Parkway Look For A Spark in Trophy Test
Parkway v Melksham Town | Match PreviewBy Jack Hobbs
Plymouth Parkway are set to put their league woes behind them as they welcome Gosport Borough to Bolitho Park in the Isuzu FA Trophy this Saturday.
The Yellows fell to a second successive loss on the road losing 2-1 away to a struggling Yate Town leaving Parkway sat in 20th place.
Speaking on last Saturday’s disappointment, manager Chris McPhee said: “We’re very disappointed with the outcome of the game.”
“Obviously the timing of the goal that we conceded (in the final minutes) seems to be a little bit of a regular occurrence at the moment, conceding late goals.
“It’s costing us points and it’s something that we’ve spoken about this week. We’re putting things in place to try and ensure we’re a little bit more consistent in the closing stages of games – little bit fresher and a little bit more focused in those moments.
“It’s something that we are trying to address as a group, collectively.
“We see it quite regularly across the different levels of football, where a club will go through a phase of conceding or scoring late. Liverpool have scored a lot of late goals recently, and they’ve picked up results that potentially have been undeserved performance wise.
“We’ve gone the other way, where we’re conceded in the closing stages, and we’ve lost points that again some of our performances haven’t deserved. You look back at the Wimborne game where we were fantastic for 75-80 minutes, and then a massive decision goes against us, and we end up losing the game despite rallying with 10 men and almost getting an equalizer in our own way.
“It’s the frustrations and the fun of football in the closing stages of games and that’s why people love football, because anything can happen.
“On the reflection of the Yate game, we felt that first half that we didn’t really get going, we weren’t able to get hold of the ball and move it as much as we’d like. The second half, I felt we did a little bit better.
“I felt that we were a little bit more organized out of possession as well, trying to get pressure to the ball out the pitch. The way we played in that second half, dictating the possession and the goal we created was fantastic.
“The way that we moved the ball and were patient, and we must have made 11-12 passes together before James (Watts-Barciela) whips in a great ball for Cruis (Nyadzayo) to head home.
“At that particular moment, we felt that we were on top. It was the way that we like to play. I was expecting us to continue to do that, continue to use the ball, continue to be patient, but just in terms of how the game went, that didn’t materialize.
“Yate went a little bit more direct and we were a little bit disjointed in our defending and invited a couple of set pieces.
“Unfortunately, the final one ends up in the net which is a punishment and it’s another realization of us having to be more resilient and cleverer in the closing stages of games so we can go and get the winning goal in those last and those last minutes of games rather than conceding it.”
Parkway welcome Gosport on Saturday as they look to put their unfortunate league form behind them.
The Boro are sat in 8th place in the Southern Premier having won four, drawn two and lost three of their opening nine league games.
It was a historic cup run in the FA Cup last season that really got Parkway’s league campaign going and McPhee is hoping a similar run in the FA Trophy could help initiate the fire in The Yellow’s season.
“A result could absolutely get us going”, said McPhee.
“The very next game, whether it’s a cup game or a league game, is another opportunity to build some momentum, get the right result, get the right performance, build some confidence, and get a win because it’s been a long time coming.
“Going into the FA trophy, which is a fantastic competition, it’s nice to go into this game on weekend without the kind of pressures or worries of the league.
“We’re trying to qualify for the first round proper in a fantastic competition which we’d like to do well in, because we feel as though we let ourselves down in the FA Cup.
“It’s a chance for us to have a good little cup run and enjoy the buzz of a very good competition come Saturday.”
Parkway have already been dealt a blow for the Gosport fixture with starting centre back Taylor Scarff set to miss out through suspension.
“We put an appeal in for Taylor’s red card, and it’s been denied which is absolutely unbelievably”, said McPhee.
“We put in the appeal on three counts, and they were all denied.
“It just goes to show that even when referees make mistakes, because that’s what it was, we’ve seen the evidence that it was a mistake and he shouldn’t have sent him off, arguably it shouldn’t have been a penalty.
“Even when these mistakes are made, and there’s an opportunity for the governing body of these referees to put it right and make up for it, at this level, it doesn’t happen.
“It almost makes it pointless, us complaining or pointing out that these mistakes can be overturned like they can in in the top leagues.
“I think that if that decision was made on a Saturday in the Premier League, that’s instantly overturned, instantly, not even one of those decisions that takes seven or eight minutes, the referee goes and looks and goes, ‘actually I’ve got that massively wrong’.
“It’s not a penalty, not a red card and we go on and win the game because we were doing exceptionally well.”
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