Argyle began the day, prior to a home game against Cardiff City, hoping for three points against a team getting pulled into the relegation battle with them.
At half-time, a goal down, and playing poorly, a point would have felt like something most with green in their heart would have taken. By the game’s end, the 1-1 conclusion felt slightly disappointing. Permit us to explain just how.
Cardiff’s lead at the break was entirely deserved. Yousef Salech scored on 12 minutes, after the Welsh visitors set the tone early on with a flurry of chances.
At the interval, Bali Mumba was introduced to the fray, in an attacking role, and set about turning the tide. It was Mumba who was brought down by Dimitrios Goutas when through on goal, with the Greek defender’s red card giving Argyle a lifeline.
An equaliser was attained, via Muhamed Tijani’s first goal for the Greens, but despite having turned the game on its head, Argyle failed to further capitalise on their numerical advantage, and the match finished all square.
“[I have] mixed feelings, because we threw away the first 45 minutes,” said Head Coach Miron Muslic. “We were not there. We were very sloppy; we looked very tired.
“Cardiff were fresh, they had the full week to prepare, and the best thing about the first half is that we were only 1-0 down.
“What I liked was the reaction in the second half. Bali gave us, immediately, the impact we needed. He gave us the energy and the boost we needed to get back into the game. His first action was a shot, the second [led to] a red card; it’s a clear foul – last man, red card. He kept on being an attacking threat.
“We kept on attacking, we kept on pushing, and we scored the goal to reward ourselves. It was a beautiful goal, in combination with Maksym [Talovierov], Moose (Mustapha Bundu)and TJ (Tijani), but we did not continue, and this is why it ended 1-1.
“I am very happy for Muhamed. It’s been a tough period, four-and-a-half months out, it’s not easy to come back. But I had a feeling we could use him today, and it is another positive today.
“[After the goal], we should have stuck to the game plan, but we made a lot of wrong decisions afterwards. It was too hectic.
“In the first 25/30 minutes of the second half we started very high, very intense, very dangerous, but we left our script and played in the favour of Cardiff. We can do way better.
“That is what Cardiff wanted, for the last 15 minutes. We had the advantage of one player more, but we were not clean enough today.
“This is also the learning we have to take. We have 12 games to go; we are going to have a lot of games that are hectic for the last 15/20 minutes. We have to stick to our plan, stick to our structure, stick to our organisation.
“If we do that, we will still collect points. But it feels like two dropped points this afternoon.”
