Torquay United v Barnet - 16/4/13

[Hubert Parry]

It was a little odd, Roar, but for me, it was their defending. Their plan seemed to be for everyone to rush about,crowding the man with the ball. That works fine against us, but can you imagine if they tried it against Gillingham, whose players seemed to be on a fine every time they took more than one touch, they'd be f**k ed by the end of the match.

the weirdest team in the division football wise, for me, is Cheltenham I hate the way they play at home. Can't really put my finger on it, I just really hate their football.

I think Barnet may suffer for having Davids. He's their only quality and he's far too good for them, so their players seem not to be playing football, but are playing a game of 'get the ball to Davids as soon and as often as possible'. V strange indeed.

Matt.

How many times have you seen Cheltenham play at home this season?

[Kernowgull]

What a great night. Winning 5-0 is all well and good, but it's nothing like as much fun as nights like yesterday.

Barnet are extremely lucky to have Davids. As per last year, they are a total one man band. Without McLeod's goals last year, they'd have been down by Christmas. Seems to have been the same this year with Davids. Everything went through him, absolutely everything. No denying his quality, but if they stay up and he leaves, they won't get lucky a third year running and will finish bottom next year by miles. Aside from him, they were totally standard L2 fare this year. There is absolutely no difference in quality between Barnet and Bradford this year, none what-so-ever. This is borne out by the fact that Rovers, with a bit of luck, could finish just 1 place outside the playoffs.

Still, great game, great fun and excellent to get the result which the match deserved. Barnet's first was so far offside that the Popside didn't react, we just stood, dumbfounded, at the lack of a flag which was so obviously due. Their second was close too, might have been given on another day. Aside from that, Pokey made two saves, both comfortable enough so as not to really warrant special mention. We scored three good goals, although their keeper will be disappointed with the second (Bodin) goal. Not really sure how he missed it.

I think we can get something at Morecambe. They're not a meaningful distance ahead of Barnet as to make them really any different to last night's opponents.

Matt.

Can you explain how you feel Barnet are a one man team who would be down already bar Davids, and are also totally standard league 2 fare, the same as Bradford?

[nickbrod]

Massive, massive win last night which made the long journey home much easier. The last 20 minutes, including the 5 minutes added time, were nervey beyond belief but what a relief at the final whistle.
Great credit to the management and players who were clearly up for the game.
Fantastic header from Benyon who ran his socks off, great goal from Billy and, at last a towering header from Saah at a corner.
How Barnet's first goal wasn't offside only the linesman knows and their second just upped the tension.
Looks now like Aldershot are gone plus one other. Morecambe on Saturday is another massive game and if we play like last night we can make our League status safe.

[nickbrod]

I should add that the support last night was fantastic, we certainly made noise for the boys. I like to think we all played as the 12th man - congratulations to those 2700 who turned up.
Back in 2001 on THAT last day we beat Barnet 3-2 and stayed up - I'll say no more!

[camberwick green]

Massive, massive win last night which made the long journey home much easier. The last 20 minutes, including the 5 minutes added time, were nervey beyond belief but what a relief at the final whistle.
Great credit to the management and players who were clearly up for the game.
Fantastic header from Benyon who ran his socks off, great goal from Billy and, at last a towering header from Saah at a corner.
How Barnet's first goal wasn't offside only the linesman knows and their second just upped the tension.
Looks now like Aldershot are gone plus one other. Morecambe on Saturday is another massive game and if we play like last night we can make our League status safe.

Credit to Saah for winning the ball but it was unquestionably an OG. Saah's header wasn't going in.

[teeboo100]

even though the game lacked quality last night we where certainly good value for the 3 points. our work rate along won us that game we havent got a lot of class in center mid but last night in mancell and lathrope we had 2 players who seamed to be playing as if there lives depended on it. Benyon has taken a bit of stick since his return but i though the boy was outstanding last night great headed and never gave barnets back line a minuit peace. All in all a great night for us and from where i was plainmoor was rocking well done to 1 and all i have a large beaming smile this morning the first one for a very long time Teeboo

[chippygull]

All I can add is .. phew.. at least we've given ourselves a chance..

[divingbboy]

Its scary how bad the linesman on the pop was, clear offside for there first goal and just flagged everything wrong.

If Jake Hyde had been any more offside, he would have been in the directors' box.

[AustrianAndyGull]

The table makes lighter reading this morning, it looks for all the world like Aldershot are down but we can never be sure, so it just leaves us fighting it out with Barnet, York and Wimbledon IMO, win one more game and we're safe i reckon although a couple of draws will probably be enough given our goal difference. Lose the next two or lose one and draw one and it's nip and tuck and we rely on others. Still a lot of hard work to be done but last night we came through the test. I'm still very, very concerned that we managed to ship 2 goals at home against what many of you say were a shocking Barnet side even allowing for the blatant offside. We've only kept 1 clean sheet in our last 17 games and this makes it really difficult for us to win football matches. I just hope we can beat Morecambe on saturday as i have a strong feeling that Bristol Rovers will at least score at our place and we might not win that game. I'm still fearful but i'm more than hopeful we can round off our abysmal away season with a win at an awkward Morecambe.

[Yellow4life]

Haven't had a look yet at a replay of both of their goals for offside, the 1st one for me looked more likely but it all depends when the ball was played through. In my; (semi professional), opinion.

[Richinns]

Below quote from Davids after the game:

A disappointed Davids said after the loss: “We gave poor goals away and that is horrifying and disappointing. But in the second half we played well and we showed that we are definitely the better side."

What a prize pr1ck he is! Deluded!
Up until now I have not really had anything against Barnet but their recent behaviour from fans and players makes me wish they finally get what they have been so close to getting over the past years - which is non-league football!

[AustrianAndyGull]

Yep, one less London 3rd world hovel to visit ( not that i would anyway as it's in London ) and it has been coming for them. It doesn't matter what Davids shays , sorry, says ( went all Dutch there! Either that or Sean Connery as Bond! ) , we have the 3 points and he doesn't.

[Yellow4life]

Oh dear, they did press quite well but had nothing apart from Hyde(top scorer), who i thought was going to start, Davids had a good game i thought, minus going down too easy and moaning at the penalty which definately wasnt (i was row B of family stand). Apart from that- who else did they actually have :/

[thegreedygull]

I see the glasses he wears hasn't improved Davids eyesight much.

[brucie]

In all fairness to Barnet they were not any worse than any other league 2 side in my opinion. Up until the first goal we were the better side but as soon as we went one up we started to panic. Oastler trying to clear the ball from the right back position somehow manage to cross the ball into our own penalty area.
Both sides gave their all and understandably it was nervy at the end - there was more pressure on us than Barnet. We would have been all but down if we had not won.
On another night we might have scored six though. Howe and Benyon were excellent all night - Barnet couldn't cope with either of them.
I am not a fan of Lathrope but thought he was good last night.
At 3-1 it looked for all the world game over but we never win a game easily. Their second goal stemmed form an attemted clearance from Oastler which cannoned straight into a teamates arse which just goes to show how we shoot ourselves in the foot at times.
Poke was rock solid all night - thank god it rained on saturday.
We still have it all to do but there is a huge carrot on the end of saturdays game. Win that one and we are staying up.
We just have to match what other teams at the bottom do and win an away game. In Howe,Benyon and Bodin we have the strikers who can do damage.
Its a big chance for us to put this season to bed.