Plymouth Argyle will face a tough test on Tuesday Evening
when they will challenge promotion contenders Bradford City at Valley Parade. From Saturdays disappointing 3-nil defeat at
Highbury to the most experience team in League Two Fleetwood Town, the Plymouth
Argyle players and management staff are staying in the north of the country to
reduce the amount of travelling. If Carl
Fletcher had opted for the team to travel to the games individually the squad
would have covered 1500 miles whilst spending 28hours on the road exploiting
the countryside.
With the players situated in West Yorkshire for a couple of
days, Carl Fletcher has organised for his squad of players to train at Football
Conference North club Guiseley on Monday, for their preparation to Valley
Parade on a winters Tuesday Evening.
In comparison with Saturdays results in Npower League Two,
Plymouth Argyle and Tuesdays opponents Bradford City were both on the losing
side. Bradford City went down 1-nil to
Devon Rivals Exeter City, at Valley Parade, with the only goal coming from
Jamie Cureton, whilst the Pilgrims had a very baffled afternoon losing 3-nill
at the Highbury Stadium. The
disappointing afternoon didn’t stop there.
Captain Darren Purse the former Millwall defender was sent off with a
straight red card for violent conduct. The central defender had only been
booked minutes earlier for an elbow. The
red card that Purse has received will mean that he will miss the next three
games with suspension. The games that he
will miss will be Bradford City and Chesterfield in the league and Oxford in
the Johnstone Paint Trophy in the Area Quarter Final taking place at Home Park.
Carl Fletcher will be forced into making one reinforced
change to the squad with Darren Purse absent through suspension. Maxime Blanchard will be the favourite to
partner Curtis Nelson in defence with the French man also the preferred player
to captain the side. Rene Gilmartin will
also be competing with Argyles number 1 Jake Cole. The Irish man has played the last two league
games for Argyle with him only making he’s Npower League Two debut at home to
Gillingham. Rhys Griffiths will have no
part to play in the Bradford encounter due to the Welshman being injured. He has stayed in Devon whilst the rest of his
teammates are travelling around the North West.
Argyle will also come up against one former Pilgrim and
teammate in Will Atkinson on Tuesday Evening at Valley Parade. The former Argyle player was on loan to the
Devon Club from his then parent club Hull City.
The Yorkshire born midfielder made 25 appearances in all competitions
scoring 4 goals, for the Pilgrims, with the first one coming on his Argyle
debut in September, in the 4-1 defeat to Rotherham at Home Park. Atkinson signed for Bradford City at the
beginning of the 2012-13 season after he spent the last part of last season on
loan to the Bantams.
Available:- Jake Cole, Rene Gilmartin, Durrell Berry, Curtis
Nelson, Jamie Richards, Maxime Blanchard, Onismor Bhasera, Scott Griffiths,
Alex MacDonald, Paris Cowan-Hall, Andres Gurrieri, Joe Lennox, Conor Hourihane,
Luke Young, Jamie Lowry, Jared Sims, Jordan Copp, Nick Chadwick, Tyler Harvey,
Matt Lecointe, Guy Madjo.
Unavailable: - Darren Purse (suspended), Rhys Griffiths
(injured), Paul Wotton (back injury), Robbie Williams (stomach muscle injury),
Ollie Chenoweth (on loan to Frome Town), Jed Harper Penman and Isaac Vassell
(both players on loan to Bideford Town).
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