The curse of the TV continues. I have taken a bit of time to think about what I want to write for this one. Someone commented recently about how I have always put a positive spin on things, so I am going to try and do that, but I was left with a very sour taste in my mouth last night.

Let’s start with the TV curse. I believe that is now three wins in 36 Sky games, we have won or a return rate of one in 13. I love watching the Town on TV but a small part of me wishes we weren’t ever on Sky again!

The difference this time, as with many things this season, is I don’t think it was a bad performance or that we didn’t show up. There were certainly things wrong with it, but it was a good game of football and a good advert for the third tier for the neutrals.

I would have to say that it was our worst performance of the season so far though and it came at a bad time. Whilst we have drawn three games, I believe we played well enough to win all nine of the first games of the season. Yesterday, I don’t think we did enough to win the game, but we probably didn’t deserve to lose either.

It continues our poor form against the top sides in the division (based on table not stature, as some Plymouth fans were mocking yesterday saying that they were a small club). Three seasons in a row now Plymouth have been battling at the top end, so we have to look at them as equal top six contenders. They hadn’t conceded a goal at home and they had played Bolton, Peterborough and Barnsley in that time, so it didn’t all come against the sides at the bottom of the table – they must be doing something right.

The frustration for Town when we look back is going to be that we really wanted to come through these games with five or six points to show that we mean business. I said it last week but throwing away a 2-0 lead to Sheffield Wednesday may prove the costliest. It would have meant we could afford a slip up but instead it put more pressure on the next two games. Now the Portsmouth game is virtually a must-win… and I fear that we won’t.

Our home record hasn’t been as strong and given our historical experience against these teams, and with the fans' relationship with Danny Cowley, I am expecting that we probably won’t get anything out of the game. Of course, I hope we do, but I am not as confident going into it as I have been in every game so far.

That would leave us net six points off the top and possibly in fifth given other results. We have seen this twice before. We are better when in front than playing catch-up. However there is a long way to go and do we really need to beat the big sides?

Hypothetically if we didn’t beat the top six but beat everyone else it would maintain our target of two points a game average. That would leave us on 92 points come the end of the season and that should be enough to seal an automatic spot. However, MK Dons finished third last year on 89 points, so it’s strange to think, but there is a chance it wouldn’t be enough.

We need to accept we will lose somewhere between seven and 10 games this season minimum. That means there are plenty of points still on the table, but those draws in games where we are dominating really need to become wins.

Taking points off the teams around us will be vital. A draw against Portsmouth would at least neutralise things at the top, even if it is a disappointing run of results overall. It would mean Sheffield Wednesday and Bolton have closed the gap and that is where I am most nervous. As impressive as Plymouth were, I don’t believe they have the squad to challenge the top two over the course of a season and will ultimately finish sixth or seventh.

My second frustration with the game was yet again a referee who is not up to the standard of League One now given the stature of the teams in it. I could question a lot of the decisions in the game yesterday.

I do agree with the pundits (I don’t think Jamie Mackie has much of a clue of how football works given his usual opinions) on the Sam Morsy tackle. I am not sure what our captain was thinking, but he was lucky not to see red. I hope Kieran McKenna has a word with him this week. His aggression is part of what makes his one of the top midfielders in the league, but that one was over the mark for me. He at least got a yellow.

The Plymouth one on Janoi Donacien was worse in my opinion. At least the ball was in the vicinity with Morsy’s foul, but Donacien had long cleared it before Ennis stomped on his ankle. The ref didn’t even give a yellow. The pundits completely excused him as a slip – I don’t agree, it was naughty and the game should have been down to 10 vs 10.

For me the Lee Evans was a yellow, it wasn’t a stamp, it was two players sliding in together with Evans’s foot slightly higher. Again the pundits seemed to be favouring Plymouth with their comments (the fact the presenter actually said ‘we are not picking on Ipswich’ meant that they clearly had been told they were!). His second one that he picked up a yellow for was fair enough. Whether he would have made the tackle had he been booked before we can’t really say for sure, I would hope probably not.

The Plymouth equaliser is one of those where refs are more afraid to make a call in the box. Would it have been soft? Maybe. Would it have been a foul anywhere else on the pitch? For sure. Time and time again the Plymouth players hit the deck when jumping for a header and every single time the ref bought it and gave them a free-kick, so why didn’t he when the same happened on Conor Chaplin? Unfortunately that’s three big incorrect decisions against us this year that have cost us six points.

Marcus Harness’s disallowed goal for no reason whatsoever against Barnsley cost us two points. Sheffield Wednesday’s equaliser being three yards offside cost us two points, and the goal being allowed yesterday cost us two points.

Credit to the Plymouth striker, it was a solid finish. Their second goal was also a quality finish. Nothing can be taken away from those strikes, but neither should have been allowed to happen. The first by the referee and the second was of our own making.

On to my third frustration. We have played a consistent and exciting style of football this season. We rarely go long and always play out from the back. It comes with risk but is exciting to watch. For some reason McKenna switched to a longer ball game yesterday. Time and time again Christian Walton looked long for Freddie Ladapo or for Kayden Jackson running behind. It worked on occasion, but often the ball came straight back at us.

I refrain from criticising McKenna as he is doing a fantastic job overall, but I am not sure why we did that yesterday. Then the one time we should kick it clear, George Edmundson makes an inexcusable pass straight to the Plymouth striker. The finish was great, but they shouldn’t have had the ball.

Edmundson was one of our better players last year, but he looks a little off the pace to me this season. He has done some good things – his run last week for the assist was exceptional – but he has given the ball away quite a lot at the back.

The other error yesterday, for the first time this season, was the substitutions. Kayden Jackson was looking dangerous down the wing and Freddie Ladapo had finally got his first goal, which would have been a huge confidence boost. I am not sure why Ladapo was therefore removed and Jackson sent to chase lost causes through the middle.

Tyreece John-Jules has been a fan favourite this year and I really like him. However, when we are under the cosh and at risk of conceding, he isn’t the best player to bring on. He doesn’t commit to the press and chase back like the other players. Most likely due to his age and experience. Therefore it left us under pressure when Plymouth progressed forward with the ball and ultimately ended up in them winning the game.

Gassan Ahadme needs some minutes, but he looked out of his depth when he came on yesterday. The jury is still out on that one.

We have to accept that controversial decisions will cost us goals this season, but we can put ourselves clearer in games so that they matter less. We had two great chances before the equaliser to double our advantage. That meant the first goal wouldn’t have the same impact on the game and we would have something to hold onto.

A draw would have been fair and it almost came when our new number nine, Christian Walton, towered clear of the defence in the final seconds and powered a header on target. It drew a save from Cooper in the Plymouth goal, tipping onto the bar, that Walton himself would have been pleased with. I am not sure a goalkeeper has ever scored for Town (that I can recall) so that would have been a great moment.

My final comment on the referee is the fact that the game ended with no Plymouth players in the book. It was quite a rough game and there were some naughty and mistimed tackles from both sides, but only Town players were getting booked. It left us unable to attempt tackles towards the end of the game, which helped lead to Plymouth having dangerous possession. Yet they could keep yanking Jackson back as they had no risk of a second yellow.

It is something the EFL really need to sort out, but Town also need to be wiser to it. If you make a niggly foul, you will get booked, so don’t do it unless it’s absolutely necessary.

That will complete by moaning for today. My positive spin would be that we were going to lose eventually and we cannot dominate every game how we have been. Even Liverpool and Man City have bad games sometimes. The performance wasn’t as good but it wasn’t bad either. The Ladapo goal is a positive and there was some neat passing play throughout the team that we can continue to build on.

The Portsmouth game on Saturday is now pivotal and I hope to be talking about how we picked up three points when I sit to write my next Viewpoint on Sunday.

There is a long way to go and we still look good to be fighting at the top, we just need to learn from some of the errors yesterday, and how to be wiser to the poorly state of officiating in league one.

Uppa Town

Saxonblue74 added 22:18 - Sep 26 Have to disagree I'm afraid. I didn't see it as a bad performance and certainly not our worst this season. Were there mistakes? Yes, a few but on the whole a decent performance against good opposition. I just hope that the confidence doesn't drain as quickly from our squad as it seemingly has from some of our fans!
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Saxonblue74 added 22:23 - Sep 26 .....also struggling to see where the Ref got anything wrong, in particular the "foul" on Chaplin. Could easily have stayed on his feet if he hadn't tried to buy the foul, had he done so he may have been able to carry out some defensive duty! All a game of opinions Scants, thanks for yours :-)
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scants_itfc_88 added 09:12 - Sep 27 Thanks for your view Saxon - and appreciate you acknowledging that differing opinions are allowed in football, because some people don't! My view on it being the worst performance this season was based on us not deserving to win (but not deserving to lose either) whereas I think we have deserved maximum in all other games so far. It was worst against a bar that had been set pretty high so it still wasn't a bad performance.

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slade1 added 10:14 - Sep 28 Again, as always, a very good read but.... I don't think it was a foul on Chaplin, in my opinion it was a bad decision by Chaplin to try and 'con' the ref. And it wasn't a bad performance at all, we played very well
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Europablue added 07:05 - Oct 3 There is a huge difference this season. There are no games where we are getting played off the park. There really does not seem to be a team that is better in this league. Our biggest opponent is the group of referees and linesmen. So far it has cost us two points against Barnsley, two against Sheffield Wednesday, and it's difficult to tell whether we would have gone on to win against Plymouth had the blatant foul on their first goal been seen by the ref. Even against Portsmouth, the ref tried to take it away from us with the second penalty, the first being fairly marginal from my view, the second was just ridiculous.

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