We went our separate ways

Things have changed at Home Park though with a new board of directors and their appointment of Paul Sturrock as manager started to turn things round.

They won the 3rd Division in 2001/02 season with 102 points, and after an eighth place finish in the higher division in the first season they won that also last season.

That was won despite losing manager Sturrock who made the move along the south coast to try and work with Rupert Lowe at Southampton. Big mistake as any number of managers could have warned him.

Bobby Williamson arrived from Hibs just in time to see them lift the trophy and his first job was to strengthen the squad for the new season at a higher level. He did that on a return to his native Scotland and all of his five signings to date have come from clubs north of the border.

Former Blackburn midfielder Lee Makel was the first to arrive from Livingston and he has been a regular in the side. Then it was forward Steven Milne from Dundee, but the 24-year-old so far has been restricted to substitute appearances. He was followed by Motherwell midfielder Keith Lasley and he has started around half of Argyle’s games this season.

It was back to his former club Hibs next for Frenchman Matthias Doumbe, the former Paris St-Germain defender has also played in around half the games.

The fourth and last of his signings was Stevie Crawford, the Scotland international striker, who was signed from Dunfermline. He has played in most of the games and has found the net five times in the league. Along with captain Paul Wotton and David Friio he is the leading scorer.

The season got off to a good start and they didn’t concede a goal in the first three games and soon found themselves top of the league. A run of four successive defeats saw them drop from the top group and a mixed bag of results since has seen them around the mid-table area.

They are currently eight places behind the Clarets although with only four points less, yet only two weeks ago they were above us.

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

Plymouth could keep the same side that lost at Leicester last week although the good news for them is that defender Hasney Aljofree could be fit to return. He has played only two games this season in the league.

Matthias Doumbe has been nursing a head wound that required eight external and sixteen internal stitches and he is considered to be a doubt for tomorrow which would mean skipper Paul Wotton dropping back into defence id Aljofree is also ruled out.

Also expect Marino Keith to be pushing for a place, he was on the bench last week at Leicester after returning from injury.

The team last week at Leicester was: Romain Larrieu, David Worrall, Graham Coughlin, Matthias Doumbe, Peter Gilbert, David Norris, David Friio, Paul Wotton, Tony Capaldi, Micky Evans, Stevie Crawford. Subs: Lee Hodges, Keith Lasley, Lee Makel, Steve Adams, Marino Keith.

As for the Clarets – Steve Cotterill has hinted that one of the injured players could be back, but only one. We know that won’t be Danny Coyne (another six weeks is the estimation just now) and it won’t be Richard Chaplow. But it could be any one of John McGreal, Micah Hyde or Jean-Louis Valois.

Clarets Mad do believe that the player who could be set for a return to the squad is John McGreal but we will have to wait for ttomorrow.

But to avoid the guesswork for now we will assume that McGreal won’t play and if that is the case it will surely be the same side that has beaten Brighton and Millwall in the last two games.

That is: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Gary Cahill, Frank Sinclair, Mo Camara, Lee Roche, James O’Connor, Tony Grant, Graham Branch, Ian Moore, Robbie Blake. Subs: Paul Scott, Joel Pilkington, Mark Yates, Amadou Sanokho, Matt O’Neill.

Our last visit to Plymouth was in October 1997 in the Chris Waddle days, we were unbeaten in three games but still only had one win from twelve. Needless to say we were bottom, and Plymouth were above us only on goal difference.

So bad were things then at Home Park that the ground had no seats available with the home fans stood up at one end and the away fans at the other end.

A David Eyres penalty gave us an early lead but Plymouth equalised through Earl Jean just before half time. It went worse for the Clarets when Mike Heathcote put the home side in front just over a minute after the restart but Gerry Creaney equalised to give as a point in a 2-2 draw.

It turned out to be Eyresy’s last goal for Burnley, he played just once more for us before he was sold to Preston, apparently his career was supposedly over yet he still plays at the same level for Oldham.

There is one survivor from that match who will be on the pitch tomorrow in now Plymouth captain Paul Wotton, he is now just four games away from reaching 300 league appearances with his only club.

The teams were,

Plymouth: Jon Sheffield, Simon Collins, Paul Williams, Ronnie Mauge, Mike Heathcote, Paul Wotton, Martin Barlow, Earl Jean, Adrian Littlejohn, Carlo Corazzin, Chris Billy. Subs not used: Neil Illman, Jon Beswetherick, Paddy Wilson.

Burnley: Marlon Beresford, Chris Brass, Neil Moore, Lee Howey, Chris Vinnicombe (Paul Weller 53), Chris Waddle, Gerry Harrison, Mark Ford, David Eyres, Gerry Creaney, Paul Barnes. Subs not used: Andy Cooke, Michael Williams.