Slightly Ominous Plymouth Board Statement

[QPR Report]

Plymouth Official Statement

THE Plymouth Argyle Board of Directors released the following statement at 7.30pm on Wednesday, February 18, 2009.

"Today, we conducted our regular monthly meeting of the Argyle Board of Directors.

"During the course of the meeting, we held talks with the manager in which the deep concerns of the Board regarding the team's position in the Championship were fully aired.

"The Directors believe that Argyle staying in the top two tiers of the league is paramount for the future of the club and will do all in their power to ensure that situation endures."

Statement ends

[cogster]

.....cue Rab 'C' Sturrock being shown officially as 'offski'

[QPR Report]

Guardian/Simon Burnton: on Plymouth

Pilgrims' regress leaves Sturrock sweating on second-tier survival
After a spectacular slump in form, a change must come soon for Plymouth. The only question is whether it is a change in luck, or a change in management

Their form is bad, but not the worst in the country at the moment: Chester City have lost the last six and not won in 10; Cheltenham Town have lost the last four and not won in nine. Plymouth have only to go back eight games to find a victory. But what is interesting about the Pilgrims is what came before.

While the other struggling teams have spent the whole season scrapping among their division's also-rans, not long ago Plymouth were competing with the cream of the Championship. When they beat Cardiff 2-1 on 22 November, one of the best performances of their season so far, they were seventh, outside the play-offs only on goal difference. "We wanted to give the fans something to cheer about," said their striker Rory Fallon after that game. "We wanted to show them how well we can play and give them a great game. I think we did that." "Pilgrims on the play-off march with Mpenza," bugled the headline in the Daily Mail.

Since then they have played 16 games. One win, four draws, 11 defeats. If they were on the play-off march with Emile Mpenza they have been on the route to relegation without him – the Belgian international, a high-profile pre-season signing earning a rumoured £10,000 a week, has started one game since and appeared in one more as a substitute. They are three points away from the relegation places, with the worst goal difference outside the bottom two.

After Tuesday's 3-1 home defeat to Crystal Palace the board issued a statement giving Paul Sturrock, their increasingly embattled manager, limited support. "We held talks with the manager in which the deep concerns of the board regarding the team's position in the Championship were fully aired," it read. "The directors believe Argyle staying in the top two tiers of the league is paramount for the future of the club."

A good result is very clearly in order, but having lost their last two games to Charlton and Palace, the next two - at home to Sheffield United tomorrow and a trip to Wolves a week later - look far from enticing.

"When we beat Cardiff, everything looked to be going well," says Chris Errington, a football writer for the Evening Herald. "We had a good spell which coincided with Paul Gallagher arriving on loan from Blackburn. But then the goals started drying up for Gallagher, and the confidence has eroded from the team as they've struggled to score goals.

"When things were going well they were getting their noses in front and hanging on to the lead – Sturrock's teams have always been very hard to beat when they get into a winning position. But at the moment they can't get into a winning position."

Sturrock's history – he is the man responsible for Plymouth's place in the Championship, having all but secured promotion during his first spell at Home Park before moving to Southampton in March 2004 – makes the situation more complicated. "A lot of people think he should go, but you're never going to hear 'Sturrock Out' chants," says season-ticket holder Toby Jones. "Nobody can bring themselves to have a go at him because he's such a legend."

"He would absolutely have gone by now if it wasn't for his last spell," says John Lloyd, another season-ticket holder and editor of the fanzine Pasty News. "But after January, what is the point of getting a new manager who then can't change the squad? I still have faith in Paul Sturrock that he's going to get us out of this mess."

Today Sturrock signed the Palace midfielder Carl Fletcher, who turned down a move to the club in the summer, on a one-month loan. The signing addresses the most obvious hole in the squad: Luke Summerfield, the 21-year-old son of the assistant manager, Kevin, has perhaps prematurely become a stalwart of the club's midfield. "That's been the main problem," says Jones. "The strikers aren't great but they get no service, the defence isn't bad but they get no protection."

If memories of three months ago make Argyle fans a little green round the gills, they should avoid looking back a full year. On 23 February 2008 they beat Burnley 3-1 to go fifth, Peter Halmosi scoring twice. That team is but a memory now. It started breaking up last January, when Sylvan Ebanks-Blake went to Wolves for £1.5m, David Norris to Ipswich for £2m and Dan Gosling, the man whose FA Cup goal in the Merseyside derby was memorably missed by ITV this month, to Everton for the same fee. Last summer Halmosi joined Hull for £2m. The last 12 months could be seen as a long story of gradual decline.

A change must clearly come soon. The only question is whether it is a change in luck, or a change in management. "Our confidence is not what it was, but the spirit in the team and the will to work remains the same," goalkeeper Romain Larrieu told the Herald this week. "I'm absolutely convinced these lads have the fight to go on and dig us out of the position we're in now. We just need our luck to turn."