United 2 Plymouth 0 - report/ratings

[programmechap]

I think by common consensus it was our poorest performance of the season (certainly the poorest I’ve seen) so my main emotion at full time was relief.

Plymouth were better than they have been by all accounts, but they misplace passes a lot and make bad decisions. It’s easy to see why they are not doing well. Cooper (my MOTM) did well, but the pivotal point was that Gyabi miss. Should have buried that.

I have wished at times this season that we had Obafemi, but after that I’m on the fence. He seems to be carrying a lot of timber. Still, I was glad when he went off. Like Deadbat I rated Bundu, who was enterprising.

I thought Davies and Peck were decent (Davies is very calm on the ball) but we really missed Souza. Wow. If you’d told me in April I’d write that comment I’d have thought you were crazy.

One showed he is not ready, and JRS had a stinker, which in turn caused Glichrist to have a stinker. Too much space out wide. Shackleton and (especially) McCallum stopped that a bit. Both also helped us get up the pitch - as did Brewster, who might have been a bit unlucky not to get on earlier.

Moore was better than One but not quite at the races. Luckily their keeper had the decency to dive out of the way of the pen.

Super goal from Hamer. He and O’Hare were enterprising without too much coming off.

A forgettable game when all is said and done, but welcome points.

As I have said elsewhere, there is at least one longer run of home clean sheets (Cambridge in 1982-3, 12 games) so a lot to do to catch them.

Have a good holiday Deadbat. We will all miss your reports!

Yes, I thought the pen was awful. Not very hard and straight down the middle. That's saved most of the time.

 

[FriethBlade]

Have a great Xmas in the US Deadbat and thanks for writing these reports.

Agree with your summary and player ratings. 3 games in 6 days has taken it out of a stretched squad. Hopefully another 7 days rest will see Souza, Campbell and Anel all available and Davies and Moore will be another week fitter.