Here are the player ratings of Plymouth Live’s Argyle reporter Chris Errington from the Pilgrims’ shock 1-0 Emirates FA Cup third round win against Premier League club Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium. You can give your marks too using our special widget further down this story.
Conor Hazard 8 – The high marks for all of the Argyle players reflect the determination, endeavour and ability they all put in to produce surely one of the club’s biggest FA Cup upsets ever. Hazard made two excellent saves from Fabio Carvalho in the early stages and it could have been a very different story had one of those gone in. Instead, Argyle defended superbly and their goalkeeper did not have a shot to save in the second half.
Julio Pleguezuelo 9 STAR MAN – Any number of the Pilgrims’ starting line-up could have been selected as the ‘Star Man’ but the Spanish defender epitomised all that was good about Argyle. He put his body on the line time after time as he and his team-mates battled to prevent Brentford from making a deadlock, and he came up with a crucial piece of defending in the second half when Yoane Wissa appeared to be about to head home a cross into the six-yard area.
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Victor Palsson 8 – This was by far the Iceland international’s best game for Argyle since his summer signing. Palsson has struggled for form and been in and out of the team all season but he played in the centre of the Pilgrims’ defensive trio against Brentford and looked much better suited to that position.
Brendan Galloway 8 – Played a very important part in Argyle’s second successive clean sheet, and just their third all season. Late in the first half Galloway made a vital clearance at full stretch after a deep cross was headed inside by Mads Roerslev and then, moments later, the Zimbabwe international threw himself in the way of a shot from Yehor Yarmoliuk.
Matty Sorinola 8 – Is without doubt in the best form of his time at Argyle. He again played with such energy against Brentford in the right wing-back role. Sorinola more than did his bit defensively but he got forward well at times. He looked exhausted at the end but it was no wonder given the distance he must have run during the game.
Adam Randell 8 – It must have been a very proud moment for the midfielder to captain his hometown club to a famous FA Cup upset win away to a Premier League club. It is really the stuff of boyhood dreams. Randell’s biggest contribution came when it was 0-0 towards the end of the second half and he hurled himself in the way of a goalbound shot from Brentford substitute Yoane Wissa, which deflected wide for a corner.
Caleb Roberts 8 – There were a couple of early errors from the 19-year-old, such as when he lost possession in a dangerous area and Fabio Carvalho forced Conor Hazard into the first of his two fine saves. However, the midfielder deserves a lot of credit for not letting his head drop and the fact he played from start to finish of the cup tie showed how much he grew into the game.
Bali Mumba 8 – A couple of times he caused problems for himself by cutting back towards his own goal but that was at least in part because he was playing out of position at left wing-back and was trying to get the ball on his more favoured right foot. Otherwise, he put in a very tenacious performance up against some talented Brentford attackers.
Morgan Whittaker 8 – His 82nd minute left foot finish was worthy of winning any FA Cup tie. It was a thing of beauty. Yes, as pointed out on the BBC Match of the Day highlights, Yoane Wissa made no effort to stop Whittaker from getting into his final shooting opportunity but it was still a superb piece of play from him
Callum Wright 8 – Made an immediate return to the starting line-up after serving a three-match suspension and was very effective whenever he was on the ball in the final third. Forced a good low save out of Brentford goalkeeper Hakon Valdimarsson in the first half with an angled strike after skipping past an opponent to get into the penalty area.
Michael Baidoo 7 – The club record signing made his debut for Argyle as the striker in their 3-4-2-1 set up rather than in an attacking midfield role which we are more likely to see him deployed in as time goes by. His touch let him down when he ran onto an excellent early through ball from Matty Sorinola but, overall, given the amount of possession Brentford had, the defending the Pilgrims had to and the fact he did not see masses of the ball Baidoo could still be pleased with how he did in his hour on the pitch.
SUBSTITUTES
Mustapha Bundu 6 – Returned to action after being out since the 4-0 Boxing Day defeat at Coventry City due to a hamstring injury. Bundu was a straight swap up front of Michael Baidoo in the 60th minute.
Darko Gyabi – Took over from Adam Randell in the 80th minute and gave Argyle some fresh energy in the centre of the pitch as they worked hard to defend the lead given to them by Morgan Whittaker soon after Gyabi got out onto the pitch. He was very keen for Kevin Nancekivell to take the acclaim of the fans after the final whistle, shoving the first team coach forward in front of the 2,400-strong travelling Green Army.
Tymoteusz Puchacz – The Poland international left-back made his debut for Argyle as an 80th minute substitute for Brendan Galloway just a couple of days after completing his loan move from German Bundesliga club Holstein Kiel. He must have been impressed by what he saw from his new team-mates.
Nathanael Ogbeta – Sent on for Callum Wright in the first of six extra minutes played by referee Ben Toner at the end of the match as Argyle looked to keep Brentford at bay until full-time, which they successfully did.
Substitutes (not used): Dan Grimshaw, Kornel Szucs, Ibrahim Cissoko, Rami Al Hajj, Freddie Issaka.
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