. With Manchester City’s decline, will football slowly move away from a seeming obsession of playing out from the back and trying not to let your opponents have any of the ball? Many teams have kept trying this when not that well equipped to do so. Just a few thoughts but don’t get me wrong I’ve not by any means gone all Charles Hughes.

Tyler Goodrham had put the corner into the danger zone and when it was headed out, Cameron Brannagan’s volley was blocked by a defender who got right onto him. When the ball came spinning down out of the sky, Bali Mumba, a £1m signing from Norwich, attempted a header but completely missed it. Goodrham then crossed on the half volley into the penalty area where four yellow shirts were out-numbered by nine white ones. Going backwards, Brown’s diving header beat Conor Hazard in the Plymouth goal.

It was something of a surprise that we had not added to this lead by half time. Hazard’s legs kept Mark Harris out after he’d been set up by Ruben Rodrigues. Chances were being created.

Leigh went close at the far post following another corner, this one having been played short to Placheta before the cross came in.

Placheta then stung the keeper’s hand and Leigh headed onto the bar from yet another corner.

It had been nearly all plain sailing, but not quite. The back line were coping really well with what little Argyle had to offer but Sam Long, under no pressure at all, failed to control a square pass and possession was lost. Will Vaulks stuck out a leg and Rami Al Hajj’s shot was deflected onto the bar.

Thankfully our mistakes, particularly in areas where we could have been hurt, were much rarer than they have been recently.

At the start of the second half we’d dropped off a bit and Plymouth came at us with a bit more purpose than they’d done in the first period. Had Wayne given them a talking to? Not that it did much good if he had, although for the first quarter of an hour after the break I was less confident than I’d been after we’d got our opener.

When we needed to get bodies back and block we did that and after we’d got our second there was never the feeling that this opposition could do what Boxing Day’s had and at any time make the remainder of the game uncomfortable.

Just past the hour we came out on top of a midfield scrap when Vaulks won the ball in the air. RR dissected the Plymouth defence with the ball tantalisingly just out of Brendan Galloway’s reach. The last thing he wanted was a race with Placheta but that’s what he got. Our man went past him but Galloway managed to get back. I’m thinking why don’t you shoot? But there’s something of a genius about PP. He stopped and turned, then spun around again and netted. As a fan I really can’t read what he is going to do, so what chance do defenders have? I think I may have already said this in a previous FV. Early days but he could go down in OUFC folklore if he keeps performing as he has in the last two games.

Others deserve very honourable mentions too. Rodrigues gets through such a lot of hard work and has the ability to see a pass that can set up a chance in an instant. Vaulks has suddenly come from “why is he in the team?” to one of the very first names on the sheet. In a two with Brannagan he is working extremely effectively. He’s now winning so much ball in the centre of the park which is an area where we’d just not had bodies competing. He’s another who can also pass the ball. I reckon he can put a bit of spin or fade on it to get it to where he wants it to go.

Last but not least, Harris. Another real shift and a nuisance for the Plymouth defence. He got between man and ball on a couple of occasions and held it up. That’s been missing from his game. I hope he can keep doing this and he wasn’t only able to do so here because of the poor calibre of those he was up against.

We’re still second favourites for the drop but now we’re 5/6. Before this win we were 8/13. Third favs to go down are Portsmouth at 11/10, then Cardiff 11/4, Hull 10/3, QPR 5/1 and Stoke 15/2.

Pompey are four points behind us with a game in hand. They’ve lost their last two. Hull are two points behind us having played a game more. They won at Blackburn, a team I rate. QPR are only two points above us and have also played a game more. They only lost out on getting all three points at Norwich thanks to an 89^th minute equaliser. Managerless Stoke scored in added time to beat Sunderland. They’re only one point above us and we have a game in hand on them too. Luton’s odds are 16/1 and I can’t see them going down but they’re on the same points and games played as Stoke – and they have lost three of their last four.

Couldn’t be much more pressurised. Tight and tense indeed. And it can’t escape notice that we’ve got only 10 home games remaining but 13 away. A trip to the Den is up next.

HAPPY NEW YEAR