Cold comfort away from home for Argyle

Argyle came within two minutes of deservedly taking something home from the Valley after another performance which promised much but delivered nothing.

Already without three defenders, they lost two more to injury – as well as midfielder Antoni Sarcevic – during a game played at a relentless pace which was settled by Karlan Grant’s late goal.

Grant had already netted once, in the 12th minute, levelling Graham Carey’s opener three minutes earlier, and Argyle had preserved parity thanks to a penalty save late in the first half, when Matt Macey thwarted Lyle Taylor.

Argyle had showed three changes to the side that started out the previous week’s 1-0 home defeat by Blackpool, or, to put it another way, two changes to the side that had played for more than 90 minutes against the Seasiders.

Scott Wootton, who had substituted the injured Niall Canavan in the opening seven minutes seven days earlier, continued in that role, while Ash Smith-Brown, whose previous eight matches this season had been at left-back, came in for the injured Joe Riley on the opposite right-hand side.

The other switch to personnel was through choice, with Ruben Lameiras, an eye-catching substitute against Blackpool, preferred to Stuart O’Keefe in an attacking midfield combination between Graham Carey and Joel Grant.

A measure of the Pilgrims’ injury problems which had already ruled out Canavan, Lionel Ainsworth, Jamie Ness and Conor Grant could be gauged by the presence of some unfamiliar names on the team sheet under ‘Substitutes’ – Calum Dyson, Peter Grant and Alex Fletcher – and no Ryan Taylor.

For the full match report go to https://www.pafc.co.uk/news/2018/september/charlton-2-1-argyle/