It's A Point, Stanley!

Argyle 0 - 0 Accrington Stanley

Attn: 6,509

Gilmartin 5 (Cole 7), Berry 6, Nelson 7, Branston 7, Charles 7, Cowan-Hall 5, Hourihane 6, Blanchard 4 (Young 7), Bhasera 8, Murray 5 (Harvey), Reid 5.

Subs not used: Williams, Wotton, Lowry, Gurrieri.

A scrappy game that was littered with injuries, time wasting and mistakes.

A bore 0-0 draw would be the best way to describe this game; Accrington came with a game-plan to waste as much time as possible and would fall to the ground injured at the drop of a hat.
However, there was a serious injury to Stanley player Nicky Hunt and the game was stopped for 10 minutes while he received on-the-pitch emergency aid from the medical staff. The latest news from the hospital is that he will make a recovery.
That incident should not detract from the awful time-wasting tactics of the Accrington players, with Craig Lindfield getting injured off the pitch but crawling back on to stop the game and receive treatment. Disgraceful!

As for Argyle, John Sheridan gave debuts to Anthony Charles at left-back and to striker Reuben Reid, who formed a strike partnership with Ronan Murray.

Argyle didn't get out of the blocks quick enough and allowed Accrington to control the early stages, with Onismor Bhasera (who is likely to move to a big Championship club very soon) heading off the line following a Stanley corner.

Accrington players went down injured at the drop of a hat, the 'injuries' always occurred when Argyle had some momentum going forward, funny that.

Argyle keeper Rene Gilmartin was replaced by Jake Cole after picking up a proper injury.

A horrible, scrappy, mistake-ridden first half full of time wasting.

No changes for the second half.
Accrington continued with their time wasting, helped along by a poor ref.

Hunt then collapsed in a heap after jumping for the ball but this time the injury was serious, he was surrounded by several medical staff and thankfully was ok to be carried away on a stretcher and received a standing ovation from the fans.

Reid had a chance but aimed too high and troubled the seagulls sitting on the roof the Bard Park End.
The ref signalled 11 minutes of injury time and in the closing seconds Cole made a great save by tipping over a free-kick from James Beattie (remember him?)

A horrible, scrappy, mistake-ridden game, full of time wasting and injuries.

On the plus side it's a point and a clean sheet and Sheridan remains unbeaten as Argyle manager.

On the down side, what an awful team Accrington are, content to spoil a game of football by falling down injured too easily, Hunt's injury aside.

Charles had a steady game, soild but unadventurous, he rarely crossed the half-way line and isn't going to be an over-lapping full back.

Bhasera played well, Cowan-Hall played well in patches but it was the defence who took the honours with Branston, Nelson and Charles looking solid.

Reid looks over-weight and slow, however, he did get into some good positions and could score a few goals for us.
Murray is good with the ball at his feet but he and Reid were starved of service which meant they were not involved much in the game.

Luke Young replacing Blanchard got the team moving forward.
Blanchard playing in midfield worked against Morecambe, especially with an early 2-0 lead, but it didn't work in this game when we had to go searching for goals.
Young's passing got the team attacking but like most of the game (and this season) the final ball is always lacking or a player makes the wrong choice.

Onto the next game.

Man of the match: Bhasera.

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