Plymouth Argyle's Ashley Hemmings told to keep expressing himself
PLYMOUTH Argyle boss Carl Fletcher has told winger Ashley Hemmings to keep on expressing himself.
The Pilgrims manager admits he doesn't mind if Hemmings, on loan from Wolves, loses the ball.
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Ashley Hemmings
Against title-chasing Southend at Home Park on Saturday, Hemmings didn't see much of the ball in the first half as Argyle went 2-0 behind.
But in the second, Argyle's midfield got Hemmings (pictured right) into the game and the winger spent the remaining 45 minutes trying to open up the Southend defence.
Argyle battled to an impressive 2-2 draw after goals from new signing Alex MacDonald and Nick Chadwick.
Fletcher said afterwards he wanted Hemmings to keep trying to take on defenders.
The Argyle boss said: "With Ash, teams are recognising what a dangerman he is and they make sure their right back is fully on his toes.
"I think Ash is disappointed if he doesn't beat his man every time he has the ball, but he doesn't have to.
"He only needs to beat him once, and it might be that once which gives us that little bit more that wins us the game.
"It's great to have that type of player – if he's doing the right things and the positive things and he's trying to beat his player and he loses the ball, we don't care.
"What we want him to do is go out and express himself.
"The lad's workrate and his desire to do well for the club you could see in the second half."
Fletcher praised his entire team for refusing to give up on the Southend game – and their previous match against Crawley Town.
Both games saw the relegation-haunted Pilgrims come back from being behind to snatch a late draw against two of the top teams in League Two.
Fletcher said: "It's easy, just to give up – it's easy just to throw the towel in, especially these days.
"But, even if you look outside football, you tend to find out more about yourself when things get tougher.
"The easy door to walk through is to chuck the towel in.
"We've got a bunch a lads who want to do so well for the club and it's a pleasure to be associated with them. The last couple of games at home have been tough."
4 Comments
by alabar1
Tuesday, February 07 2012, 3:58PM
“Eddie has said it all,we need to be positive and as supporters do just that,SUPPORT THE TEAM AND THE MANAGER,the greens WILL SURVIVE !!”
by WILFWASTHEMAN
Tuesday, February 07 2012, 2:45PM
“Eddie I like your positive attitude even if I am more of a sceptic about our chances of survival. I agree that we need to attack teams more - pulling skilful players like Hemmings deep to defend is not going to get us the wins we need. I wish like you I could relish the rest of the season I am fearful of it myself and wish I could match your optimism.”
by sensiblegreen
Tuesday, February 07 2012, 1:15PM
“Keep taking the medication Eddie.
You ain't been bottom all season by accident.”
by eddie_taylor
Tuesday, February 07 2012, 9:56AM
“When I saw the headline to this article, my first thoughts were, here comes the manager's curse again. First we had Lecointe with his hustling bustling style and how well he was doing (now on the bench), then we had Hourihane who chipped in with a couple of good games and the manager saying we could build a midfield around him (on the bench), the last to publicly receive the manager's plaudits was Young, he also was named Vitalfootballs player of the month for January (don't relegate him to the bench); all of these young men then saw a dip in form. I am sure all of them have good future prospects in the game, my point to Carl Fletcher is not to blow smoke up their bums too soon, but give them the just praise in private.
Hemmings seems to be in a slightly different class and capable of taking things all in his stride, a great catch for Argyle, albeit only until the end of the season.
The debuts of both Tsoumou and MacDonald, on saturday, showed that Fletcher is assembling a good squad, once all of the new blood have had a few training sessions and games in the side, I am convinced Argyle will start climbing the table. Fletcher will have to build on the confidence gained in our matches against Southend and Crawley, but he must get the team firing on all cylinders from the start, not just in the last quarter of the game.
Last week I stated that we should keep the ball down, whenever possible, and get in behind their defence, once we started doing that on saturday the game turned around and the rewards came. We must concentrate from the off and not make basic mistakes to give the opposition a 1 or 2 goal advantage. Their first goal came from an elementary disaster, when Bas passed the ball inside straight along the 18 yard box, there were options open to him, either belt it directly into touch, up field or as he did, take the worst case scenario and pass it inside, then he should have laced it as hard as he could. At least putting the ball out of play gives us a chance to regroup and defend. After the first goal Bas went on to have a good game.
I thought Juv and Chadders worked well together, but lacked any decent service in the first half. Alex Mac was like a breath of fresh air, although not tall he is powerfully built and knows how to put himself about in the box; both he and Chadders were fully alert right up to the end, in fact I thought we may even snatch a winner, but the 4 minutes of extra time seemd to go too quickly for us.
I am relishing the remainder of the season, provided Fletcher and the team approach each game with the right attitude, i.e. we are going to win them all, we can survive. Gone are the days when we a push-over at home, all we have to do now is be switched on from the kick-off and play to our strengths; play it on the ground to the wide men, Hemmings and Young, then let them loose to exploit the oppositions defence, because we have the forwards capable of latching onto anything delivered into the box.”