Plymouth Argyle 2
Bolton Wanderers 0
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Plymouth 3-4–2-1
Cooper
Longwijk
Scarr
Galloway
Edwards
Houghton
Butcher
Mumba
Azaz
Mayor
Ennis
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Bolton 3-4-1-2
Trafford
Jones
Santos
Johnston
Bradley
Morley
Lee
Iredale
Dempsey
Charles
Kachunga
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Bolton can feel pretty hard done by after leaving Home Park pointless this afternoon.
The away team started the game on the front foot, taking the game to Plymouth with both Darius Charles & Conor Bradley having fair efforts on goal within ten minutes of kick off.
Not long after that came Bolton best chance of the first half when Kieron Lee looked to have opened the scoring with an effort from twelve yards out only for Bali Mumba to launch himself across the six yard box, making a last ditch block.
Argyle steadied the ship after that rocky start with Bali Mumba having a pot shot blocked and Danny Mayor making James Trafford pull off a routine save with a shot from distance.
Bolton were still looking the better team and misplaced Argyle passes were starting to be met with some moans and groans from the home support.
The moans and groans were replaced with celebration when Argyle took the lead on 34 minutes after some poor defending led to Niall Ennis beating his man on the edge of the box before taking the ball to the side of Trafford enabling him to slide In the opener with his left foot.
Argyle used the pause in play to make a tactical shift with Edwards & Mumba switching flanks as they tried to combat Bolton main attacking threat down the right hand side with Bradley.
The goal didn’t stop the general flow of the game, a scare for Argyle happened when Edwards & Cooper got too close together, the Argyle skipper headed the ball over his keeper which meant Cooper had to scramble back and dive on top of the ball just yards from his goal line and right before the interval Jack Airedale drilled an effort at goal from the angle of the penalty are but it went wide.
Half Time
Plymouth 1
Bolton 0
The second half started quieter and it looked as though Argyle had got to grips with Bolton although they weren’t posing much of a threat themselves.
And then, with around ten minutes to go came to pivotal moment in the match where Argyle’s superb goalkeeper Michael Cooper pulled off a point blank save from Amadou Bakayoko, deflecting the strikers effort onto the post with Argyle desperately managing to clear the rebound.
If that goes in then I’d expect Bolton to be more likely winners but it doesn’t and just before the ninety minutes are up substitute Ryan Hardie made in 2-0 and game over.
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Plenty of positives to take away for both teams.
For Argyle, the clean sheet is what gets them the three points, although for my money it was more down to the Goalkeeper than the back line. I’m not a fan of Nigel Longwijk, he goes drifting out of his position and is constantly trying to force things by getting on the front foot when it’s not always necessary. The win sees them 5th in the table and going along nicely.
As for Bolton. They were the better team here. I don’t think it’ll be often that an away performance like today’s finishes with nothing to show for it.
I think both teams will be in or around the playoff places come the end of the season.
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