Report | Argyle 5-1 Millwall
Argyle’s biggest win in 17 months, a 5-1 victory over Millwall, put the gloss on one of the most seismic weeks the club has had in an indeterminate amount of time.
Plymouth Argyle, the club who lost to Burnley with five first-half goals less than a month ago, beat Premier League leaders Liverpool on Sunday. ‘There is bound to be a hangover,’ they said.
Well, nothing you can find over the counter in a pharmacy can match a 5-1 win over Millwall. The hair of the Isle of Dogs, if you will.
Argyle were superb, taking on a side on a four-game winning streak and bouncing them around Home Park at will. The Greens led 2-0 after ten minutes, with a Joe Bryan own-goal and a Ryan Hardie penalty setting the tone.
The second half began in similar fashion, Mustapha Bundu getting in on the action before Hardie bagged his second. Bryan scored to level up his own credit column on the night, but Nikola Katic grabbed a fifth to show the Greens were anything but toothless.
Argyle brought Nathanael Ogbeta, Victor Palsson and Jordan Houghton into the line-up for the game, with Palsson sliding into a back three alongside Maksym Talovierov and Katic, in front of Conor Hazard. Ogbeta played on the left of them, with Matty Sorinola on the right. Houghton joined Adam Randell in the centre of midfield, with the front three of Hardie, Bundu and Callum Wright continuing in situ.
With two teams coming into the game with momentum, it felt like the start was key, and it was Argyle who were out of the blocks first.
Even before the opening goal was scored, the Greens looked the sharper of the sides, working into some good areas, and it was no real surprise when they took the lead, although the manner was a little unusual.
One attack from Argyle had rather petered out, but as Millwall tried to clear, Houghton spotted the intention and intercepted. One sharp pass later, and Wright was away down the left. In the centre, Hardie angled a run towards the near post, essentially making Wright’s mind up for him as to where to aim the cross.
Hardie looked favourite to not only get there first, but to score. As it went, he missed his kick, but the full-back covering him was probably not expecting the Scotsman to do so.
It was in April 2013 that Joe Bryan last scored for Argyle, in a ten-game loan spell under John Sheridan in League Two. In his six weeks as a teenage Pilgrim, Bryan demonstrated a clear talent, which he has parlayed into a very good career, as expected. On this night, he unintentionally thanked his temporary former employer by deflecting the cross past his unwitting keeper, and Argyle had a sixth-minute lead.
It was Argyle’s first first-half goal since four days before Christmas, 12 games ago. Soon, the streak-busting Pilgrims were ending another barren run.
Not since the end of September, in arguably the most complete win of the season, against Luton Town, had Argyle led 2-0 in a game. Thanks to a now-familiar method, they did just that here.
For the third game in a row, a referee at Home Park pointed to the spot to award an Argyle penalty. This time, it was for Casper de Norre’s eagerness to beat Randell to a loose ball following Palsson’s long throw. De Norre succeeded only in cannoning his knee into Randell’s solar plexus, and it was time for another chance for Hardie to convert from 12 yards.
Hardie says he practises penalties every day in training. He is getting a fair amount of practice in games at the moment, too. Confident, and with every right to be, Hardie’s connection was low and true, and with only ten minutes played, Argyle were two up.
Millwall’s best moments of the first half, in their quest to narrow their deficit, came soon after Hardie’s goal. Mihailo Ivanovic headed a free-kick towards one of the posts, and Hazard stooped to ensure it was pushed round it. Not long afterwards, Camiel Neghli took aim from range, and Hazard’s tip over was excellent.
Generally, Argyle were in control, even if they did not pillory Millwall’s goal with chances in the remainder of the first half, which ended 2-0. At the interval, the key felt very much whether Millwall would react early in the second period; could Argyle, even with their recent momentum, react to being rocked by a narrowing of their advantage? And more to the point, what is the point of rhetorical questions?
As it happened, the only difference between the halves were that it took Argyle 11 minutes to score two goals this time, not ten.
The third goal came after Millwall may have thought that they had seen off a spell of Argyle pressure. A series of set pieces, each of which saw new set-piece coach Hubert Auer gesticulating from the edge of the technical area like a conductor without a baton, were seen off by the Lions, but when Hazard sent forward a targeted ball from deep, it found Palsson, who had stayed forward. His lateral header reached Bundu, who held off a player, pivoted, and sent in a shot to find the corner.
Argyle got another helping hand from the benevolent visitors when George Saville’s pass backwards to Jake Cooper fell the wrong side of the defender, and Hardie’s eyes lit up. He stole in, collected the ball and fizzed into the corner before you could say ‘long way back to Bermondsey’.
From there, it was time for that rarest of luxuries, the ability to rest some legs. Randell, Hardie, Ogbeta, Sorinola and Bundu all took their leave. There was also a nice opportunity for a returning player to get a few minutes; welcome back, Kornel Szucs – and at right wing-back, no less.
Millwall got one back with ten minutes to go, Bryan scoring this time for his own team, affecting the result not a jot, but annoying Argyle’s backline, for whom clean sheets will feel like currency. The fact that you know they will be really annoyed by that is a really good thing.
It annoyed them so much that Katic went up the other end and scored his first Argyle goal. It is unlikely that Hubert Auer’s revolutionary set-piece tactics include Katic scoring from a position sitting on his bum, and flicking out a leg to convert from the mother of all goalmouth melees, but who cares?
Scoring five, with a couple of them, however indirectly, from set-pieces?
Cometh the Auer, cometh the goals.
Argyle: 21 Conor Hazard, 3 Nathanael Ogbeta (2 Bali Mumba, 62), 4 Jordan Houghton, 9 Ryan Hardie (30 Michael Baidoo, 63), 11 Callum Wright, 15 Mustapha Bundu (28 Rami Al Hajj, 78), 20 Adam Randell (capt, 18 Darko Gyabi 62), 25 Nikola Katic, 29 Matty Sorinola (6 Kornel Szucs, 71), 40 Maksym Talovierov, 44 Victor Palsson. Substitutes: 31 Daniel Grimshaw (gk), 19 Malachi Boateng, 26 Muhamed Tijani, 35 Freddie Issaka.
Goals: Bryan og 6, Hardie pen 10, Bundu 53, Hardie 56, Katic 87
Booked: Randell 40
Millwall: 1 Lukas Jensen, 5 Jake Cooper (capt), 6 Japhet Tanganga, 9 Aaron Connolly (19 Duncan Watmore, 77), 15 Joe Bryan, 23 George Saville, 24 Casper de Norre (8 Billy Mitchell, 77), 25 Luke Cundle (11 Femi Azeez, 57), 26 Mihailo Ivanovic, 52 Tristan Crama, 56 Camiel Neghli (31 Ra’ees Bangura-Williams, 57). Substitutes: 13 Liam Roberts (gk), 3 Murray Wallace, 14 Ryan Wintle , 39 George Honeyman, 45 Wes Harding.
Goals: Bryan 80
Attendance: 15,453 (502 away)
Referee: Jeremy Simpson
