Argyle’s home woes continued with a 1-0 home defeat on Saturday lunchtime, against Bradford City.
In truth, this was an improved Argyle performance, essentially losing by a single goal to a penalty that was far from clear-cut. However, a familiar inability to look like scoring goals came back to haunt the Pilgrims, especially in the absence of leading goalscorer Lorent Tolaj, serving game one of a three-game suspension.
Bradford’s penalty was scored by former Argyle midfielder Antoni Sarcevic, a little over ten minutes into the second half. The award was suspect – arguably the contact on Stephen Humphrys was not enough to send him to the deck – but such is the lot of a team on a bad trot, and once the Greens went behind, designs on an equaliser were in hope, rather the knowledge of any experience.
Tom Cleverley, who was serving a one-game touchline ban having accrued three yellow cards, picked a league team that contained two names, for the first time.
Having got through 45 minutes on Tuesday night against Leyton Orient, Julio Pleguezuelo started again, this time alongside Alex Mitchell in a back four. Joe Edwards, at right-back, and Matty Sorinola completed the backline, in front of Conor Hazard.
Joe Ralls was another player making his first start, following two substitute appearances. The experienced midfielder played alongside Malachi Boateng in the centre of the park, with Owen Dale and Jamie Paterson continuing as widemen. Up front, in the absence of Tolaj, Owen Oseni led the line, with Bali Mumba in support.
Bradford’s team included two former Pilgrims of different vintages: Sarcevic and Tyreik Wright.
Inside a minute, Argyle’s new-look front pair were on the front foot. A gorgeous pass from Paterson released Oseni into the left-hand channel, and Irishman got a shot away which Bradford goalkeeper Sam Walker parried into space. Mumba was not far away from getting onto the stray ball.
Bradford looked to have a big chance when Aden Baldwin headed on target, into Hazard’s arms, but the flag had gone up anyway, for offside.
Bradford had the next chance of the game, too, as Ralls dribbled into trouble, allowing Sarcevic to get into the area, but Mitchell bailed his team-mate out with an excellent recovery block.
Argyle improved as the half went on. On the half-hour mark, a very neat move, involving several players, worked the ball down Argyle’s right, with Edwards squaring to find the run of Boateng, who had two shots, each blocked, the latter running through to Walker.
Paterson had the ball in the net, but Dale was flagged offside when heading across the box. It would have been a very tight call.
The Pilgrims kept on coming. Next saw an advance down the left, with Paterson proving a low cross that, had it reached Oseni, would have been a facile tap-in, but Baldwin, with an excellent piece of defending, got in the way.
It was goalless at the break, as it had been the previous weekend, before things went south against Northampton. The Greens showed intent after the break with a move, not 90 seconds after the restart, that saw Boateng play a ball in behind for Dale to run on to, only to drag a shot wide.
On 55 minutes, Bradford were awarded a penalty. Stephen Humphrys had burst in from the left touchline, to get into the box, and went down under a small amount of contact from Pleguezuelo.
Sarcevic stepped forward and, with familiar aplomb, tucked the spot-kick away.
This was also a familiar pattern. Argyle had gone behind, and there was always the risk of implosion. Within five minutes of the goal, Bradford went close twice more. Once from a swift counter which broke down, and the second when Wright nearly nicked a deflected effort home, but was denied by a sprawling Hazard.
Argyle, backed by a supportive Green Army, came forward with a nice move on the right, which saw Boateng burst beyond, and cut back for Dale, whose on-target effort was well blocked.
With 20 minutes to go, just after Argyle had had a free-kick accidentally headed not far over by a Bradford defender, the Greens made changes, resting the legs of the returning-from-injury Pleguezuelo, who gave way to Ross, and bringing on the somewhat-fit-again Xavier Amaechi, who it seemed had 20 or so minutes in the tank.
But what did Argyle have? In truth, Bradford, fairly used to being in a winning position, did a good job of slowing the game down, demonstrating the experience within their team. In contrast, Argyle did not look like they had the wherewithal to fashion the chances needed to find the equaliser.
The closest they came was from an attack down the left that saw Mumba pick out Paterson near the edge of the box, but his well-hit effort was off target. Mathias Ross was sent forward as an auxiliary forward for the conclusion of the game, and he won a good header to get the ball to Oseni, but his effort on target was – understandably, given his efforts – a tired one.
Argyle: 1 Conor Hazard, 5 Julio Pleguezuelo (2 Mathias Ross, 70), 7 Jamie Paterson, 8 Joe Edwards (capt, 6 Kornel Szucs, 78)), 11 Bali Mumba, 15 Alex Mitchell, 18 Owen Oseni, 19 Malachi Boateng, 29 Matty Sorinola, 32 Joe Ralls (20 Law McCabe, 78), 35 Owen Dale (10 Xavier Amaechi, 70). Substitutes: 21 Luca Ashby-Hammond (gk), 4 Brendan Wiredu, 22 Brendan Galloway.
Booked: Boateng 67
Bradford: 1 Sam Walker, 3 Ibou Touray, 4 Joe Wright, 6 Max Power (capt), 7 Josh Neufville (2 Brad Halliday, 82), 10 Antoni Sarcevic, 11 Stephen Humphrys (24 Will Swan, 82), 15 Aden Baldwin, 17 Tyreik Wright, 18 Ciaran Kelly, 21 Jenson Metcalfe (14 Tom McIntyre, 90+2). Substitutes: 25 Joe Hilton (gk), 20 Tommy Leigh, 26 Curtis Tilt, 32 George Lapslie.
Goals: Sarcevic pen 56
Booked: Metcalfe 65, Power 67, Halliday 90+5
Attendance: 14,811 (813 away)
Referee: Thomas Parsons
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