Rain gods hand hapless Argyle a second chance
Our proud city gets more than its share of precipitation, especially in the long winter months.
But the deluge of rain on Saturday afternoon brought smiles to many inside Home Park.
It saved Argyle from a crushing home defeat, while robbing Barnsley of what would have been three well-earned points.
The South Yorkshire side were leading 4-1 when referee Gavin Ward decided to abandon the game.
At the time, it was a borderline call. Away from the centre circle area, many parts of the pitch were still playable.
But Ward clearly felt the conditions were a threat to the players' safety.
And his decision was vindicated as, shortly after both teams had returned to their dressing rooms, another cloudburst saturated the sodden pitch even further.
Even those from Barnsley, who were understandably disappointed at the turn of events, had to concede that the game could not have been completed.
Argyle have bemoaned their misfortune on several occasions during the first part of this season.
Take, for example, their last gasp 1-0 defeat at Leicester City only the previous Saturday.
But fate was with the Pilgrims on Saturday, after they had put in one of the worst defensive displays seen at Home Park in some time.
Even taking account of the conditions, which worsened considerably as the game went on, Argyle were shambolic at the back.
Manager Paul Sturrock has repeatedly had to chop and change his defence this season, because of injuries, suspensions or unavailability.
And that has usually resulted in the Pilgrims conceding goals – and lots of them.
Centre-back Kari Arnason was ruled out on Saturday by a groin strain, so Krisztian Timar was a late call-up.
And Darcy Blake returned from a three-match suspension to play right-back in the continued absence of David Gray, who has a hip injury.
Now, Timar and Blake should not take all the blame for what occurred, as Barnsley ran riot at times.
Collectively, the Pilgrims were second best all over the pitch to the visitors.
But the way Barnsley repeatedly sliced apart Argyle was alarming, to say the least.
It is no exaggeration to say the Tykes could have scored six or seven goals before half-time.
Yet it had started so promisingly for the Pilgrims, with them taking the lead in the ninth minute.
With heavy rain falling and the floodlights already on, midfielder Karl Duguid grabbed the opening goal.
Alan Judge slipped as he crossed the ball into the penalty area but still succeeded in picking out Duguid.
He darted in front of Barnsley right-back Rob Kozluk and fired into the net.
That was as good as it got for Argyle, though, as Barnsley defied the conditions to play some superb, fluent football to take a 4-1 lead by the break.
They drew level in the 12th minute with a goal from striker Daniel Bogdanovic.
The Malta international was, inexplicably, not picked up by any of the Argyle defenders.
His header lacked power as he stretched to reach the ball, but he still succeeded in putting it past wrong-footed goalkeeper Romain Larrieu.
Barnsley went 2-1 up in the 16th minute after some dreadful defending from the Pilgrims.
Blake and centre-back Shane Lowry horribly miscued their attempted clearances and the ball broke to Tykes' midfielder Emil Hallfredsson.
His fierce left-foot shot deflected off Blake and flew into the net, with Larrieu stranded again.
Larrieu made a fine save from striker Andy Gray's delicate chip before Barnsley added their third goal in the 24th minute.
Argyle left-back Gary Sawyer failed to deal with a pass from Hallfredsson to Hammill.
And Hammill made him pay, as he beat Larrieu with a low, skidding shot to put the Tykes firmly on top.
As the rain continued to pour, so did the goals for Barnsley.
Defender Ryan Shotton headed home for a corner taken by Hammill in the 32nd minute.
The ball hit the inside of a post and was cleared away by Duguid.
But the assistant referee on the Lyndhurst Stand side ruled the ball had already crossed the line before Duguid could get here.
Shortly afterwards, Sturrock sent on winger Craig Noone as a substitute for Yoann Folly.
Noone showed some zest, but Barnsley continued to create scoring chances.
Gray shot narrowly wide on one occasion and forced a fine diving save out of Larrieu on another.
Then, in first half stoppage time, Bogdanovic stabbed the ball against the base of a post.
The rain fell even harder during the interval and it was no surprise that the ball started to stick in pools of water when play resumed.
Even so, both teams had early chances, with Larrieu making a low save from Hammill, who really should have set up Bogdanovic for a simple tap-in.
Then, in the 55th minute, striker Alan Gow latched onto a fine pass from Noone but his attempt was smothered by Barnsley keeper Luke Steele.
Larrieu then kept out another shot from Gray using his feet after good play from Bogdanovic.
Water was now splashing up as the players ran around on the pitch and what Barnsley must have feared finally happened in the 59th minute.
One attempted pass stopped short of its intended target and Ward immediately blew his whistle and abandoned the game.
What a let off it was for the Pilgrims.
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