Monday, 31 December 2012

Bristol Rovers vs Plymouth ARGYLE-Match Preview


Plymouth Argyle are back on the road on New Years Day for their first of two consecutive away games.   

Carl Fletcher’s men will face a tough test away at Bristol Rovers who have newly appointed John Ward as manager after Mark McGhee was the fourth manager to be sacked in two years as Rovers boss.  The day Mark McGhee was sacked John Ward was all ready to make his way down to Plymouth to be appointed Director of Football, after he heard the sacking he turned the chance of assisting Fletcher down to peruse the position of Rover’s manager, this will be his second time of managing the Bristol based club.      

There will be another familiar face among the Bristol books, formally on loan to Argyle Tom Hitchcock has taken up the opportunity to go back out on loan to Bristol Rover’s, the Pilgrims opponents on New Year’s Day.  After being on loan to Argyle at the start of last season he was quickly released by then his club Blackburn Rovers in February of this year.   After the appointment of Mark Hughes at Queens Park Rangers, Hughes then selected Tom’s dad Kevin Hitchcock to become the goalkeeping coach at QPR.  Hitchcock followed his father footsteps to the club by signing a one-year contact with the London club on the 4th March 2012.

Following Argyle’s unbeaten run come to an end in their encounter against Wycombe Wanders at Home Park, they will be looking to put it right when the players take on Rover’s at the Memorial Stadium.  A mistake from midfielder Luke Young gave the Wander’s supporters a late Christmas present when he took too long to pass the football; Matt McLure calmly placed it into the far right hand corner passing goalkeeper Rene Gilmartin. 

The visitor’s to the Memorial ground have taken all three points over the past two season both from winning the game 3-2 after coming from 2-0 down. Will it happen again?

Zimbabwe international defender Onismor Bhasera is a doubt for the New Year’s Day clash with Bristol Rovers due to blurred vision.  The versatile player had to be substituted in the second half of the game on Saturday due to a clash of heads.  Another player that is a doubt for the encounter is Tyler Harvey.  Harvey was again substituted on Saturday with a slight calf injury.   For Captain Darren Purse he doesn’t know what fixture will be his last in a green shirt.  The 35 year old was put on the transfer list in late November to free up some money for other players to come in and help the club process in the right direction. 

Available: -Jake Cole, Rene Gilmartin, Ollie Chenoweth, Durrell Berry, Curtis Nelson, Jamie Richards, Robbie Williams, Maxime Blanchard, Darren Purse, Conor Hourihane, Paris Cowan-Hall, Luke Young, Jamie Lowry, Mark Molesley, Andres Gurrieri, Jordan Copp, Jared Sims, Isaac Vassell, Joe Lennox, Rhys Griffiths, Nick Chadwick, Matt Lecointe, Warren Feeney

Doubtful: - Tyler Harvey (slight calf injury), Onismor Bhasera (blurred vision), Paul Wotton (back injury)

Unavailable: - Jed Harper-Penman (on loan to Bideford Town)

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