Cheltenham Town v Torquay United

[Gloomy Gull]

I don't know if that is correct, that's why I was asking.

Sorry, thought your comment was " as it is". I hope that it is not the case, but if it is, lets make Herrera manager and Nicholson no:2.

Hopefully we go away from the match today not too disappointed. On the whole a solid defensive effort except for a fluke goal. Limited the league leaders to 5 shots which isn't bad! If Heslop had scored early in the 2nd half then everything could have been conpletely different.

I personally think that we can go into Friday feeling confident that if we can perform like we have done for the last 2 games, we can definitely get some more points off Forest Green.

[tomogull]

How can you say the substitutions were questionable. Wright is only eighteen years old. Two games in 48 hours on heavy pitches. Do you actually want him to get injured or something?

Please keep a sense of reality. You cannot flog a couple of dead horses.

I'm going to do a Wivel here - Brucie is absolutely right. We've got another game in four days time so it was the right decision to rest Wright and Marsh. Just unfortunate that we have no other attacking options.

[Burnhamgull]

Well done all who went. Overall the crowd was 3,700 (3,300 home) which is cr*p for a Club who are top by a country mile on a bank holiday. If it had been the other way round we would have had well over 4,000.

You wish......

[Dave]

Firstly great day out, good to meet Kernowgull today, and have the pleasure of Taxilady's company through out the game, as well as Glostergulls jokes.

Really pleasing team performance following on from FGR at home, change in formation is really working and suiting both Richards who was outstanding again today, and the much improved Heslop, can't fault the defending today either, only conceded what looked like a cross, Gerring played well back there today I thought.

It was always going to be difficult afternoon, Wright and Marsh worked hard but found it hard up against the league best defence, but being honest Finch is simply not good enough. Thought our team deserved a draw, and would had the draw if wasn't for one the worst misses I've seen from Heslop, drill it low and score, lean back, and you know the rest, straight over the bar.

Special mention to the fans once again first class, great drumming as usual Dannyrv, what other team in our position could pull support like we do, once again proud to be a gull

[Southampton Gull]

Reverting to type

Cheltenham 7 Torquay 0

As good as your usual predictions

[davidcaldwell123]

The last five seasons have seen teams escaping relegation with points from 45-54, extrapolate current form since 3rd October when KN started to influence results, we get around 15pts out the final games. I recon form needs to improve by 50%, but if we do think the FG game was a consistent upturn in form, then we have a real chance, I personally think the FG and Braintree games are the two most important games this season.

[tufc si]

Agree with pretty much everything Forever has said above. If the final score had finished 1-1 I dont think many Robins fans could have moaned. Looked like 2 sides sat near each other in the table, not 1 at each end!!

Gerring and Smith were probably my stand out performers today, pretty much did everything right and won almost everything in the air. You can see in there decision making on occasions that they are both a bit raw though, but were fantastic today!!

And I know this has been talked about over and over, but having a drum in the crowd doesnt half gee up the crowd!! Again, the away support has been absolutely spot on and its nice that other clubs comment on this every game. On a side note though, anyone know why it all kicked off with the stewards??

Nice of Downsey to come over and clap us, but he was truly woeful today!!!

[ferrarilover]

Haha, this thread is the best. People saying Downes is shite and Gerring was excellent. Gerring was Cheltenham's best player, he managed to give the ball to a Robin every single time he got near it.

**** Heslop is one talented motherfucker. I could have 500 goes at getting the ball over the bar from 7 yards and I wouldn't manage it, incredible skill surely to be recognised with a big-money move.

Cheltenham managed to be the worst side ever to lead the division and still come away with the points. Think back to Burton/Aldershot last time we were down here and then realise that at no stage did either of those clubs have the points lead that Chelts presently enjoy. That 2008 Burton side would **** hammer this Cheltenham team; probably so badly that at least one of the Chelts players would top themselves overnight. If they go up and don't quadruple in quality, they'll come back down with about 3 points.

Piss poor refereeing to dismiss Richards. You'll see exactly the same 'offence' go unpunished at least 10,000 times before you next see a bloke so much as pulled up on it, let alone awarded a second **** yellow.

We've never had any luck, not in all the time I've been watching, but that's going to have to change if we're to stay up. The lads are doing their bit (most are limited by talent, that's not their fault) and working really hard, what we need now is an absence of the horrendously bad luck which seems to haunt us unendingly.

Matt.

[Dave]

Matt, Gerring is not in the side to pass the ball, he's in there because MacDonald is suspended and to stop the umpteen free headers we give away each game, defensively Gerring did his job.

Anyone else see the coincidence, Gerring/Smith concede 2 goals in 90 minutes against the leagues top 2 teams. McDonald /Smith concede hat loads of goals against just about anyone we've played hmmmm

Just to add to my previous post, didn't get taking both Wright and marsh off, would have left one of those on.

[Gulliball]

I wasn't particularly impressed by Gerring I have to say. As a footballer he is appalling and I don't think he completed one pass to a yellow shirt with the ball at his feet. You can say that's not his strength, but I have never seen anyone mis-kick, slice or simply miss a football as often as him. His effort is there, he can handle himself physically and win his share in the air, but he's a part-time level footballer at best.

I am also concerned about Finch. He looks to be very similar to Yeoman in that he doesn't stand out in any particular area. He's not quick, not good in the air and didn't have any effect on the game when he came on, even doing the simple things. We really are in need of reinforcements because our bench today was abysmal. The substitutions were clearly with a gameplan in mind, but we ended up chasing the game with a front three of Gerring, Exodus and Finch and didn't really look like scoring. Plan A worked well, but the squad is far too thin and lacking in quality and I haven't seen anything from the recent local signings to suggest they're going to be able to make any impact at all.

Overall though, I think we deserved a point today and matched Cheltenham for most of the game. Our problem though was that we didn't get enough quality in the opposition half to create chances. Marsh made one himself, and put it on a plate for Heslop, who blazed it over. That was always going to be the 'what if' moment if we failed to win, and then they took the lead from nothing, an overhit cross that hit the far post and in. We went route one to chase the game with long throws and two centre halfs up front, but as mentioned earlier, it wasn't threatening at all and Downes headed every one away relatively simply. Once Marsh and Wright went off we had nothing on the bench that came close to matching their quality.

The two games I have seen this Chistmas have been encouraging. Anything from them was a bonus, so we're ahead of that, and we've managed to match two sides at the top of the table. There is a real lack of quality though in the squad, which has been fine when we're not expected to control the game and the conditions have helped to make them low quality games. We desperately need quite a few new signings to improve the team, or else I can't see see us being able to beat the teams around us when the games are more open - and these will be the key ones if we are to survive.

Ideally a new centre half, two wingers, a central midfielder and striker would complete the squad. As many of those, as quickly as possible, and we stand half a chance if we show the same fight as we have in the last two games.

[Dave]

On a side note though, anyone know why it all kicked off with the stewards??

Through most of the second half there was a group of lads stood down the front pitch side (know a couple of them) when all of a sudden the stewards decided to move them, to be fair they had several warnings when the lad in the green jacket went back and stood there for the second time, so was ejected, some of the others reacted angrily to their friend being thrown out.

[ferrarilover]

You've been watching too much park football, Dave. This is the professional game (just about). You can't get by at this level by being mostly **** hopeless, but doing 'your job'. His job is to be professional standard at all aspects of the general game and of his positional game. He must be a professional standard defender and footballer. He need not be a profession standard striker/midfielder/winger/goalkeeper, but he must be at pro standard in the basic elements. Decision making, passing, heading, control, fitness. He fails on at least two of those. Only the very, very elite get away with having deficiencies. Paul Scholes couldn't tackle, for example.

It's not his fault, just the same as it isn't Finch's fault or Heslop's fault, they're just bollocks footballers being asked to do a job which they can't do. I'm a bollocks artist, and were I commissioned to paint an official portrait of the Queen, the results would be similarly disastrous but identically not really my fault.

Matt.

[Dave]

Matt, don't disagree with you, not trying to pass Gerring of as a professional footballer or even good enough for the national league premier, but, how many times did I see Gerring win defensive header today, quite refreshing after watching our back line stand like tree stumps and see a free header planted into the back of net time and time again this season.

Gerring isn't cultured, he may not even be a football, but at least he'll challenge a high ball into a our box, and he did Parkin quiet boxing day.

[Kernowgull]

Yeah nice to meet Forever and his son, and give Glocester a lift. Thought we were far better than I'd expected. I'd say we are in a fight now, whereas before we were just letting relegation happen.

The incident with the steward happened right in front of me. I would say the steward inflamed it, the lad was being a bit boisterous but only jumping up and down, not doing anything he hadn't been doing for 60 plus minutes, then the steward grabbed him quite violently and chucked him out. Lucky our fans are so good, as although a few numbskulls ran forward, at many clubs that could have kicked right off, and the 3 stewards would not have been able to do anything.

That aside, unbelievable atmosphere today, we really are a credit to the club, Cheltenham were silent almost throughout. I am obviously disappointed to lose, but came away really happy and it was a great day out.

Also, disagree with Ferrari, thought Getting, and Smith, was excellent. Not a ball player but defensively very sound.

Well done all

[TUST_Member_Rob]

A slight side note but 2 fingers to Wrexham who seem to be handing 3 points to our relegation rivals like confetti