A 1-1 draw last night between the Championship’s two bottom clubs, Luton Town and Plymouth Argyle, was probably the best outcome for Cardiff City ahead of Saturday’s visit to Home Park to face an Argyle team that has beaten Liverpool and a defensively strong Millwall team 5-1 in their last two home games.
Seeing as we have a draw and four defeats to show from our trips to teams in the current bottom seven so far (the one point coming at Stoke where our performance was far better than the ones seen at Derby, Hull, Luton and Portsmouth), I can’t be too optimistic about our chances of getting anything from what looks a crucial game in our bid to stay up.
One reason to feel that we may be able to get something out of the match though is that Plymouth will be in action again at 12.30 on Saturday after their game last night finished at about 10pm. We, on the other hand, will have had a full week to prepare for the match – that should mean that we’ll be the fresher of the two teams and the hope would be that we can make that count in the game’s closing stages.
This makes it essential that we do not get a repeat of the appalling starts that have seen us go two down inside the game’s first quarter in our last three Championship away fixtures after also conceding early at Middlesbrough in the one before that.
One thing’s for sure, City’s attitude has to be much better than it was at Portsmouth last week where, not for the first time in away games against teams neat the bottom of the table, we looked intimidated by the occasion.
Moving on, here’s the latest quiz, answers to be posted on here on Sunday.
60s. With a name which hardly evoked mental images of Devon’s varied landscapes, this player signed as a youngster for the biggest footballing rivals of the place he was born in. As it turned out, the debut he made for them as a teenager was to be the only game he played for his first club and it was only when he signed for Plymouth for four years that he could ever call himself a first team regular. He helped in a promotion for Argyle while he was with them, but he was always likely to be an understudy at his next club, on the other side of the country, which represented a slight step up the footballing pecking order at the time (just as it would do now). He never made it to ten league appearances for his third club and it was the same at his fourth, when he returned to the west country, despite a drop down the divisions. Again, he was an understudy, this time to someone who did not miss a game in his first season at the club. Eventually, he dropped into non league football as he returned to somewhere close to his birthplace to represent Robins that played in a place with a zoo – who am I describing?
70s. From memory, the word “gangly” could have been invented for this Yorkshire born forward who began his career close to water in the red rose county. As an aside, four out of his first five teams are either former Football League clubs or, in one case, a team that did drop out of the league but have since returned. Plymouth, his second club, were the exception and he played more times for them than any other team in a career lasting eleven years. His third team played in white and were something of a boom club at the time he signed for them, while his fourth team had climbed to a level they’ve never come that close to matching since then. Towards the end of his time with this club, there were two loan moves, the first was to play for a place that was in the news during last summer for the most unfortunate of reasons, while the second was to play for one of two Californian sides he represented. Next, there was a permanent return to the City of his birth, but only for one game. He stayed in Yorkshire to play in red for a short while and finished up back in America, possibly listening to the Beach Boys. Who is he?
80s. Given his non league beginnings, signing for what could be called respiratory organs to play in a humble Football League team’s midfield must have seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity, but as our man’s career developed and he worked his way through his twenty two clubs, in three different countries, it probably seemed as if he was on a road to nowhere. Plymouth were his eleventh club and, although he got nowhere near a hundred league appearances for them, he still played more games for them than all but one of his other clubs. Late on in his career, there was a highly improbable loan move to Spurs, but can you name him?
90s. “Not the Persil” command from person in charge of washing Plymouth’s kit? Doubt it was him mind! (5,7)
00s. Given his surname, you may have expected this Southampton born forward to have joined Merthyr during this decade from, say, Lincoln City, Oxford United (who he did play for earlier in his career), Carlisle United or maybe even Cardiff City, but, as ir turns out, it was Plymouth Argyle, who is the player in question?
10s. Which two Plymouth captains from this decade are currently working at Cardiff City?
20s. Walk on part for food provider maybe?
