Torquay United V Cheltenham

[ferrarilover]

Cheltenham look like last year's Northampton, a team of giants. They play the same too. McGlashan, their only remaining element of quality touched the ball twice.

The real pleasing thing about today is that we weren't especially good and nor were Cheltenham especially poor. We didn't create any more chances then usual and we managed to score 4 goals. This is what Knill had been saying all season, we create enough chances, we just don't stick enough of them in. Today we did and were duly rewarded with three points.

A few decent performances, but no one played so well that they didn't ought to be reproducing that same form almost every week. Harding even managed to look somewhat like a footballer.

Good afternoon, but nothing truly exceptional. Play like that every week (which we could, comfortably), we could finish in the top 7.

Matt.

[Lloyder5]

First 70 minutes not too different from the previous games I've seen. Cheltenham were a poorer side than Oxford but had more attacking intent than Hartlepool, though their idea of attacking football was to punt it long and hope for something to happen. The main difference for us was we had a little luck. For the last 20 minutes I though we played some really good football, both in terms of quality and the match situation . I don't know if that was what Knill had in mind when he brought Benyon on but it worked. Benyon looked sharp and full of running and linked well with Chappell, Bodin and Ball, who were all good. Pearce and Downes coped well with the onslaught. Harding was more involved won tackles and headers and had two decent shots, which brought a good good save from the keeper. Rice made one excellent save and I was pleased with his decision-making coming for crosses and loose balls (particularly as I criticised this part of his game recently). Knill had clearly made plans for McGlashan as he seemed to be surrounded by Torquay player every time he got the ball

Rice: 8 - vital save, generally calm presence and good kicking.
Tongue: 7 - solid, cleared his lines. Got forward when he could. Not MOTM
Cruise: 7 - as above
Downes: 7.5 - Withstood the onslaught and made one great block in the first half. The battle in the middle was all a bit messy
Pearce: 7 - As above without the block.
Harding: 7 - Thought he generally played with his head up and was looking to shoot, see above.
Mansell: 6 - Didn't stray too much really from his usual game, lots of huff and puff. Made a couple of determined clearance towards the end as Cheltenham pressed at 3-2
Bodin:7.5 - Looked a threat throughout and didn't fade as he often does, also won some good headers. He does take responsibility for receiving the ball from throws and was solid overall.
Chappel: 8 - Good positioning for his goal, ran at their defence when he could. His crossing seemed better than previous games.
Hawley: 7 - Good finish if he meant, which i think he did. A lot of his other work didn't really come off.
Ball: 8 - Capitalised on good fortune and good positioning for his first. Not sure if he will be given the second. Had a chance of a hatrick. Generally worked hard, running the channels and linking play.
Benyon: 8 - Thought he looked fresh and bright, stretch their defence and was central to our best spell of the game.

Atmosphere: 7 much better. Sung the boys home.

[Modgull]

That was a much better performance, particularly in midfield where I thought Harding had his best game for us. Both wingers put pressure on their full backs and got Cheltenham on the turn which made their defence look awful.

Not sure I agree with Ferrarilover about a normal number of chances - I counted 18 attempts with 10 on target which is a far better return than each of the other games I have seen this year. This was a direct result of playing through the midfield rather than launching long balls up from defence.

Cheltenham do look a poor side at the moment. They lacked the midfield drive of Marlon Pack and McGlashan was anonymous for much of the game, so well did our full backs and covering wingers play. It wash a good shout by AK to drop Nicho for Cruise and he had a very assured game.

My assessment of the performances are as follows:

Rice 7/10 - one fantastic save in the first half to keep the scores level
Tonge 7/10 - very assured defending and worked well with Chapple
Pearce 6/10 - not his best game, was at fault for their second with a poor back pass
Downes 8/10 - had his hands full with the Robins front two who started very strongly
Cruise 7/10 - kept McGlashan quiet in a way Nicho probably wouldn't have
Chapple 8/10 - all our best moves involved him
Mansell 7/10 - usual energetic self
Harding 7/10 - good, steady performance and saw him starting to come forward and looking to score
Bodin 7/10 - lacklustre first half but later in the game improved and laid on the chance for Chapple to score with a great pass
Ball 8/10 - almost the complete target man performance and two well-taken goals
Hawley 7/10 - hardworking and a good foil for Ball, took his goal very well

Benyon 7/10 - pulled the defence around once he came on

Referee 7/10 - despite his reputation, thought he had an all right game

Crowd 7/10 - poor turnout at 2,400 but got increasingly behind the team and played their oart in an enjoyable match.

[Dave_Pougher]

I could have sworn you were adamant that we were going down last season....

lol

[chunkygull]

Bodin to score a 'worldie' today (wording chosen for chunkygull). Visualised him lobbing the 'keeper on the volley. We shall see.

Going for a win, 2-1 or 3-1. We score first for once, get pegged back, but the downbeat mode is lifted by Billy coming good.

The above are opinions at the time of writing, which will loosely translated be enshrined as facts by 5pm.

Woke up feeling good this morning. Actually, woke up wondering where the hell I was, but worked out I was in Devon and have been feeling good since.

COYY!

just to say i didnt miss this and to acknowledge it, =D very good.

[wivelgull]

If you thought Hartlepool were bad....Cheltenham were terrible. How a team that showed so much promise in the last two seasons could change overnight into the very, very poor side we saw today is a mystery; but not one, luckily, that my concern us. So don't get carried away, even Beesands Rovers could have beaten the team from Gloucestershire today. We were o.k., and that's about it. There's still too much dead wood around, but at least the crowd (what there was of it) walked (rather than trudged) away quite happily, yet all the time realising that we need to play well against good sides, not awful ones.
Another pleasing feature was the new Gilbert. YES!! A new one! Smaller and podgier than the previous incumbent, this one had the temerity to attempt the 'Bird's the Word' dance. Of course, no-one took the slightest bit of notice - but keep on keepin' on, Gilbert! You did ok.
Back to the game: it was entertaining enough, and with a team like the one we have at present that's about all you can ask for. Before the match began every one of the senile delinquents, to a man and woman, predicted a defeat. However, after the laughable attempts at defence by the Cheltenham team which resulted in our first goal, it became apparent that we could possibly - and I emphasise possibly - win this one.
Yates was going bananas, Deadman was taking centre stage, the bald lino was being abused - and rightly so - for not flagging their first goal offside and the clock was whizzing by. Even so, and let's be honest, we're still a side teetering on the edge of relegation. But a win's a win for a' that, so let's not complain.

My 5-star awards:

Rice ***and a half (maintaining a good standard)
Tonge *** (inexplicably given MoM by the sponsors - he was o.k.)
Cruise *** (satisfactory)
Harding ***and a half (the best I've seen him play)
Downes ***and a half (solid)
Pearce ***and a half (solid on the whole, one or two errors)
Mansell ** (time to hang 'em up)
Bodin *** (o.k.)
Ball *** (yes, got two goals, but should be replaced at end of loan spell)
Hawley *** (industrious, took goal well)
Chappell ****and a half (easily MoM and the only real star in the Torquay firmament at the moment)

[lucy6lucy]

As I cant give the 5 MOTM nominees due to not being there, apart from danny, no one has named rice as their MOTM top 5. This in itself is a step forward in our season and just......maybe a turn in the teams fortunes. COYY

[HeavenAndHele]

As I cant give the 5 MOTM nominees due to not being there, apart from danny, no one has named rice as their MOTM top 5. This in itself is a step forward in our season and just......maybe a turn in the teams fortunes. COYY

As I said in my previous post I did think about it but although he put in a good solid performance he wasn't really tested to the extent he has been in previous games.

[Dave]

One swallow does not make a summer, that was one game. However I did say it was far to early to judge AK, also said remember Brian Saah, don't be to quick to judge Ben Harding.

That performance was one of the best since Knill came in, and by far the best performance by Ben Harding since his move here, if that really is a sign of how the team are going to develop under AK and a sign of what Ben Harding might be capable of bringing to the party, then, there really will be a fair few embarrased fans.

OH WHERE IS WODGER. got I.T problems , huh ?

[SuperNickyWroe]

I could have sworn you were adamant that we were going down last season....

he was - while ling was in charge and then left that mess........ :}

[SuperNickyWroe]

Cheltenham look like last year's Northampton, a team of giants. They play the same too. McGlashan, their only remaining element of quality touched the ball twice.

The real pleasing thing about today is that we weren't especially good and nor were Cheltenham especially poor. We didn't create any more chances then usual and we managed to score 4 goals. This is what Knill had been saying all season, we create enough chances, we just don't stick enough of them in. Today we did and were duly rewarded with three points.

A few decent performances, but no one played so well that they didn't ought to be reproducing that same form almost every week. Harding even managed to look somewhat like a footballer.

Good afternoon, but nothing truly exceptional. Play like that every week (which we could, comfortably), we could finish in the top 7.

Matt.

you see matt, you still talk bo**ocks......

[Scott Brehaut]

Not been at all negative this season cos that's the the way I'm seeing it..... Bit of a silly statement of yours really, and I didn't deserve it !

My point was - last season you were convinced that we were down, therefore, when the team has a fairly shocking start you can't then berate those who were convinced that things were all doom and gloom when you thought the same last time around....we all make mistakes (as you realised last season), therefore this season there are people, like me, who will, possibly, have to eat humble pie too.

[AustrianAndyGull]

First of all a massive congratulations and well done to Alan and all the players for today's result and performance, it certainly came as a welcome relief. The only bummer was that I yet again, didn't get to see us smash 4! As many aspects of the Knill regime thus far have mirrored that of Ling, I am hoping that the false dawns of thinking we have turned a corner only to be pants for the next 5 games or so will not be one of them.

Forever Dave is correct, it is only one game and we can argue until the cows come home what we beat out there today. Some may say that we've only beaten 2 sides that are seriously struggling and look like they are in the sh*t but I like to think that every game is a tough one and so it is irrelevant. It is what it is, a home win and I don't really want members to come on saying that they were right to be positive and others like myself were wrong to be negative. What if we get hammered at Newport? Can I then come on and do vice versa?

It's not a competition, all the evidence suggests that we aren't a bad side but there were problems and we were underperforming and so was Knill. I was simply making opinions on what information I had to go on which was 7 league games where we have looked poor in the main. I wasn't wrong just as you who keep the faith aren't wrong if we lose. It's a long season. Perhaps now with some players bearing the brunt of criticism playing much better today, perhaps we can learn from today and crack on. It certainly will have given everybody confidence.

Dave is right to say that if today is a sign how the team are going to develop then it is all good but I am not embarrassed for not being very happy at what I've witnessed so far and anybody who formed a negative opinion generally based on the first 7 games shouldn't be embarrassed either. I'm not having a go at you Dave, just that it is one game where we played ok and won. I want Harding to improve but it was just that up to this point he has been poor and I personally was only commenting on this and not that he was a sh*t player full stop. If i'd have said that Harding was crap and will not get better then fair enough, if i'd have said that the team won't improve under Knill then yes i'd be embarrassed about both statements but this wasn't the case.

The annoying thing is the fans who keep quiet and don't pass comment on the poor results and performance and then when a game like today comes around they tell us all that we should have kept the faith and we are stupid for being negative. I take each game as it comes and try to base it on a reasoned set of criteria. Like the Rochdale game, we were slaughtered at Fleetwood and so I believed it safe to assume we'd get some sort of positive reaction and a much better performance at Spotland. I even talked us up and predicted a Gulls win but nobody picks that out, just that we moan all the time. So with 2 away defeats in a row and not much sign of a revival I believed it also safe to assume we could struggle against Cheltenham, not because everyone is sh*t or because Knill is clueless but because on form and performance going into today there was no basis to be confident about the game.

I'm pleased for Ben and Billy too, it sounds like he had a good game and got an assist. Today is definitely a step in the right direction but there is still lots of work to do.

I think we should all just be thankful that we've hit 4, got 3 points on the board and have encouragement that we may be heading down the right lines now.

[chunkygull]

weeeellll, that wasnt too bad was it.

much improved finishing, a bit more effort and trying to use the ball a lot better was the key.

my thoughts, including constructive criticism -

ricey was good enough when needed, but just needs to take a bit more command of things in and around his area and communicate with his centre halfs more. solid.

harding, much, much better, especially 2nd half, just needs to get involved a bit more, a few decent passes and a belting shot, keep it up.

hawley is only about, 5 foot 8 inches, give or take, so what is the point of playing him like a target man and hitting balls to him 6 foot + in the air or at least too high for him to get under control. his movement, awareness and positioning are quite good but he is expected to turn a sows ear into a silk purse at times. roll the ball into his feet more. a well taken dribble and shot for his goal showed some of what he can do.

pearce had quite a good game, forging a good partnership with downes, i would not change them, however he is a bit panicky at times, and not reading the game as well as he could, had about 4 moments 1st half where he was gazing up in the air and almost doing a little pirouette (think ive spelt it right), twirling around looking a bit puzzled searching for the ball. it all comes with experience and playing games though so the lad will be fine, just a point to work on.

chapell was man of the match for me, worked hard, passed well, got involved, showed some skills, best thing was his crossing, especially 2nd half, much improved from the hartlepool game. if there has been work done on his crosses in training then well done, because it really showed.

bodin - much, much better.very good, keep it up and do it more often.

downes - nothing i can say about mr reliable.

cruise - had a decent enough, solid game.

mansell - runs about a lot, puts the effort in, tries hard, a few poor passes, but gives his all.

tonge - had a decent game, looked comfortable at times, some good passes, a great ball in the move for the 2nd goal.

ball - yes, scored twice, but didnt do a lot other than that, a few passing link ups but not much else. but then again his job is to score goals, so, well played young man, more please.

benyon - looked lively when he came on, the game was opening up, involved in some good passing moves, got caught offside when put through (nasty habit), looked quite good though. why do they knock low or on the deck balls to benyon so he can control them , but dont for ball and hawley.

too many hit and hope hoofballs or just lashing it anywhere are our biggest problem it just meekly hands the ball back to the opposition. when we settled down and played the ball on the deck or with a bit of thought and measure we looked really good and thats when we scored or had the most success. you can see the confidence grow when we have sustained attacking spells, actually passing the ball to each other on the deck makes it a more enjoyable game to play in and to watch.

a bit more confidence and using some intelligence we could become quite good, just missing that all round midfielder who can pass. a bit of tightening up also, cheltenhams 1st goal was offside but the defending was poor, you could see it coming a mile off, likewise the 2nd we invited pressure, giving the ball away too easily and got punished.

loved the barcelonaesque way a couple of times the ball went to mcglashan and 3 players at least just pressed and swarmed around the ball. forgot he was playing other than that.

all in all, i really enjoyed the game, it started off well with gilbert the gull doing surfin' bird (bird is the word) and it just got better and better. two thumbs up.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Did the lad enjoy it on the pop chunks or has it scarred him for life? =D