Plymouth Argyle 1-1 Oxford United: FLW reports as Muslic denied perfect debut by resilient U's

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Football League World

·15. Januar 2025

Plymouth Argyle 1-1 Oxford United: FLW reports as Muslic denied perfect debut by resilient U's

Miron Muslic faced off against Gary Rowett's Oxford United in his first game as Plymouth Argyle manager.

Rami Al Hajj cancelled out Will Vaulks' first-half thunderbolt to secure Miron Muslic a point in his first game as Plymouth Argyle manager, drawing 1-1 with Oxford United at Home Park.

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Plymouth's new era started positively in the grand scheme of things. Some slick attacking moves in the opening 20 minutes created shooting opportunities but lacked the finish to match.

Despite a positive start for the Pilgrims, Oxford took the lead on the stroke of half-time. Will Vaulks smashed a thunderous strike past Dan Grimshaw from outside the box.

Frustration grew in the second-half, as Argyle looked sloppy to start off with. However, that was soon calmed down when Rami Al Hajj levelled the contest with 25 minutes remaining. The Swede became the first goalscorer of Muslic's reign.

After the goal, confidence grew for Plymouth, which encouraged the supporters that their side could snatch a late winner to seal the perfect start to the new manager's tenure.

Neither side found a winner, as Argyle had to settle for a point on Muslic's debut.

New Argyle manager, Muslic, who went viral this week for a video of his first-ever team talk, was welcomed to huge applause by a packed out Home Park crowd.

The first big chance of the game came Plymouth's way in the opening ten minutes. A beautiful switch of play unleashed Tymoteusz Puchacz down the left flank. He smartly cut it back to Al-Hajj, whose shot forced Jamie Cumming into a stretching save.

That man, Al-Hajj, had Cumming scrambling again five minutes later. A quick break allowed the Swede to dash towards goal through the centre of the pitch. His shot from outside the box curled towards the right of the net, but it sailed just wide.

The U's were temporarily reduced to ten men, as the captain, Cameron Brannagan, picked up a knock in a 50/50 against Darko Gyabi. The midfielder slowly trudged off the pitch, much to the annoyance of the home crowd, before rejoining the action 30 seconds later.

Home debutant Puchacz fired a powerful drive over the bar on the half-hour mark after a neat ball from Bali Mumba found him in space. All the attacking moves had the crowd encouraged, but Argyle just couldn't quite apply the finishing touch to find the net.

Oxford then had yet another injury, this time Sam Long went down after defending a corner. However, the defender jogged off the pitch and got himself ready to come back on. He went straight back down after returning to action, which required a substitution to be made. Jordan Thorniley took Long's place.

Just a minute before half-time, the Yellows took the lead against the run of play. An absolute thunderbolt from Vaulks after the Argyle defence found themselves all over the place. Mark Harris picked up the ball and laid it off to the number four, who unleashed one of his trademark long-range strikes, leaving Grimshaw no chance.

Home Park was stunned into silence as the whistle went to bring the first period to a close. Despite all the positive build-up play, Argyle trailed at the break. Whilst there were some glimpses of promise, there were some sloppy moments which cost the Green. From an Oxford point of view, it had been a perfect away performance thus far.

Both sides emerged from the dressing rooms unchanged for the second half.

Frustration was beginning to build with the home support, as their team continued to make errors and display a real lack of awareness. Every wrong move was met with a collective groan of anger. Tension felt to be on a real knife-edge, as Oxford had started the second half very well.

Puchacz was very hit-and-miss. He utilised the space out wide well, flashing in a low cross which was an inch perfect for the arriving Morgan Whittaker. Peter Kioso managed to get a vital intervention to put it out for a corner. The resultant corner was a miss, as the Pole's delivery looped over everyone, not for the first time.

Out of nowhere, Argyle levelled the game. A brilliant back-to-front passing move found Puchacz out wide again. This time, his cross was bang on the money. A little glance from Al Hajj was enough to steer it past Cumming, drawing the Greens level with 25 minutes to play.

The goal certainly sparked confidence in the home team, which was evident on the pitch. The waves of Oxford attacks were no longer coming as Plymouth had the lion's share of the ball.

It's fair to say referee Sam Allison was the least popular man inside Home Park on this lukewarm January evening. Some of the fouls he gave against Argyle seemed rather dubious, whilst the crowd made it quite clear that they thought he was allowing Oxford to run down the clock.

Interestingly, Muslic gambled with five minutes remaining as he took off defender Victor Palsson and replaced him with an attacker in Ibrahim Cissoko. The new boss was clearly confident his side could go and snatch all three points in the dying embers.

With five minutes of stoppage time added, Siriki Dembele must've thought he'd won it for Oxford when he danced through the Plymouth defence. However, Grimshaw was on hand to get a strong hand to the effort.

The keeper had to come to the rescue again. Adam Randell's shocking back pass gifted the ball to Brannagan, who crossed in a ball looking for a yellow shirt. Grimshaw punched the ball out, which fell to Dembele again on the edge of the box. The ex-Blackpool man had to get down low to prevent the shot going in.

Neither side was able to find a winner, and the end-to-end encounter ended 1-1. Positive foundations for Argyle to build on, but plenty of learning curves for both the supporters and the manager. A solid point on the road for Oxford too, who'd done more than enough to take a draw back home with them.