[themaclad]

Plymouth Argyle v Preston North End
Home Park 16/3/2024

Home Park is a football stadium in Plymouth, England. The ground has been the home of EFL Championship club Plymouth Argyle since 1901.[4]

After undergoing considerable development in the 1920s and 1930s, the ground suffered heavy damage in World War II. It reopened in time for the resumption of the Football League in 1945, and underwent further improvements in the 1950s, including the installation of floodlights and a new double-decker grandstand. The ground remained relatively unchanged until 2001, when construction of three new all-seater stands began.[5] Temporary solutions saw the stadium become all-seater in the summer of 2007,[6] before the Mayflower Grandstand, the oldest part of the ground, was redeveloped in 2019.

The stadium's record attendance was in 1936, when 43,596 spectators watched the club play a Second Division match against Aston Villa. The record average attendance for a single season, 23,290, came in the 1946–47 season.[7] The stadium was selected as part of England's 2018 FIFA World Cup bid by the FA in December 2009.[8][9] The ground has played host to England youth internationals, and a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup match between Saint-Étienne and Manchester United in 1977.[10] Home Park has also hosted Rugby union and athletics, and live music in the summer, with Elton John, George Michael and Rod Stewart among the acts who have performed at the ground.[11]



They keep saying Home Park is a tough place to go

Looking at those directions it's easy



Only been once, this man Mark Leonard scored.He only scored twice whilst wearing a North End shirt this effort counted during a 4-0 defeat





LAST TIME OUT





FORM GUIDE

ARGYLE 7 PNE 10

IN FORM



Obvious danger man in Whittaker

THE BOSS

IAN FOSTER

James Ian Foster (born 11 November 1976) is an English football coach and former professional player. He is currently the head coach of EFL Championship club Plymouth Argyle.

https://www.pafc.co.uk/

https://pasoti.co.uk/forums/plymouth-arg...-forum.30/

https://www.not606.com/forums/plymouth.73/

CULTURAL STUFF



Plymouth Castle was a castle built in the early 15th century to defend the town and harbour of Plymouth in Devon, England. By the end of the 16th century it had ceased to have any military function and fell into disrepair, being almost completely demolished by the 19th century. Only a small fragment of an outer gatehouse remains.

History

The coat of arms of the City of Plymouth show the four towers of Plymouth Castle with the saltire of Saint Andrew. The motto, Turris Fortissima est Nomen Jehova means "The strongest tower is the name of Jehovah".
At the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, Plymouth, then known as Sutton, was too small a settlement to warrant fortification, but a motte and bailey castle was built at nearby Plympton.[1] As the value of the natural harbour, Sutton Pool, and the size of the town increased, so in 1377, a murage grant was received to fund its fortification. The exact date of the construction of the castle itself is uncertain, but following a French raid on Plymouth in August 1403, King Henry IV ordered the prior of Plympton and the abbot of Tavistock to further fortify the town with walls and towers. No finance seems to have been forthcoming from the Crown and Edmund Lacey, the Bishop of Exeter, later granted indulgences to those who made contributions towards the cost of the project. Instead of town walls, the defences took the form of a quadrangular castle with four towers. It was not the seat of a powerful baron or a royal constable like a traditional castle, but it was commanded by the town's mayor and the defence of it was in the hands of the aldermen, each of the four wards of the town being responsible for one of the four towers.[2] These are the four towers represented in the city's coat of arms to this day.[3]

In 1542, the antiquary John Leland visited Plymouth and recorded that: "On a rokky hill hard by it [the mouth of the harbour] is a strong castel quadrate having a eche corner a great rounde tower. It semeth to be no very old peace of worke".[4] During the Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549, the castle provided a refuge for the town's officials. Although the castle was manned again in preparation for the Spanish Armada in 1588, Francis Drake obtained royal funding for a modern artillery fort further south on the eastern end of Plymouth Hoe, which superseded the castle as the main defence of the harbour. During the English Civil War, Plymouth declared for Parliament and was besieged in 1643 by Royalist forces; the castle was again made ready for defence but saw no action. The castle was later used as a prison, then as a workhouse and finally as a source of building material for the expanding town.[1]

Surviving remains
A small section of the castle fabric survives in the Barbican area of Plymouth, located in Lambhay Street, at the head of a flight of stairs leading down to the Mayflower Steps on the quayside. It is thought to be a section of an outer gatehouse called the "South Port". The remains consist of a short length of thick rubble wall 3 metres high, with a central semicircular projection, the remains of a turret of the gatehouse. It is a Grade II listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument.[5]

TENUOUS LINK TIME

On the way to Plymouth you have to go through the West Midlands birthday of Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant

It is a little known fact that he wrote about a journey to the South West on the 4 symbols album



Track was called M5 to Devon

And she's driving the M5 to Devon

[themaclad]

Who’s Available?


After limping off in North End’s defeat to Stoke City, midfielder Ben Whiteman will be missing for at least the next few weeks.

PNE will be boosted, though, by the return of right wing-back Brad Potts, who hasn’t featured since Cardiff City away on 10th February.

Striker Ched Evans is the only other absentee, although the striker is now back on the grass, having recently had a clear out in his knee.

Opposition Focus


With nine games left of their season, Plymouth Argyle will be looking to pick up valuable points to move themselves into a more comfortable position.

As things stand, they sit in the middle of a relegation battle and just three points outside of the drop zone, following their promotion from League One last term.

Morgan Whittaker’s 18 goals so far this season have helped them in their quest to stay up, however a total of 61 goals conceded at the other end has limited their progress.

Match Officials

Referee: John Busby
Assistant Referees: Richard Wild and Greg Read
Fourth Official: Carl Brook

John Busby will referee PNE for the third time this season on Saturday, following the away victory against Huddersfield Town and draw at Millwall.

In total this season, Busby has taken charge of 27 matches, showing 109 yellow cards and one red.

MACS VIEW

On the road again were will we be when this one is called off, what will be the reason this time a second Tsunami in the Bristol area on similar lines to the one in 1607, will the Spanish Armada actually make it to Plymouth or will be caught in a rerun of the War of the Roses battle in Tewkesbury in 1471 who knows with a 6am start it means a long day.
Take a point and will end up with an arse the size of Brazil

[themaclad]

Plymouth Argyle 0 Preston North End 1 Millar

Plymouth Argyle line-up: Cooper; Pleguezuelo (Devine, 61), Phillips, Gibson; Edwards, Randell (Waine, 81), Houghton, Miller (Sousa, 53); Whittaker, Bundu; Hardie. Subs not used: Hazard, Scarr, Wright, Galloway, Roberts, Issaka.

PNE line-up: Woodman; Storey, Lindsay, Hughes; Potts (Stewart, 19), Ledson, McCann, Brady (Cunningham, 88); Frøkjær; Osmajić (Millar, 7), Keane. Subs not used: Cornell, Woodburn, Holmes, Whatmough, Seary.

Attendance: 16,646 (1,068 PNE fans).

Referee: Mr J Busby.

Th longest away trip of the season has been done and dusted from home back to home clocked up 640 miles up at 3.45am bak home at midnight, job done with three points. Nearly got slammed into by a early morninggdriver near the Motorway exit in Preston luckily I was awake and actually paying attention at that time of the morning a fairly close avoiidance of a prang.
Strensham 9am stroll round adjacent area in the early morning sunshine, once we hit Devon it rained and given we arrived at the ground a full 165 minutes before kick meant a soggy stroll around the park. Managed to find Plymouth's main supplier of narcotics in a shelter on the park playing music of the raggae persuasion and had a tab which appeared to have most of Columbia in it.

Row X which meant a hike up 20 plus rows atleast we were dry. Military Band, national anthem well sung and the ball delivered by absailing marines top stuff.

Four changes for us, two iinjured one ill, within 20 minutes we had lost Osmajic and Potts which in way worked to our advantage, Millar annd Stewart replaced them and it was Millar who created chaos all afternoon with the Argyle backline.
The Canadian shouuld have put us one up, we appeared to have ballsed the chance up but the ball ended up with the King of Denmark Frokjaer he flicked the ball over the defence Millar in on goal went with his right foot screwed it wide.
Argyle had plenty of the ball didn't really do a lot with it. Took the lead just before the break took the lead of all people Lindsay crossed the ball from the left, Keane headed on and Millar beat Cooper from a narrow angle, keeper is possibly a bit unlucky as the ball bounced just in front of him.
Argyle should have been level at the break second hase play cross into box and Bundu unmarked six yards out didn't hit the target.
Early Cooper save in the second half fro a Storey header lead to anther Argyle chance although it did come after some pinball defending by North End, Whittaker 10 yards out, he hit it well didn't hit the target.
We then proceeded to create chances which we missed with great regularity. Stewart nearly got his first goal hitting the outside of the post from 20 yards.
We nearly came to rue those chances a shot from distance beat Woodman flashed narrowly wide, home keeper Cooper thought it was in as did most in the away end. The home side claimed a late penalty having had the hindsight of seeing it this morning Hughes got the ball.
Argyle's under pressure manager was getting grief from his own fans whilst their ex gaffer had a better day

Plymouth Argyle head coach Ian Foster told BBC Radio Devon:

"I didn't think over the course of the first half period we were under any massive pressure from Preston North End.

"I felt we were quite unfortunate to be behind at that point, it's a game that we've dominated possession-wise but we just haven't found opportunities in which we can get the equaliser in the second half, albeit there's a stonewall penalty for us on Ryan Hardie.

"Having watched it back it's really disappointing that the referee hasn't seen it, or he has seen it and decided it's not a penalty.

"The players have given everything, there's no give-in in the players, they fought to the very end, we know how important it is for us to get points on the board and we're utterly disappointed to come away with no points."

Preston manager Ryan Lowe told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"It's not a happy return, it's a game of football and we've come here to do a job and get points and that's what we did.

"It was nice to see a few people and come back, and it's extra special when you get three points.

"I thought the lads were fantastic from start to finish.

"Losing Emil [Riis] this morning to a sickness bug, then to lose two important players in the first 20-odd minutes, I thought the lads who came on equipped themselves fantastically well and were excellent from back to front."

[themaclad]