Captain Fantastic produces another Home Park classic
After Joe Edwards wrote another page of his epic Argyle story, Rob McNichol looks into the moments that shaped Argyle's glorious encounter with Sunderland on Saturday...
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When does something become a classic?
Can you anoint a TV show that has had one good series as an all-time great? Once a song hits number one can you tell whether or not we will be singing it in a few decades’ time? At what point does recency bias give way to misty-eyed nostalgia?
It matters not. It had not got to 6pm on Saturday, 14 September, and there were already some mutterings of ‘this could go down as a classic, you know?’ about what had occurred before us that afternoon.
By the way, no-one was saying that at 4pm. No-one clad in green and white, anyway. In a first half in which visitors – and league leaders in an embryonic Sky Bet Championship table – Sunderland scored a single goal from a disputable penalty, they had undoubtedly been the better side. Argyle were perhaps trying to force things, not retaining the ball well enough, and although just a goal down, were second best to that point.
Half-time can be a big time, though. I think plenty in the ground were expecting changes, but Head Coach Wayne Rooney stuck to his guns, and with his starting 11, and the Pilgrims set about producing one of the finer second periods Home Park has seen in some time.
The Greens equalised when Morgan Whittaker fizzed in a shot which Anthony Patterson brilliantly tipped against the bar, only to see the ball hit defender Dan Ballard and fall into the net.
Sometimes seasons turn on such a moment. It was a tremendous – if temporary - save by Patterson, but imagine he gets more on it and the ball goes over the bar, or Ballard is not following in for the ball to ricochet in. Maybe Argyle’s heads do not raise, maybe the decibel level of Home Park starts to fall, and the already confident Sunderland stroll to victory.
This, though, is real-life sport, and not a mawkish Gwyneth Paltrow movie. There is no alternative reality. By the time the game ended, it was about sliding on knees and not Sliding Doors.
Ibrahim Cissoko, directed to be more direct, had played a part in the build-up to the equaliser, and then struck the bar with a dipping effort. Then, Ryan Hardie won and converted a penalty to put Argyle in front, and a turnaround victory looked on.
Headlines started to be written, the Green Army started to plan their victory pints route, and then – of course – Sunderland levelled the game and pre-emptive pride was punctured.
The goalscorer was Romaine Mundle, who had, during the second half, become the focus of ire from the Green Army, after a dust-up with captain Joe Edwards in front of the Portcullis Legals Lyndhurst Road Stand. The odd contretemps, in which Mundle seemed to leap, back first, into Edwards as the pair lay entangled on the pitch. Soon, team-mates of the pair had become involved, and spice further added to the game’s mix.
Curiously, the referee cautioned Mundle and seemingly innocent bystander Kornel Szucs. It is hard to work out who was more fortunate. Edwards had presumably been mistaken for his defensive colleague, and the fact that he was later booked was not missed among Sunderland circles. However, Mundle got away with a wild tackle in the early going, being simply warned about his conduct rather than shown a yellow card, so it is probably even stevens on that front.
That, though, was exactly how the scoreboard read when Mundle conjured a ball through a forest of legs and into the corner of the Argyle net, right in front of a packed away end, full of Sunderland fans who had made the (joint) longest trip in the EFL this season. They had come to this game probably expecting to win and retain their 100% record to that point, but such was Argyle’s comeback, they were probably happy with the point they expected following Mundle’s goal.
Not so.
Who could it be but Edwards, a man who had twice before scored against Sunderland for Argyle, popping up when it mattered to get the winner.
The goal had the lot: it was in front of the Babcock Devonport End, injury-time, a winning goal, but most important of all was the goalscorer’s identity.
No-one does a Player of the First Half-Dozen Games award, but were we to go to the polls at this early stage, Edwards would be short odds to win the prize. Six weeks shy of his 34th birthday, the skipper has been subject to the usual ‘can he still hack it?’ queries from people who see merely numbers and not the evidence of their eyes.
If this is what over the hill looks like, then take me to Haytor and let me free wheel down. It feels like not only is Joe belying all thoughts of slowing down, but he actually seems to be getting better.
Before the game, he was the subject of the match-day programme’s feature interview, and discussed his motivations, and the fact that he feels physically on top of his game perhaps like never before. Another question asked Joe to pick out some career highlights, and naturally games such as Hull City at the end of last season and promotion-attaining games came up.
Now, there could be another one to add to the Joe Edwards Mix Tape.
“It's probably another one of those days which goes alongside some of the ones we've had,” Joe said in his post-match press conference.
“The importance of it is not necessarily as big as some of the others because of where they were in the season, but in terms of the game, in terms of our season so far, in terms of the atmosphere and everything - that was amazing.
“The cliché is ‘it’s only three points’, but I think it's a massive three points for us at this stage of the season. I think we'd have been really disappointed coming in with a 2-2. It’s a brilliant, brilliant feeling again.
“We came out [in the] second half and the whole place was transformed. The atmosphere was amazing. The fans really got behind us and, the boys put in the shift that we needed to do to get ourselves back in the game.
“The success we've had in the five years I’ve been here has been down to our home form, because of that and how we play.
“The tempo that we played in the second half, the fans came with us. Then once the fans come with us, we always feel like we're going to score.
Asked about his ongoing battle with Mundle, Edwards was classy and gave some insight into how he set about his task of trying to quieten the lively Sunderland winger who, despite the catcalls he received, was probably the visitors’ best player on the day.
“He's a really good kid,” said Joe. “He's got a lot of talent and is playing some really good stuff at the minute. We watched clips of him and we know his threat, but we also know there's a little side to him where you can maybe get into his head a little bit. A man of my age and speed is not the same as his at the minute.
“I've got to find different ways to try to compete against him. I think it was a good battle. I think he did really well for a period in that second half, then I think we got into him a little bit and did the job that we wanted to. Fair play to him, he scored their goal and at that point I was really, really gutted.
“I shook his hand at the end of the game, and I think we both could respect each other in terms of the game we played.”
The respect Joe is held in by the Green Army could not be any higher. Should approval ratings be sampled, his would be rightly soaring. The image of him celebrating this goal is bound to be one for every montage going, and if you want to know what it means, as the great Barry Davies once said, just look at his face.
“I'll be honest,” said Joe, “it doesn't get much better. That feeling is something that I'll never get over.
“I feel good. I just feel I'm in a good place at the minute. I feel really fit - mentally, physically, I'm feeling good.
“It’s the reason you play football, that buzz that I get. It's why I'm still running around like a lunatic!”
