Torquay United Fans Forum

It was indeed pretty dire on the eye today but I feel some expectations may have risen too high with our successes of the past few years. Looking at the positives, in years past when players have been injured/suspended they have been replaced by cheap no hopers from God knows where. Today these holes were filled by some of the talent produced by the youth scheme who all acquitted themselves well with a special mention to Ashley Yeomans
If you listen to Martin Lings after match interview money is tight, as you would expect from an organistion that has spent a great deal of its turnover on a genuine effort to improve the infrastructure of the Club for the team and the supporters, thereby improving its prospects.
The fan who suggested to Ling that he should "eff off to Plymouth" should remember there is only so much abuse honest men working within constraints can take before they finally do f*** off and that may well apply to some of the other honest men within the Club.

Let's make a passing nod to the many seasons with opponents always scoring the late winners and the occassional inept players making a slip which cost us.It seemed for years we were the poor relations and I think most of us deep down believed and accepted it.
Now we have a rock solid defence, an excellent keeper, a solid and creative midfield set up and goals coming from throughout the team. When teams like Dagenham roll up and try and stifle the play we still have the wherewithal to grind a victory.
All successful teams have to ride their luck a bit but I think we are in a position to give a mighty blast on our own trumpet for once mainly through the teams quality and ability .
I thought Northampton were a decent side with the addition of Gutteridge and yet we soaked up the pressure when necessary and came back strongly in the second half. Personally I'm happy to bask in this situation and only worry about how long it will last!

A grafting performance against a very competent side. It's not often we win in the last minute from my memory. My personal man of the match was Robbo. A quiet but extremely effective performance at all stages I thought. We should bask in our defensive strength including ofcourse the keeper. We are fortunate for a League Two side to have this strength in defense. McCloud, League Two'sTOP scorer was nullified!
And ofcoufse hats off to Mr Ling and Taylor

Good post this. I think the problem with Saah and Robertson, although they are very similar in style, is that they are exposed by varying amounts of space in front of them. Mansell and O'Kane are both good players but tend to buzz around and are both drawn forward/wide too often. A good holding player with the ability to impose a "presence", to sit in infront of the back four I feel would tighten the whole team up.

I'm not criticising any of the above named players or suggesting there natural style of play is reined in but more the balance of the side which is exposed increasingly as teams exert pressure especially as the game opens up in the latter stages. In the last couple of home games the opposition have broken forward at speed into such space a goal resulting is almost inevitable. Also in general play prior to the play opening up , when the opposition have the ball in our half the centre halfs are able to be pulled forward much too easily which was well illustrated against Gillingham.

The worry is that if such defeats continue this situation will get worse as confidence slides. I do though agree with Martin Ling that we shouldn't panic yet and we have the players in place so perhaps Lathrope is the man to shut up this space

Don't worry it took me two visits to untangle the anagram. Heard a few interviews on local radio when he was at Rovers and I'm not convinced he is the man to pitch the advantages of upping sticks and moving to the Bay to ply their trade to professional footballers.
We do need a safe pair of hands more than anything in these troubled times so his experience should help there but hopefully there are safer hands lurking.
Whoever gets the job will get my full backing for what that's worth but I hope the Club are in a position to consider a range of applicants

Late response to Matt but they guy was smartly dressed and was making notes on a clip board! He did have a scouse accent but I hope he was the assessor because he was a down to earth friendly chap. He also commented that he was now finished with Talksport! My opinion is that a few more like him in the area of match officialdom would do the game a lot of good

I sat near the referees assessor who was raving about her performance as ref at a Conference game last week. His description was "awesome". I find it difficult to assess a linesman unless they drop howlers and she didn't, Strangely she also seemed to receive a lot of respect from the players

Driving home from the Carlisle match in euphoric state and the radio switches to BBC Somerset . The feelings fron the Rovers fans on the phone in was their manager by wednesday would be Paul Hart , This along with Paul Buckles comments on Radio Devon lead me to believe he will be with us for the rest of the season at least. Here's hoping!