Comments on: Chasing pack close the gap as City let their standards slip.

By: Dai Woosnam

Dai Woosnam — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 10:10:07 +0000

I should have added that when I saw him in 1962, he was not sitting in the Grandstand… but was PLAYING on the pitch. And at 47, playing very well… we could have done with Aberaman’s greatest son to come back out of retirement to nullify him.
Amazing to think he was still playing at 50: which was when he retired and went to live in Malta for nearly a quarter of a century.
It is reckoned that no one individual ever did more for British tourism to Malta than Sir Stan.
DW.

By: Dai Woosnam

Dai Woosnam — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 11:14:22 +0000

Paul… thanks for reminding me that when Argyle won 4-0 at Burton the pitch was in better state.
As for Stanley Matthews at Ninian… I recall seeing him at Ninian Park on November 24th 1962… when he amazingly was 47 years of age.
DW

By: Steve Perry

Steve Perry — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 10:04:59 +0000

Thanks, Paul for your report on the Burton (a) game. As I’ve still not seen any more than some clips placed on social media so just an odd point or two. In light of that your writing has been more than welcome. As you mentioned the pitch was not the best and that may have been a contributing factor to aspects of our play.

How many bookings has Kpakio got this season and needed to be substituted at half time? Maybe a rhetorical question on my behalf but it seems to me a few times. BB-M please just have him play a couple of games further up field.

How tarnished the beautiful game has become. Yes, I admit there were hard men decades ago when life and football was different. That said, I don’t condone the thuggery that went on back then. But today things are different.

In the Cardiff City game against Stockport we have seen three elbow incidents and a couple of really bad challenges on Robinson. Against Burton we saw a rash double footed lunge on Ng, where both feet were off the ground. The player was not in control of himself. Corner kicks have become so surreal with grappling and left to continue. Sometimes a ref will speak to a player or two but when the kick is retaken nothing has changed and the wrestling continues.

And I watch the VAR-Football variant in the PL. Minimal contact in the Man Utd v Fulham game and a penalty is given, later downgraded to a free kick outside the box. If that is the threshold for a foul / penalty as Arthur would say, “They owe us a million.”

Please, Mr Referee a plea for consistency and integrity for football is becoming a lottery.

By: The other Bob Wilson

The other Bob Wilson — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 08:26:25 +0000

In reply to Dai Woosnam.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Just a few thoughts in reply to some of the matters raised. Graham, I would say that, although we had something like 60 per cent of the possession, a lot of it was not of the quality that we usually get – I think we did well to score two given the way the game panned out and I’d gently remind you that we’re League One’s top scorers again after scoring six times in our last two matches.

Dai, that Plymouth win was back in September when the Burton pitch would have been much better than it is now. I too watched the County game (well, about eighty per cent of it) on Saturday and, up to a point, I agree with you on Akhamrich, his first goal especially was a beauty, and, on that evidence, he’s too good for league Two. However, I’d rather hold fire on him for a week or two yet to see if he is influencing games as much against teams other than that appalling Newport side for whom the term “relegation side” could have been invented. I’m sorry to say that County were woeful both in terms of their footballing ability and their mentality as they appeared to have no stomach for the fight against opponents that I believe had lost their last eight home games.

Mike, having done some checking, I think you’re spot on about your first game. Here’s the details I could find about your first live City game;

11/2/56
Cardiff 1 Blackpool 0
Vearncombe, Stitfall, Sherwood, Harrington, Malloy, Baker, Walsh, Kirtley, Ford (1), Hitchens, McSeveney
Att. 36,019

That game is significant for me as well. It was played six days after I was born and was the first Football League game City played in my life. My first ever City game was not as grand as another case of Alf Sherwood having Stanley Matthews in his pocket though. It was a Welsh Cup tie against Pembroke Borough played at Ninian Park three days earlier in front of a crowd of 4,549, but, at least my debut saw us win 9-0 with Ford getting four of them, while Gerry Hitchens weighed in with a hat trick – Colin Baker and John McSeveney scored the other two.

By: Dai Woosnam

Dai Woosnam — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:15:17 +0000

Apols for that use of ‘sensationally’ just then. I meant of course ‘gratuitously’.
Simple words escape me nowadays.
DW.

By: Dai Woosnam

Dai Woosnam — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 11:10:42 +0000

Having just sent a post (held for moderation), it occurs to me that the Argyle vlog perfectly embodies the old Screws of The World strapline: ‘All Human Life Is There’.

For instance in this current episode, the chaps demonstrate how they use lavatory paper…!! Yet there is nothing sensationally scatological about it.
DW

By: Dai Woosnam

Dai Woosnam — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 10:42:44 +0000

With Mike mentioning Kernow, it gives me an opportunity to tell him that I have started the day the best way I know by watching the new episode (just dropped) of my favourite football vlog of them all… I find it such a life-enhancing watch… sharing their near delirium when Argyle took the lead at Stockport (fans next to Jack losing their balance in the celebration and literally collapsing with mirth)… and yet I find myself being comforted by the stoic way they accepted defeat via those two late Kyle Wootton goals.

Facing triumph and disaster and seeing them the Kipling way. I truly find this vlog a wonderful metaphor for life… and how to live it.

https://tinyurl.com/b3jkec3u

This wonderful unlikely band of men now have my everlasting devotion… and they ain’t all ‘Janners’… they contain at least two men who will sing ‘Trelawny’ with the tears running down their cheeks…

And God alone knows what a trick cyclist would make of it, but I find myself watching Kipper play Barker at pool… a game I have zero interest in, and indeed do not even understand its rules.
I find myself shouting at my telly to their resident savant of these modern day Chaucerian (footballing) pilgrims, ‘Speak up Sam Down* please. I cannot hear you over the general pub/football stand hubbub…’

Am I losing my mind? Expecting an answer from my telly? ChatGPT hasn’t got that far just yet… though give it time, I guess.
*if only Sam could speak as clearly as he does here on Talksport…

https://fb.watch/F0dkNztAFA/?fs=e

TTFN,
Dai.

By: Michael Herbert

Michael Herbert — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 08:51:38 +0000

I listened to the radio commentary for this one while doing some domestic jobs so your excellent and well balanced account was especially welcome. I am not surprised that you were complimented by the web commentator. It was also a timely reminder about web tv. As an away fan living in Cornwall I have been relying on Sky for live matches and had forgotten that 3.00 pm matches might be available. Old age perhaps? Hope it doesn’t affect you as you approach your 70s. Next year will see me hit 80 all being well. I saw my first live City match aged 8 with my dad. He took me to see the famous Stanley Mathews playing for Blackpool but I came away as a Trevor Ford fan as he scored the only goal. Hope I’ve remembered that correctly!
Happy birthday
Mike