The fanzine of the Argyle Fans’ Trust Welcome to WEMBLEY Play-off Special The Road to Wembley Issue No. 5 Price £1 1 Steve Dean needs help to keep Greens on Screen going If YOU can help, go to the site (address above) and email him ATD The Fastest Growing Independent Argyle Forum VERITAS VOS LIBERABIT WWW.ARGYLETD.COM 2 Kick Off Welcome to this special, souvenir editi on of the Grass is Greener. It’s been a funny old season, patchy and unpredictable but a superb performance on the last day at Greenhous Meadow fi nally saw Argyle cement their play-off place—a last-minute goal confi rming Wycombe as the semi-fi nal opponents. We’ve assembled a stellar cast of contributors to this issue: John Sheridan and Neil Warnock—Argyle’s managers now and then; Player of the Year and Club captain, Luke McCormick and we have reminiscences from Gordon Sparks and, of course, from you—the fans. Hope you enjoy reading it at Home Park, Adams Park and then at Wembley on 23rd May. We’re almost there. COYG! Photo- Dave Rowntree Celia Ellacott - Editor REMEMBER 1996… Trust News The Argyle Fans’ Trust has been busy recently. We have presented Luke McCormick with our Player of the Year Trophy. Luke won with 63% of the vote; Anthony O’Connor was runner-up with 12%. We held the fi rst of a regular pitch at the GTs’ Sunday boot sale. (Watch the AFT website for the date of our next one and how you can off er items to sell). Trust member, Rod Lampen, presents Luke McCormick We voted, once again, to sponsor the Youth Teams’ with the AFT Player of the Year Award Milk Cup campaign to the tune of £1,000. You can make additi onal personal donati ons by visiti ng www.argylefanstrust.com We conti nue to support the RBL and the poppy shirt fund but more is sti ll needed. Visit the website if you would like to help us reach our fi nal target. We have two major fun and fundraising events planned for the summer—a cricket match on Sunday 28th June and a 1940s’ tribute night on Friday 31st July (see leafl et, the website and email fundraising@argylefanstrust for more details). Finally, a menti on for Trust member, Lewis Ridge. In March, Lewis completed 30 years of watching EVERY Argyle match home and away. Congratulati ons to him on an amazing achievement and we hope to talk to him for the next issue of the Grass is Greener. For more on the Trust and to join, visit www.argylefanstrust.com 3 The Road to Wembley The Teams in the Frame by Sam Down Wycombe Wanderers Without wishing to tempt fate, Wycombe are the team heading into the play-offs on rather indifferent form. In spite of being in the top three throughout the season, they finally dropped out of the automatic promotion places with a gutwrenching 1-0 home defeat to Morecambe in their penultimate game. Despite a 97th minute winning goal at Northampton on the last day of the season, Bury’s win at relegated Tranmere meant that the Chairboys could only finish fourth, sneaking ahead of Southend to become Argyle’s opponents in the semi-finals. Until the turn of the year, Wycombe looked less like a side battling Southend for third place and more like a side battling Burton for the title. In January however, two of their best performers moved to higher division clubs. Tenacious midfielder, Josh Scowen and former Argyle forward Paris Cowan-Hall, who had both been on fire for the Buckinghamshire Club, were sold to Barnsley and Millwall respectively. Since then, Wycombe have slowly declined culminating in the last home game loss to Morecambe. Wycombe’s resilience will be critical from hereon. However, it should not be forgotten that they surpassed all expectations in getting to such a lofty position in the first place. Last season, they only survived relegation on the final day. It is notable that Wycombe’s away form by far surpasses their home form and they tend to do much worse in front of the floodlights—that could be a factor in the play-off semis! Aggregate score vs Argyle this season: Argyle 2-1 Wycombe Argyle will play Wycombe at Home Park on Saturday 9th May, ko 1945 with the return leg at Adams Park on Thursday 14th May, KO 1945. Southend United Southend are arguably the strongest team in the play-off shake-up and the one most to be feared. The Shrimpers missed out on automatic promotion on the last day with defeat at Morecambe, but have been on blistering form going into the business end of the season. 4 After two years in the job, Phil Brown has assembled a promotion-chasing side, their sturdiness in defence trumping even Argyle’s and with attacking players good enough to get the job done the majority of the time. Brown took over from former Argyle boss, Paul Sturrock, in April 2013 and, after consolidating the side to reach a play-off position last year, he went one closer this time, taking his side to the very cusp of automatic promotion. But will their good recent form be enough to see them through the play-offs? They boast the extraordinary record of not having conceded a home goal in the league since October and their goalkeeper Daniel Bentley was voted into the PFA team of the year. Southend are bound to be a very tough test. Aggregate score vs Argyle this season: Argyle 2-0 Southend. Stevenage Stevenage are another side who only seriously entered into play-off contention around Christmas. The first half of their season was spent bobbling around mid-table. While not glamorous, that would have represented acceptable consolidation for a side back in League Two after four years in League One: in his second spell at the Club, manager, Graham Westley, was not able to save them from relegation last season. Many Stevenage fans expected a period of re-building with a budget modest even for League Two. However, as the season went on and the side began to gel, it became clear that they were capable of surpassing the expectations of many. They go into the play-offs in solid form and with a mean defensive record. Westley is a marmite character. He has fallen out with numerous other managers during his career so far, including our very own John Sheridan in a row stretching back to the latter’s Chesterfield days, but he is clearly a man with a vision. You may not approve of their long-ball style and propensity for timewasting, but there’s no denying that they’re a squad who are eking the very most out of the ability they have. They also boast the penalty-taking record of former Green, Simon Walton. Aggregate score vs Argyle this season: Argyle 1-2 Stevenage. Stevenage will play Southend at the Lamex Stadium on Sunday 10th May, ko 1835 with the return leg at Roots Hall on Thursday 14th May, KO 1945. THE LEAGUE 2 PLAY-OFF FINAL IS AT WEMBLEY ON SATURDAY 23RD MAY, KO 1730 5 The Road to Wembley The View from the Terraces – Now and Then It’s been an odd season, for sure. In a promotion campaign there should be a buzz about the place and a rising crescendo of optimism and hope - but that is largely absent from Argyle this year. We appear to have landed in the playoffs almost by accident, without much momentum and with a manager who appears to have a distant relationship with the club and its fanbase. It’s been a campaign of ups and downs, with perhaps only a few matches that will live long in the memory - the two Exeter games, Portsmouth at home and Cheltenham away - maybe a couple of others if we’re being generous. But ultimately, promotion to a higher league and the slightly increased revenues that come with it are the only target that matters. Perhaps a successful playoff campaign will help to improve relations all round. We can only hope. John Lloyd Argyle’s two previous play-off campaigns felt very different. This one already feels unique, mainly because many supporters enter it in a curious frame of mind. The first time, under Shilton in 1993-94, it was after narrowly missing out on promotion with an exciting, vibrant, attacking side. So we were both deflated after the gloriously fruitless 8-1 at Hartlepool, but rightly hopeful. With Warnock in 1995-96 we were glad to be there after a strong finish to the season, with only three defeats in 19 games, and a manager who was the play-off king. We had expectation only tempered by the Burnley experience. This time, we qualify off the back of a strangely uninspiring, underwhelming and largely flat season. We have stumbled clumsily across the line through adequate servings of our own defensive competence plus generous helpings of ineptitude from other teams. Rather than hope or expectation, many of us are experiencing disbelief and relief. And the question is, if we have been jammy enough to get here, is there more jam to come, or just footballing justice? I will be seated rather than huddled on a packed terrace home and away. I’m older, more sanguine. It’s bound to feel different. But will I experience similar devastation to that inflicted by John Francis after a proud performance at Turf Moor had given me hope? Or the thundering euphoria of Paul Williams tearing away from the Barn Park End as we finished off Colchester? Right now I can’t imagine such extremes of emotion being generated by this season’s basement teams, lumpen old Argyle included.