A Kick where it hurts

A week ago Paul Sturrock berated his team after loosing 2-1 at home to Norwich. Glen Roeder’s men were in truth to strong for the Devon side and ran out comfortable winner, but Sturrock decided to use the good performance of Norwich and turn it on his head as he accused his players of lacking passion.

In his post-match interview Strurock said some of his players should never play for the club again and weren’t fit to win the shirt,. Now that’s strong words from fans, from a manager it’s as bad as it can get. You can bet those players concerned were let known for their short falling.

A week on and Sturrock’s harsh words has transformed into a motivation pep talk and Plymouth have won two on the trot, both away from home and both against last season’s play-off defeated team Watford and Crystal Palace.

Now yes both of these teams are in a slight decline after last season, and both will certainly struggle to repeat what they achieved. But their fate was no-where near as bad as Plymouth’s.

Now after the back-to-back wins Sturrock has something to build on with his depleted team. After what was a truly dreadful summer in terms of transfers the team-looked odds on to be sent packing into League 1.

This of course could still happen, let it be known two wins don’t make a season, well unless your Manchester City. But it is something for them to build on. The one thing I don’t like seeing is team who have struggling basically condemn themselves to relegation because of their form, a bit like Derby County in the Premiership lasts season.

Plymouth’s early season form had a taste of this inevitability of relegation and that after loosing there best players during the summer there season was always going to end in disappointment. But now after two wins out of two they can look on hopefully towards a season that might end in disappointment but that they will certainly fight for.