Plymouth Argyle 2-1 Scunthorpe United
Home Park
Coca-Cola Championship - Saturday, October 3, 2009

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FULL-TIME

Plymouth Argyle 2 Scunthorpe United 1

SECOND-HALF

92 Minutes: United are attacking, but I just can't see it coming.

85 Minutes: Michael O'Connor puts in a free-kick which an Argyle defender literally knocks out of his goalkeeper's hands to give United a corner. The corner is played in, and Woolford flicks it at goal, but it goes wide. The initial passage of play which resulted in the corner highlighted just how nervous the Argyle defence is. If United don't get a point from this it will be nothing short of terrible. Argyle are no better than the majority of League 1 sides to be honest.

83 Minutes: Sub by Scunthorpe - Michael O'Connor comes on (to play right-back) as Rob Jones limps off. Byrne is moved into the middle.

80 Minutes: United are running out of time. They came here to win, but find themselves behind. A moment ago Hooper blasted over after Sam Togwell had set him up.

79 Minutes: Sub by Plymouth - Jim Paterson is replaced by Chris Clark.

75 Minutes - Goal for Plymouth - In a cruel reversal of play, Argyle get a penalty. Judge is sent to the floor after Lillis raced out and ploughed into him on the wet surface. Judge dropped to the floor, but picked himself up to beat Lillis (who went the right way) from the spot.

Plymouth Argyle 2 Scunthorpe United 1

74 Minutes: Goal for Scunthorpe - Gary Hooper slots it past Larrieu, who goes the wrong way.

Plymouth Argyle 1 Scunthorpe United 1

73 Minutes: Plymouth are starting to fly into challenges at the back... I won't finish typing, as I begun to write that sentence United won a penalty - after Martyn Woolford is chopped in the area by the goalie. Talk about speak of the devil!

69 Minutes: After skipping round the last defender, and finding himself with only the goalkeeper to beat, Garry Thompson places a left-footed effort wide. He is right footed, I admit, but he should have equalised. There was no excuse for not working the goalkeeper (at the very least) there.

67 Minutes: Rob Jones leaps above everybody to get a free-header at the back-post after Josh Wright angles in a free-kick. His effort is close, but not close enough - it goes high and wide.

66 Minutes: Andrew Wright and Jamie Mackie tangle while Mackie is chasing a through-ball down the left-wing. Mackie ends up on the floor; Wright stays on his feet, and Wright is booked by the referee.

63 Minutes: Subs by Scunthorpe - They need a change of impetus, so McCann and Sparrow are replaced by Woolford and Thompson. They'll provide United with some width.

60 Minutes: Buoyed by that goal, Argyle are at it again. Sawyer gets into the box, lashes an effort at goal, which hits Josh Wright and goes out for a corner. Had Josh Wright not cleared that, Plymouth would've got a second then.

56 Minutes: Goal for Plymouth - Gary Sawyer whips a cross in from deep, and Rory Fallon heads it back across goal and into the far-corner of the net. Against the general run of play, Argyle lead. 

Plymouth Argyle 1 Scunthorpe United 0

54 Minutes: Ian Morris has a go on his right foot while cutting inside from left-back. The effort isn't bad conisdering the range, but doesn't test Larrieu - it flies into a hoarding behind the goal.

51 Minutes: Five minutes of this second period have gone, with nothing worth writing about really occuring. Something needs to happen to breathe some life into this match, it's pretty dull at the moment.

48 Minutes: Sub by Plymouth - Darcy Blake goes off, Alan Judge is the player tasked with replacing him.

45 Minutes: The Green Army get things back underway. Some people in the Press Box have speculated over the interval that Paul Sturrock will lose hos job if Argyle are beaten today. This nexxt fourty-five minutes are crucial for Plymouth and the Iron alike.

HALF-TIME

Plymouth Argyle 0 Scunthorpe United 0

At the interval we're all level - with all to play for in the second-half. I have to say though, the Iron could easily be sitting on a one or two goal lead. Romain Larrieu, Plymouth's French goalkeeper, has made a couple of decent saves to keep Scunthorpe out; but United will be a little annoyed not to have broken the deadlock.

The only reason I say that is because you see it happen all the time in football - a team miss chance after chance, and are ultimately made to pay for it. And ok, United haven't exactly missed chance after chance, yet they are the team who are controlling this game, and I just feel that if Argyle score, some events from the first part of the match will come back to haunt United. That said, Scunthorpe have looked pretty assured in defence, and the Argyle attack doesn't exactly look like the most free-scoring in this league!

To conclude, there's three points here for the taking - on the evidence of this half, at least. 

Attendance: 9,780 (186 away)

FIRST-HALF

46 Minutes: Argyle win a corner on the stroke of half-time. It drops in the six-yard area, but an alert Cliff Byrne heads it away to keep the half-time scores at none apiece.

43 Minutes: Rory Fallon, once of Swansea City, heads the ball towards the United goal. It was always dipping, and while backpedalling, Lillis makes a smart stop.

40 Minutes: Paul Hayes hooks a ball over the Argyle defence towards Gary Hooper. Hooper controls it wonderfully with his head, and charges towards goal. From the edge of the area he has a go, and Romain Larrieu is forced into making a great save. Hooper (and Hayes for that matter) did very well there. United could easily (or maybe that's should easily) be a goal up by now,

38 Minutes: Darcy Blake and Rob Jones engage in a little round of heading tennis. It ends with the score at 15-0 to Darcy. Ie - an Argyle corner.

35 Minutes: There's a test for Josh Lillis when Carl Duguid finds himself in a little bit of space and decides to have a punt at goal. The ball swivels around in the air a little bit, but Lillis catches it with great confidence all the same.

27 Minutes: With his back to goal, Gary Hooper brings the ball under his spell in the centre of the pitch. He twists on the ball, working his way around a couple of green's, before sending a long-range shot across goal. It rolls past the post - making Larrieu, who was dahing back across his goal, a relieved man.

22 ,Minutes: Jamie Mackie links with Gary Sawyer on the wing, and within the blink of an eye, Sawyer is free in the box. He lashes a shot at goal, and Josh Lills, who is making only his second Championship start today (and strangely enough, his only other one was against Plymouth two seasons ago), is fortunate enough to watch it fly over the bar.

17 Minutes: Sam Togwell misses a wonderful opportunity. United need to score soon - take advantage of some of the openings they're creating, Hooper feeds the ball to Togwell, who flicks the ball over the bar with the goal gaping. When I say gaping, I mean he was within the six-yard area.

16 Minutes: Ian Morris chips a nice ball into the path of Sam Togwell, who quickly brings it down and plonks it into the path of Gary Hooper. Hooper plays a quick one-two with Hayes. Hooper gets into the area, but falls down under the challenge of James Chester. If that has been at Glanford Park, I feel that might well have been a penalty. Here though, it would have made Mr. D'Urso a very unpopular guy.

11 Minutes: In the middle of the Plymouth half Andrew Wright lays the ball into the path of Paul Hayes, Hayes takes the ball in his stride, and from a position on the far-right of the area, about twelve-yards out, forces Larrieu into a save at his near-post. The original ball from right cut the Argyle defence open. If United can put a few more like that in towards Hayes and Hooper they'll have a field-day today.

8 Minutes: Carl Duguid crosses into the box from the angle of the 'D'. The ball is heading straight for the head of Darcy Blake, until good work from Matt Sparrow allows the ball to be cleared. Momentarily, it looks like Grant McCann will be able to break away with the ball on a counter attack, but the referee halts play just as McCann starts to go through the gears, due to an infringement.

5 Minutes: Grant McCann takes a free-kick, When most expect him to cross he instead lays a low pass into the path of Hooper, who shoots. Larrieu parries it away, before Cliff Byrne heads it back at goal, from where it's cleared off the line. It looks like it might fall for Jones, but before he can reach it it's whacked away by the Argyle defence. Encouraging start from United.

1 Minute: The game starts. Scunthorpe will attack towards the Argyle fans in the first-half, as is somewhat customary. United lauch the first-attack, when Grant McCann makes a run into the box, but he can't quite reach the cross which is fizzed in for him. 

PRE-MATCH

United make their longest away trip of the season this afternoon, the 640 mile round trip to Home Park, the home of Plymouth Argyle (or alternately, you may wish to refer to them solely as the 'Green Army', if you're a fan of the Aviva advert!). Either way, the ground is in Devon, and is the most south-westerly positioned stadium in the Football League.

Argyle have made an atrocious start to the season, and in recent weeks the pressure has mounted on their manager Paul Sturrock to start obtaining some positive results. Some Argyle fans feel that a change at the helm is required for the club to put their bad form behind them and to move up the table. One suspects that if Sturrock wasn't a club-legend, the axe would have fallen on his head some weeks ago. With all that taken into account, United will probably feel that they can come here and take three points this afternoon. Remember, Argyle haven't won a home game all season.

Here's the teams. United make five (yes, five) changes to the side that lost disappointingly at Forest on Tuesday. Josh Lillis, Andrew Wright, Matt Sparrow, Ian Morris and Gary Hooper all make the eleven. Hooper and Wright make their comebacks from injury. Morris and Lillis replace the injured duo ofWilliams and Murphy (who picked up knocks at the City Ground) and Matt Sparrow comes in for Michael O'Connor.

Plymouth Argyle: Larrieu, Duguid, Paterson, Flectcher, Mackie, Blake, Fallon, Sawyer, Lowry, Chester, Gray. Subs: Clark, Wright-Phillips, Sheridan, Letheren, Barnes, Judge, Gow.

Scunthorpe United: Lillis, A.Wright, Togwell, Byrne, Sparrow, McCann, Hayes, Hooper, Jones, J. Wright, Morris. Subs: Thompson, Woolford, O'Connor, Spence, Slocombe, Canavan, Boyes.

With five minutes to go until kick-off, the teams emerge onto the pitch to a jolly sounding tune that I'd associate with sailing (hardly a surprise, considering the naval heritage of this city). The stadium announcer then proclaims that Argyle are the "Best in the West"  to the half-empty stadium through his thick accent, and then the two teams spread out to their positions on the pitch. Both the Iron and Plymouth engage in some sort of team-building huddle before kick-off.

SCENE-SETTER

United make the long trip to Plymouth Argyle this weekend seeking to finish in style ahead of the second international break of the season.

The two sides lock horns at Home Park on Saturday, with the hosts desperately seeking to climb away from relegation trouble.

Scunthorpe's five-game unbeaten run ended with a defeat at Nottingham Forest on Saturday, but Nigel Adkins and his troopsregrouped on Thursday and will train on Friday before flying out to their South West ahead of the game.

In his pre-match press conference on Thursday, Iron manager Nigel Adkins revealed that leading scorer Gary Hooper has recovered from a hamstring injury and will be in the squad for the match. Hooper, who has five strikes to his name so far this season, has missed the last three fixtures.

Adkins is also hopeful that goalkeeper Joe Murphy will recover from a dead leg picked up at Nottingham Forest but, should he not, has no qualms about playing Josh Lillis, who has returned from a month-long loan stay at Grimsby Town.

David Mirfin, who missed the clash against Nottingham Forest with a groin problem, is rated at 50/50. Should he miss out, Cliff Byrne would continue in his absence.

The only absentees are Ben May, who has an ankle problem and Adkins expects to be back for the next reserve team game at Hartlepool in a fortnight, and Kenny Milne, who is still recovering from the two knee operations which he underwent last season.

For Argyle, Iceland international midfielder Kari Arnason is a doubt after missing the midweek win at Peterborough with a hamstring injury.

Reda Johnson (knee) and centre-back Chris Barker (calf) also missed the game.

The referee is Andy D'Urso from Essex, who has shown 33 yellow cards and one red in eight games so far this season.

He last took charge of a Scunthorpe game in January when the Iron won 2-1 at Millwall.

He officiated two Iron matches the last time they were in the Championship - the 1-0 win at Watford and the 1-1 home draw with Blackpool which saw Kelly Youga sent off.

He was in charge of a Scunthorpe match on two occasions the campaign before, being referee for the 3-0 home win over Port Vale and the 1-1 away draw at Huddersfield Town.