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Search forMackie making his mark
Tuesday, October 07, 2008, 10:00
Mackie is keeping an experienced new recruit from the French top flight out of the Pilgrims' first team, and he has helped the Devon team take 13 out of the last 15 points available to them – and he has done so while playing in a position which is not his favourite.
The 23-year-old was best known as a central striker when he left the Grecians in January this year to try his luck at Home Park, but at present he is making and scoring goals for Argyle while playing on the right wing. Mackie scored the first goal and made the second in the Pilgrims' 2-2 draw a Bristol City seven days ago, and last Saturday he was on target once and was involved in two other goals as the Pilgrims romped to a 4-0 home win over Sheffield Wednesday to lift themselves into a promotion playoffs position in the table only three weeks after finding themselves at the very bottom of the division.
"It's been a massive turnaround," Mackie declared, "for the team and for me. I wasn't in the squad three weeks ago. I was watching from the stands, but I didn't sulk about it. I kept my head up and stayed positive.
"For the club, the gaffer [manager Paul Sturrock], and all the staff, it's brilliant. We've done really well." With Mackie in such potent form on the right flank, recent recruit Nicolas Marin (who is on loan from French club Lorient) is having to make do with cameo appearances as a substitute – while summer signing Jason Puncheon (the former Barnet winger) is being kept out of the first-team squad.
Mackie is making sure of that, with his work-rate on the wing – and his goals. "I love scoring goals," he added. "My striker's instincts mean that I'm going to follow everything in, whereas maybe some wingers won't do that. I like to gamble, and I'm delighted when that pays off.
"I'll take ten or 11 goals this season, without a doubt. There are always goals to be scored – you just have to be alert."
Argyle's first goal against the Owls at the weekend went down as an own goal by visiting defender Mark Beevers, after goalkeeper Lee Grant had parried a shot from Paul Gallagher, but Mackie took some of the credit. He explained: "I could have hooked it in myself, but I gambled on the 'keeper dropping it. I did well, maybe, to set up the chance.
"I controlled it, and one of their lads [left-back Tommy Spurr] made a good tackle just as I was about to spin and hit it, but he kicked it against his own player [Beevers] and it went in. We're getting that little bit of luck that we need at the minute," Mackie admitted.
The Pilgrims quickly added two more goals to leave Wednesday three down at the interval. Mackie's low cross was rammed home by Gallagher, and then Mackie punished Grant for failing to hold on to Rory Fallon's volley from a Luke Summerfield corner. Another corner from Summerfield was headed home by Marcel Seip right at the end of the game to complete the scoring.
Gallagher's goal epitomised the style of play being developed by Sturrock. Mackie said: "We're working the ball out wide nicely, and we keep crossing the ball. Rory and Gally keep getting in there. Long may it continue.
"The third goal did it for us," the former Wimbledon forward added. "If we'd got that third goal when we were 2-0 up at Bristol City last week and playing so well, maybe they would not have come back. We learned from that, and I was delighted for the defenders to get a clean-sheet."
The Pilgrims had to settle for one goal after the break, but they had an excuse. They were playing into what was almost a gale, with heavy rain at times as well. "We played really good football in the first half, and the second half wasn't all about setting the world alight," Mackie continued. "It was about being solid and not conceding a goal. It was a different game in the second half, and we did well."
The conquest of the South Yorkshire side was Argyle's last first-team fixture for a fortnight. The international football calendar means that their next Championship game is at Derby County on Saturday week. Until then, the Pilgrims will be hard at work on the training ground.
"We're not going to have a jolly-up for the next two weeks," Mackie insisted. "We're probably going to work even harder. That's what we should do, because we've got a massive game when we come back."
None of Argyle's senior players are away on international duty this month. Krisztian Timar was last week named in Hungary's initial squad for their World Cup qualifiers against Albania on Saturday and Malta next Wednesday, but he was cut from the squad when it was reduced in size at the weekend.
Yoann Folly is not part of Togo's squad for their World Cup qualifier against Swaziland in Accra, Ghana, on Saturday. The Plymouth midfielder made his debut for his native country in August, but he has not been called up since then.
Northern Ireland's Under-21 side have no fixtures this month, so Argyle's on-loan Manchester United defender Craig Cathcart is also not required for international duty.
PAUL Sturrock has been fined £250 and warned as to his future conduct by a Football Association disciplinary panel, which considered a complaint about comments made by the Argyle boss following the Pilgrims' friendly against Dundee United in August.
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