Day 50, the penalty

Another round of the FA Cup.  Sheffield United of League 1 (it's the third division) hosted Plymouth Argyle of League 2 (that's the fourth division) in the second round of the Cup competition.

It's always an opportunity for the lower league opposition to bite the backside of the team further up in the hierarchy.  And with the only relatively slight differences between the quality contained within the lower divisions it is much more likely that there is a result that doesn't reflect the teams positions.

However it wasn't Argyle's day.  They were presented with a penalty opportunity shortly after the start of the second half, and when Reuben Reid stepped up to take the kick it should have been the lower team that took the lead.  Reid shot to the right, the keeper dived to the left, the ball sailed past the wrong side of the top right corner of the goal.  There was a mighty roar of hilarity from the home fans, and then on with the game.

Oddly for United they were playing two up front.  This was the result of a substitution at half time.  Many of the fans are not old enough to have seen such a thing.  Two strikers on the pitch has been unheard of for many years, and in fact there is a worn out strip of grass in front of each goal where the normally isolated figure has been gently moving backward and forward like a plastic table football player.

There was a foray forward, a player fell over in the box, and the referee now gave a penalty to the home side.  No United player had appealed for a penalty and neither had the home fans, but the referee seemed to think it was one so let's take it.  Jose Baxter made no mistake and scored.

There was some more relatively threatening play from the home side.  Jamie Murphy was tripped outside the penalty area, kept on his feet and tried to play on but eventually fell over.  The referee gave another penalty to United, again with no significant appeals.  It was a free kick if anything.  The referee then booked a player for protesting, he booked the wrong player.  Again Jose Baxter stepped up to take the penalty, and again scored.

Here is Baxter about to take the second penalty.

Argyle now didn't really have much of a response although they tried to press United.  Argyle left themselves exposed to the extent that they allowed Baxter to demonstrate how good a forward he is in presenting him with an opportunity to get a hat-trick.  He of course missed a sitter.  He isn't a striker.

Baxter was replaced by Florent Cuvelier late on in the game.  Cuvelier has been missing due to injury since probably sometime before the corn laws were repealed, although given that he is young enough to run around like he did I suspect my memory is at fault.  He popped up in all sorts of places and looks to be a decent quality player, all be it against a now shambolic opposition.  Cuvelier then did some great work and provided the assist for Mark McNulty to score a goal from open play.  If it wasn't already over for Argyle then this will have had their fans now thinking about the immense journey home with no chance of reward.  It was also satisfying to score a proper goal and have the feeling that the win was deserved.

The bite-sized takeaways from this game:
The officials for this were as poor as for many league matches down here in the lower reaches.
Plymouth Argyle got the worst end of the decisions.
Goalkeepers jigging sideways up and down their line doesn't do them any favours.
Playing two strikers cheers up the crowd.
United look slightly better when playing lower league teams - sometimes.
It was quite cold.

Hello the next round draw!

***Edit***
Having seen the replay of the incidents I can see I was wrong.  They were penalties, soft maybe, but they were the correct decisions.  Who'd be a referee!