Team: Ikeme, Stewart, Leigertwood, Gorkss, Connolly, Faurlin, Hill, Ephraim (Cook), Taarabt (Buzsaky), Simpson (Vine), Priskin.
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Ramage, Borrowdale, German.
Attendance: 12,013
Plymouth were awful and are doomed I’m afraid. I don’t really recall a shot in anger ? It was a thoroughly deserved 3 points, once we’d scored there was only going to be one outcome. Adel’s passing in the last 2 home games has been absolutely superb and Faurlin’s all-round game is worth the entrance fee alone. The kid doesn’t know how to stop running, even in injury time he was chasing back and executing a perfect sliding tackle on the right midfielder. The clean sheet was an added bonus. We defended well in all areas, long may it continue. Six points from danger which gives us a bit of breathing space but we need to repeat the last two games on the road, firstly at ‘Colin’s’ former home and then at the ‘fakes’ next Tuesday. The Palace game should be a bit tasty ! If I remember correctly, we haven’t won there since ’89. I bet ‘Colin’ would love it if Jordan’s orange face suddenly turned white. Bring it on !!!
Three incidents summed up Paul Mariner’s Plymouth. After we had scored, they then kicked off, tapped the ball forward and then returned it back to a central midfielder, who then lumped the ball in the direction of the Ellerslie Road Stand. The ball went straight out and into the tenth row from the touchline. They actually repeated this when they kicked off for the 2nd half and also after the second goal. I would like to know how Mariner got the job as he has never managed in this country before and had lived in the USA for about 25 years. If I was an Argyle fan I would be worried. Another great turnout by their fans (863), they will be missed next season.
ChrisPTenner
An unchanged Rangers side were looking to kick on from their win over West Brom. They started off quite positively, playing some quite lovely passing football. It wasn’t to last more than 10 minutes but it was almost like watching the golden era of October 2009 (or the new measurement, four Managers ago). After this, Argyle got more into the game and turned it into a scrappier affair. Despite this, Rangers were still clearly the better side whereas Plymouth were distinctly average and looked doomed for relegation. After 35 minutes, Priskin won a (in my opinion, others seem to disagree) dubious penalty. First view made me think that he was leaning into the defender who then moved, meaning he fell over. Others have said that he was hurled to the floor ! Taarabt immediately went to get the ball in his “it’s my penalty, I want to score” way, but to be fair, he dispatched it superbly into the bottom corner, sending the keeper the wrong way. Before half time, Gorkss had a wonderful chance to score. His header from a corner was heading to the top corner before Stewart inexplicably headed it over from a yard out ! The half time whistle was greeted by cheers, acknowledging another good performance from the R’s.
Just four minutes into the 2nd half, and Rangers got the game-deciding goal from Stewart, making up for his previous clearance off the line. A free kick was whipped in from Taarabt (from a similar position to where Buzz scored from on Saturday), met his head in the 6-yard box and flew past the keeper. We had various chances to really kill the game, but Simpson managed to miss an open goal after pushing the defender into the out-rushing goalkeeper, and somehow got away with it. Six points from two games. Well played Rangers and well managed Mr Warnock. Long may it continue.
Player Ratings:
Ikeme: 6 – His kicking was poor and didn’t really do much else.
Connolly: 6 – He coped with a minimal threat and produced a good left-footed cross from which Stewart blocked Gorkss’s header.
Gorkss: 7 – Better again.
Stewart: – Ditto.
Hill: 6/7 – Similar to Connolly, not a lot to deal with.
Faurlin: 8 – Instrumental again in the holding role. He’s gonna be some player !
Leigertwood: 6/7 – Weak link of the midfield but still played fairly well.
Ephraim: 7/8 – Again, taken off inexplicably. He played extremely well again.
Taarabt: 7 – Selfish and lost the ball too often but also produced moments of brilliance (e.g. that through ball to Simpson).
Simpson: 7/8 – Excellent again. ‘Sign him up, sign him up, sign him up’
Buzsaky: – He wasn’t given much pitch time. On one occasion he ran into Vine when both were potentially through on goal.
Cook: – I didn’t notice him do very much in his 15 minutes.
Vine: – See Buzsaky.
Warnock: – Viva la revolution. Now playing far better as a team.
Sam Phillipps
Nice reports I think it says everything that in your player ratings you didn’t even mention Priskin which I think is perfectly justified as you’d never known he was on the pitch-possibly the worst, laziest player i’ve seen in 25 years