I am not alone in saying that I had not expected this result.
After a dismal performance at Rotherham a week ago the last thing that Argyle fans wanted was a home game against one of the form teams in League Two.
However supporters do not choose the fixture list and promotion contenders Shrewsbury Town made their way down to Plymouth in form and fully confident of collecting three points. The Shrews left Devon with their tails firmly between their legs after Argyle put in a performance that shocked League Two.
A Paul Wotton goal, his first since his return to the club, gave the Pilgrims all three points and lifted them out the relegation zone to the jubilation of majority of the Home Park crowd.
Argyle manager Carl Fletcher made two changes to the side that lost at Rotherham. Luke Young made way for full league debutant Joe Lennox on the right wing whilst Warren Feeney returned to the starting line up in place of Alex MacDonald.
From the off, one of the changes nearly resulted in a goal. Warren Feeney was inches away from lashing home a loose ball, but beat the post as well as Neal in the Shrewsbury goal. Nick Chadwick then opted against putting his foot through the ball and instead controlled, took on a defender but sadly placed his shot straight at the keeper.
Then, from out of nowhere, Argyle took the lead.
Quite how Chris Neal did not claim Paul Wotton’s curling 30 yard free kick remains a mystery to everybody in Home Park, but the keeper somehow managed to allow the ball through his hands and into his goal when he looked set to make a routine catch. Not that the Green Army cared one bit as they celebrated the first goal on home turf for more than five hours!
The Pilgrims made it to half time unscathed and when they came out of the second half I honestly expected Shrewsbury to throw the kitchen sink at us and equalise, but this was not the case. Argyle were dominating (yes dominating!) the Shrews and should have extended the lead further first through Juvhel Tsoumou’s one-on-one chance and then Robbie Williams floated free kick that was just begging to be headed home.
Alex MacDonald, fresh from the substitute’s bench then cracked the adjournment of post and bar from 20 yards as Argyle continued their search of a second goal to put the game to bed.
It was only a matter of time before Shrewsbury started attacking though, and with about 10 minutes to go Argyle dropped deeper to defend and Salop put to test the Green defence. How Argyle made it through the final period without conceding was nothing short of a miracle, the defending was brave and strong, but Shrewsbury are a strong attacking force and twice when they looked odds on to score they were denied by Argyle keeper Jake Cole, who was in amazing form all game.
The four minutes of added time were agony for Argyle fans, who were forced to watch Shrewsbury take corner after corner as Argyle failed to clear their lines. The Shrews looked to have got a point with virtually the last kick of the game, but Marvin Morgan hit the bar instead of the back of the net.
There are nine games to go now for Argyle to retain football league status. Should they perform like this for most of those, we should be ok. I’m not getting too carried away just yet though, the battle at the bottom is so tight, if we lose on Tuesday night we could be bottom of the league again.
By Plymouth Argyle blogger Sam Barker
[ad_pod id=’writer-2′ align=’right’]
