Torquay United v FC Halifax

Post by **Scott Brehaut** » 15 Mar 2016, 23:46

Two teams, both in the mire and both probably blowing out of their arses, get a scrappy draw.
We're still unbeaten and can be out of the bottom 4 with a victory on Saturday. Wouldn't have said that five or six games ago.

I'm sure it was frustrating for those of you there, but focus on the positives and things look slightly better

tomogull · Post by **tomogull** » 15 Mar 2016, 23:51

Certainly a dour game and I agree that we never really looked like winning it and neither did Halifax. Both defences were in total control, although their keeper looked less secure than Brendan Moore. I heard before the match that Halifax had only lost 3 of their last 21 games (now 22 games) so I realised it wouldn't be easy.

I thought Courtney Richards had a much better game tonight than his last two or three games. He could have won it at the end but credit to their keeper - he stood large and made it difficult. I couldn't see the point of taking off Andre Wright and pushing Verma up front. That's never going to work. Hopefully, Nathan Blissett will be fit to play on Saturday and Nicho said after the match that Luke Young is not far off full fitness which is good news. I thought the game was well referee'd by the way. I was hoping for 4 points from the two games this week so on we go to face Southport.

P.S. Attendances tonight - Dover & Braintree, both in play off positions and both at home, pulled in gates of 743 and 572. When combined, that's 350 LESS than our gate. Incredible. Oh, and another P.S. - yet again, well done to Danny on the Drum and the Pop Side lads and gals. Fantastic support all match.

Gullscorer · Post by **Gullscorer** » 16 Mar 2016, 00:21

Looking at recent results of the bottom seven clubs, Torquay and Halifax stand out as the best results-wise, so a draw was actually not such a bad result, and both clubs have a good chance of finishing the season above Guiseley, Boreham Wood, and Altrincham, all of whom should be very worried about the likelihood of joining the bottom two clubs in the final relegation places.

DevonYellow · Post by **DevonYellow** » 16 Mar 2016, 07:37

Frustrating night in that for all our huff and puff we couldn't carve out many chances. Always seemed to want that extra touch in the box but that is common in sides not scoring a lot.

It was important not to lose the game and I think the subs reflected that. Was suprised to see both recognised strikers go off though.

All in all another point gained, another clean sheet, and keeps Halifax down here and us in contention.

samuel · Post by **samuel** » 16 Mar 2016, 07:51

This game will never feature in the top 1000 let alone 100. I like the keeper, very impressed. As for the rest, Angus did well but I think actually Kevin Nicholson is probably getting the best he can out of some very average players. Can't knock the commitment and effort though which I like.

Kit_robin · Post by **Kit_robin** » 16 Mar 2016, 08:37

Must admit I am surprised about the generally positive comments about last night. For me, that performance was deeply worrying - both from a team and managerial point of view.

Defensively we are an improved unit with Racchi shielding the defence, allowing the defenders some respite to do what they do best, but that was where the good stuff ended.

Completely failed, in the absence of Blisset, to hold the ball up front and move the team up the pitch. This was obvious from a lot of the Braintree game and the whole of aldershot on Saturday. So why not try something slightly different? What about 4-3-3/4-5-1? Even if Nicholson wanted to keep the same formation, our lack of pace was startling and surely one of Ajala (despite being useless) or Allen must start.

As for the decision to take both our forwards off, and put Verma up front on his own, well it beggars belief, to be honest. As well as Verma not being a forward, he was also the worst of the three on the night by some considerable margin and, as anyone who has seen him play will testify, is completely immobile.

From that moment the game was gone, and despite a last gasp attempt at the end (our only shot on target all night!) we never looked like winning the game. It was only Halifax's complete lack of ambition that we managed a draw, in my opinion. But honestly, if we had played like that against Braintree last week, or against any of our tougher games coming up against Eastleigh,
Tranmere etc. We will be absolutely battered.

The positives are we managed to claw back another point, and now that game is gone we can forget about it and try to get some performances going again. Blissets return will help so I'm sure we can beat southport on Saturday, but everyone needs to improve otherwise we will fall short.

Charley the Gull · Post by **Charley the Gull** » 16 Mar 2016, 08:59

Agree with most of the comments that it was a dull game and looked like Halifax were playing for a draw - no ambition from them and their only tactic was pumping high balls. But we just haven't got it under control in the middle of the field and limited creative passing. Key for me was why did Wright spend a lot of his time out on the wing? He kept having to collect balls out wide so no-one in or around the box. Sadly I think the pressure is affecting confidence, hence the number of shots that would have graced conversion attempts at Twickenham! Couldn't understand why Ajala and Iffy were brought on at the same time as that left even more of a hole in the middle up front. However plenty of positives as well. First look at the new keeper and he is classy with a quick football brain on him as we saw from his distribution. Second the defence looked solid. Finally, overall they looked like a team that wanted to win and were determined not to give away goals. So a solid basis for yet another key match on Saturday vs Southport. Having had a really good run their results recently have been mixed and they are now managerless. So, keep our defence strong and a little more creative running from midfield should see us get the three points we need.

brucie · Post by **brucie** » 16 Mar 2016, 09:27

Not as bad as some people seem to be saying. From Nicholson's comments before the match it looked likely that a 0-0 draw was on the cards. I actually thought that he would play Ajala rather than Verma but he went with four central midfielders.

It looked to me as though he wasn't too unhappy with a point. Taking off Wright and putting Verma up front seemed an odd one but his after match explanation that both forwards were "spent" seemed reasonable enough. Harrad seemed completely off the pace all night. For once this introduction of Allen didn't work.

Having said that plenty of effort from the team. The defence was solid and the new keeper is miles better than Lavercombe - we should really look at keeping him till the end of the season.

Thought we were the better side and probably should have won it at the end. Fairhurst was useless.

Behind-the-Gulls · Post by **Behind-the-Gulls** » 16 Mar 2016, 09:45

First half performance was okay overall and if we had managed to nick one(Wright had a couple of good chances) we might have gone on to win comfortably.Defensively we looked very solid,with the midfield shielding the defence well.In the second half the tempo dropped and I thought we made the double substitution too early-I would have kept Harrad on until the last ten minutes.Verma was isolated upfront with Ajala and Allen playing too far away from him.We didn't look scoring until the Richards chance at the end and it took a great save from Moore to stop Halifax from nicking it. We definitely need to win on Saturday and get the momentum going again.

Post by **SuperNickyWroe** » 16 Mar 2016, 10:26

Gullscorer wrote:Looking at recent results of the bottom seven clubs, Torquay and Halifax stand out as the best results-wise, so a draw was actually not such a bad result, and both clubs have a good chance of finishing the season above Guiseley, Boreham Wood, and Altrincham, all of whom should be very worried about the likelihood of joining the bottom two clubs in the final relegation places.

royalgull · Post by **royalgull** » 16 Mar 2016, 11:00

it was a must not lose, so a draw is ok. Obviously a win would have been massive but a draw is fine as Halifax are improving and I don't expect them to be too near the bottom 4 after 46 games.

First time for a while I'm happy with TUFc and what we're doing, delighted with the efficiency of sorting a replacement goalkeeper out, that had to be done, now we need Blissett back for Saturday as without him we can't score a goal. For Harrad and Wright's efforts they won't keep us up, the big man might. Southport in a bit of turmoil and freefall for me this is the biggest game of the recent lot, it's the most winnable in my opinion and with these 3 draws and a win vs them ad it's an excellent points haul.

TUST_Member_Rob · Post by **TUST_Member_Rob** » 16 Mar 2016, 11:55

Bliss could be back on saturday!

https://x.com/tufc_physio/status/710054376434495489

tomogull · Post by **tomogull** » 16 Mar 2016, 17:25

Maybe I was in a good mood last night, but as a defender who reached the 'heights' of Division 6 or 7 of the South Devon league, I was impressed by the defending of both sides. Considering the pressure on both teams, the game was played in a good spirit with only one dodgy tackle all night - the one that earned Richards a booking. The Halifax players could have made much more of the challenge but to their credit, they didn't. The back four of both sides were well organised and both sides fought hard, but fairly, in midfield. Both were 'powder puff' in attack - Waide Fairhurst huffed and puffed for about 20 minutes but got no change from Angus and Nathan and soon faded from the game as did Shaun Harrad. Yes - we all like to see goals but sometimes you have to hand it to the defences and last night was one of those nights.

Personally, I think we're a striker short. I would have thought it would have even been better to have Liam Prynn on the Bench rather than pushing Aman Verma into the attack.

Lloyder5 · Post by **Lloyder5** » 16 Mar 2016, 20:38

I thought Wright had a poor game compared to his recent efforts. Unlike others I thought Verma was reasonably effective up front, challenged for the high balls and brought the ball down for some decent lay offs. Received little support from Allen who was useless and Ajala who just about made it into the headless chicken category and thus at least kept Halifax occupied.

With regard to the point about opportunities, Verma had two shots in the first half, the first right at the start, which was rising as it went over the bar. Wright also had a 1 to 1in the first to go with Richards' effort in the second.

Overall I thought we had more ambition than hoofing Halifax but often took the wrong option or one touch too many.

Dockers Pal · Post by **Dockers Pal** » 16 Mar 2016, 21:03

Strikers? wheres Sean Finch when you need him??!!

Torquay United Fans Forum