Pulis' in form Plymouth at the Turf

Last updated : 03 February 2006 By Tony Scholes
Paul Wotton
When we were beaten 1-0 at Home Park they were between managers. Bobby Williamson had been sacked and Jocky Scott was in temporary charge, and it his only win during his four match stint as caretaker.

They were down in the bottom three when we arrived in Plymouth but the win took them above us and left us in the relegation places, but it was some time before they began to climb the table and only in the last month have they moved away from the bottom group. They are unbeaten in their last four league games, and the last three have been won.

Pulis said he wanted to do some squad strengthening when he first got there, but it hasn’t proved as easy as that and the only permanent addition to the squad is Lilian Nalis who arrived on a free transfer from Sheffield United last month.

Nalis had failed to establish himself at Bramall Lane after signing from Leicester in the summer, and after a short loan spell at Coventry is now with his fourth Championship club in under a year.

Besides Nalis, there have been two further loan signings although Jason Jarrett has been and gone back to Norwich. The other is defender Elliott Ward, brother of Palace central defender Darren, who arrived from West Ham.

He’s been there for over two months now but their attacking options have been reduced with Blackburn’s Matt Derbyshire having returned to Ewood Park in the first week of the year as well as Scott Taylor having been sold to Franchise.

There were rumours, via the local press in Plymouth, that Pulis was looking at signing his former Stoke forward Gifton Noel-Williams, with even a swap deal involving Nick Chadwick being suggested, but nothing came of it, if indeed there was ever anything in it.

Pulis did want to bring players in during January but he was unable to mainly because of Plymouth’s position geographically and also because of their strict wage structure. He is though hoping to bring in four new players on loan next week when the loan window opens.

Their recent run of form means a win at Burnley tomorrow, and Plymouth would be above us. They are unbeaten in their last four away games, two of which have been won, at Cardiff and Crewe. Their other away win this season was at Reading on the opening day of the season, they remain the only team to beat Reading.

Click HERE to see all Plymouth’s results this season.

Team News

Despite beating Southampton in midweek, Plymouth are expected to make two changes. Tony Capaldi returns from suspension and he will almost certainly replace Akos Buzsaky whilst fit again Paul Connolly should be preferred to Hasney Aljofree, after playing the last half hour on Tuesday.

If that is the case, Plymouth will line up: Romain Larrieu, Anthony Barness, Matthias Doumbe, Elliott Ward, Paul Connolly, David Norris, Paul Wotton, Lilian Nalis, Tony Capaldi, Micky Evans, Nick Chadwick. Subs from: Luke McCormick, Lee Hodges, Chris Zebroski, Hasney Aljofree, Akos Buzsaky, Bojan Djordjic.

Click HERE to see the full Plymouth squad.

Wayne Thomas was mysteriously missing from the squad that played at Brighton on Tuesday and the club are now reporting there is a slight doubt concerning his fitness. Given that Frank Sinclair will be ruled out of the next two games, and that John McGreal is now walking a suspension tightrope, it might well be that we keep him in reserve if he is not fully fit.

There’s little else Steve Cotterill can do with just the same players available to him and it is likely that it will be the same eleven who started at Brighton on Tuesday.

That would see the Burnley team as: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, Garreth O’Connor, Micah Hyde, James O’Connor, Graham Branch, Michael Ricketts. Subs from: Duane Courtney, Chris McCann, Danny Karbassiyoon, John Spicer, Gifton Noel-Williams, Marc Pugh.

Last Time

It was the last home game of last season and not a brilliant game, but one we won with two goals in the closing minutes from a Jean-Louis Valois penalty and James O’Connor. There is more on this and other previous home games against Plymouth in Curtain comes down at Turf Moor which is in our look back section.

The teams that day were:

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Frank Sinclair, Gary Cahill (Michael Duff 90), John McGreal, Mo Camara, Dean Bowditch (John Oster 68), Micah Hyde, Tony Grant (Jean-Louis Valois 75), James O’Connor, Graham Branch, Ade Akinbiyi. Subs not used: Danny Coyne, Lee Roche.

Plymouth: Luke McCormick, David Worrell, Graham Coughlan, Matthias Doumbe, Peter Gilbert, David Norris, Paul Wotton, Akos Buzsaky, Scott Taylor (Tony Capaldi 78), Micky Evans (Steven Milne 66), Nick Chadwick. Subs not used: Romain Larrieu, Keith Lasley, Bjarni Gudjonsson.

Previous 20 Seasons

Season

Div

Ven

Result

Att

Scorers

1992/93

2

h

0-0

8,676

.

.

.

a

2-1

5,905

Pender(2)

1993/94

2

h

4-2

10,488

Eyres Monington Peel(2)

..

a

2-3

10,595

Heath Philliskirk

.

PO

h

0-0

18,794

.

..

a

3-1

17,515

Francis(2) Joyce

1996/97

2

h

2-1

9,602

Nogan Eyres(pen)

.

.

a

0-0

6,289

.

1997/98

1

a

2-2

3,006

Eyres(pen) Creaney

..

h

2-1

18,811

Cooke(2)

2004/05

C

a

0-1

13,308

.

.

.

h

2-0

12,893

Valois(pen) O'Connor

2005/06

C

a

0-1

11,829

.

Click HERE to see all our results against Plymouth, the first being a 2-1 win at Home Park in 1930.