Torquay v Lincoln Sat. 3 Sept. (k.o. 5:30 pm) match thread

[wivelgull]

Bruce! Bruce! Bruce! Bruce! Bruce! went the cry as Stuckey, B. dribbled towards the opponents goal. As for his impatience with other players, the great Ernie Pym was a bit like that. Ernie would get to a spot before anyone else, wait for the pass, but by the time it arrived he was, more often than not, bundled off the ball.

[freddisley]

After a reflective few days and watching the other posts. I think the following was evident.
1. We were bullied for a great portion of the game by a very physical and savvy team.
2. Our midfield has skill and endeavour but are lightweight in size and presence.
3. Rhead may be all the things previously mentioned but he can score goals. and he can lead the line like a seasoned pro.
4. Blissett and Reed are forming a partnership that will bring goals.
5. Nicholsons naive choice of subs undoubtedly cost us a share of the points, the last 20 minutes we were penned in , this surely is the time to bring on Gerring to play in front of the back four, not a young lad who looks at times like the veritable rabbit caught in the headlights,he has talent undoubtedly but I am not sure whether either nicholson or chaney know his best position, we cannot afford another lightweight midfielder and he hasn't got the instinct of a goalscorer.
6. For a neutral it was good entertainment, for us it showed we will be mid table and no more, but after last year I will settle for that.

[tomogull]

Looking back to last few games Blissett is playing well but he's never in the box, We need to get him in the box and give him the service as we know he can finish. Last season he had players around him doing the work now it seems he's doing more work outside the box than in.

Simple answer, Arcadia. Last season, we had Shaun Harrad. This season we don't.

[exilegull]

Freddisley,

Decent summary but not sure I agree with this...

"5. Nicholsons naive choice of subs undoubtedly cost us a share of the points, the last 20 minutes we were penned in , this surely is the time to bring on Gerring to play in front of the back four, not a young lad who looks at times like the veritable rabbit caught in the headlights"

I'm not convinced bringing on a centre back to play out of position is a good idea and it just adds to the mentality of being penned in. I assume bringing the fresh legs of Chaney on was to try and bring an outlet on and better keep the ball. On this occassion it didn't work, however in the future it might do and Lincoln's goal did come from a break from an attack where we could have won it ourselves. Had Gerring been on, we could well have sat back even more and conceded earlier - at which point no doubt an equal number of fans complaining about Chaney coming on, would have complained about bringing a defender on out of position and being penned in further.

[Lloyder5]

I actually don't agree that we were bullied for a greater portion of the game. I think Luke Young in particular is a 'savvy' player and puts in his share of blocks and nudges, that help with the physical battle. As to the subs, I would have brought on subs earlier. Nicholson was trying to bring on Chaney but we were conceding corners and he clearly did not want to make a change whilst those were being defended. Bringing on Gerring and pushing GG on might have made a difference. However, if you look at the goal, it was a fantastic cross and Rhead drifted in from our left and was picked up by LRT and then produced a great header. With the benefit of a large chunk of hindsight the one sub, Chaney should have run with the ball to the corner when he had it under control seconds earlier. So it may be a case of us holding on to what we had. However, I think we still believed we could win the game.

[SteveDeckchair]

I watched the second half again last night and there are a few things I would like to add.

Firstly, we were only really under the cosh from 80 minutes onwards. Even then, we had a corners and attacks where we could have put the game to bed/equalised beyond the 90 minute mark.

Next, the cross for their goal was a freak kick. Their player lofted it up and the wind took it back in towards the goal where Rhead was able to attack it.

I won't mention the subs again, other than the post above is correct with regards Chaney. The other two are a mistake and should have taken place earlier in time added on to break up the Lincoln pressure.

All in all, I am much more positive about our performance than I was on the night and having watched it back again in the cold light of day, can see that although we were dis-jointed at times, we played some pretty good stuff. We should also be reassured that we actually defended pretty damn well against the top scorers in the league by some considerable margin. I'm not convinced our defence is as dodgy as some try to make out.......

[arcadia]

Yes that's what I was getting at Tommo. You don't miss them till their gone.

[Dave]

Despite leveling criticism myself against Nicho for his lack of substitutions Saturday, to be fair, when your a professional manger with a lot riding on the result, making the decision on whether to change things or not at 1.1 with 20 minutes left can be the most difficult decision of the all.

Make the change and lose, the manager is damned, don't make the change and lose, as in this case he's still damned, For me, I agree with exile, bringing Gerring on would have been a negative change, and if you meet and negative with a negative, the result will be negative. Had Lincoln been getting loads of crosses in and Rhead causing us problems, then bring Gerring on and match him up to Rhead, but that wasn't the case, even though Rhead did get the winner, about the only thing he did do in the last third of the game.

I thought the team looked out on their feet in the last third, my criticism is centre on the fact, I thought a couple of positive attacking changes, would have given us fresh legs, hopefully restored out attacking momentum, in turn forcing Lincoln's back line to drop off, and relieve the pressure on our own defence.

But there's no magical formula, other wise every team would use it.

[PhilGull]

Despite leveling criticism myself against Nicho for his lack of substitutions Saturday, to be fair, when your a professional manger with a lot riding on the result, making the decision on whether to change things or not at 1.1 with 20 minutes left can be the most difficult decision of the all.

Make the change and lose, the manager is damned, don't make the change and lose, as in this case he's still damned, For me, I agree with exile, bringing Gerring on would have been a negative change, and if you meet and negative with a negative, the result will be negative. Had Lincoln been getting loads of crosses in and Rhead causing us problems, then bring Gerring on and match him up to Rhead, but that wasn't the case, even though Rhead did get the winner, about the only thing he did do in the last third of the game.

I thought the team looked out on their feet in the last third, my criticism is centre on the fact, I thought a couple of positive attacking changes, would have given us fresh legs, hopefully restored out attacking momentum, in turn forcing Lincoln's back line to drop off, and relieve the pressure on our own defence.

But there's no magical formula, other wise every team would use it.

For all their gym work, pumping iron, are the players doing much stamina work? From what I see on Twitter, it's all gym, gym. gym.

[arcadia]

It is a hard decision to settle for a draw but that's what Nicho is paid to do.The late substitutions were a reaction to the goal in blind panic it was a mistake, but it's time Nicho told the players to not give the ball away as we did, it became ping pong. I think someone has already said you send Chaney on with instructions to hold possession we were still trying to score and their keeper got the ball and lumped it up front. You don't let an opposition keeper have the ball in his hands the last few minutes like we did, it's lessons to learn but it's two games at home we've seen goals against the last few minutes.