Torquay v Aldershot 22nd October 3pm

uffculmegull · Post by **uffculmegull** » 22 Oct 2016, 20:46

Now on a normal Saturday at home I have one eye on the game and one on the time on the big screen hoping that it will go quicker because we are getting stuffed . But very oddly the first time I looked today was at the eighty fourth minute, not sure it was that totally absorbing watch but there was plenty going on, mainly in our half. Enforced substitutions aside, I so want Nicho to reach his three hundredth game but please can he wait until later in the season when we are safe in the league because a tortoise could have done him for speed today, and while it is universally accepted that we lack pace throughout the team we do not need to compound the problem by putting Ward in front of GG, probably two out of the three slowest players in the squad, and while I am having a small pop at GG, when he does his back four warm up routine with Nicho before the game his heading is superb, once the game starts every time he heads its like a spot the ball contest, it goes anywhere except where he intended. LRT had a good game and looked like he played centre half as a regular. Young and Richards played as we have come to expect of them and I am loathe to overly praise Moore who was outstanding because the last time I said that he had a nightmare the next game.
All in all a very credible fighting draw, but could some please explain that for a club that is so stretched for cash and on one of the brightest and sunniest afternoons so far this season we had the floodlights on all match, lastly what was Phillips doing in the dugout all match other than giving the impression we have more bodies available than we actually have, I hope he wasn't trying to give tactical advice.

Post by **Dave** » 22 Oct 2016, 21:59

Today it felt a bit like Aldershot v Brendan Moore, Moore has had some criticism, and partly deserved at times for some poor decision making, but today Moore was outstanding in every aspect of the game, bar his distribution, which was high, long and constantly down the middle, but he won his team a point single handily, so massive well done to him.

The situation with our mounting injury list is bugging me, I've posted a couple of times about this, at this stage of the season we simply should NOT being seeing this number of players pulling up with muscle injuries, Gareth Law is a very well qualified physio, the blame certainly does not lie at his door, there, to me is something fatally wrong with the training schedules, I saw Chaney a number of times feel his hamstring as well, think it was lucky he made it through to full time, not sure that LRT isn't carrying a strain also, as I'm sure his leg was taped under his shorts.

Is our mounting injury crisis bad luck, to me, it's self inflicted, and wants sorting.

Today again, the team performance as a whole was poor, yes, we can look at Reid, Young today and others, and say, yes we saw plenty of effort, but it's all huff and puff, we have a team that lacks pace and width, and a reason why we're not seeing the best of Luke Young. Yes our club is short of cash, but what's wrong with looking down a couple of levels and source a couple of young hungry wingers, is crying out for it, it's stifling the likes of Young, who is constantly looking for an outlet, but there isn't one on the park.

Thought to be fair, the team looked nice and compact during the early stages, but when you end up with LRT at centre back, and Nicho at left back, you know your in trouble, so the steal a point was, in the end quite pleasing.

gateman49 · Post by **gateman49** » 22 Oct 2016, 22:02

Uffclumegull, I absolutely agree about the floodlights, and for that matter, why inflate the water bill by spraying the pitch pre match. It's the same for both teams dry or wet.

Yes, it was a funny old game, I sat high in the Bench in the second half and at times they had up to seven players in our box but a combination of woeful finishing and brilliant goalkeeping kept them at bay. The second half flew by for me too.

If you mean Dave Phillips, he was in the directors' box in the first half but I didn't see where he was after half time.

Dazza · Post by **Dazza** » 22 Oct 2016, 22:21

Does anyone know whether the Young Plymouth Argyle full back in still at the club. ?

hector · Post by **hector** » 23 Oct 2016, 07:01

Dazza wrote:Does anyone know whether the Young Plymouth Argyle full back in still at the club. ?

I believe he is as KN was saying in the pre-match interview that it was Palfrey who missed out on a place on the subs bench.

Guildford Gull · Post by **Guildford Gull** » 23 Oct 2016, 10:35

We get a 0-0 draw at home to Aldershot where our goalie is the man of the match and our manager says 'I am a lot happier then disappointed'. Expectations must be very low at our club. Interesting comment about Lathrope's groin going again. Perhaps our manager should have done more research before signing this lame duck.

Sad times. How much lower can our club sink?

Lloyder5 · Post by **Lloyder5** » 23 Oct 2016, 11:06

I won't comment directly on a match I didn't see; I always find it iritating when posters do that. However, I don't think a 0-0 draw against a team in reasonable form, with a bare-bones 11 is a sign of us sinking lower. It is where we are at the moment; struggling and overall probably a good point.

uffculmegull · Post by **uffculmegull** » 23 Oct 2016, 13:01

Most definitely agree with Lloyder 5 , that was a hard earned point, and there was a fighting spirit about the team that I have not seen this season, I heard Mcginty giving some verbals or encouragement which ever way you look at it to Chaney who was having one of his day dreaming periods and he seemed to respond , there was a lot more talk going on amongst the players. I cannot agree with Nicholson that the injury problems we are suffering are caused by long journeys in cars, or not having their mum to tuck them in at night or whatever reason that is trotted out from any professional managers book of 101 excuses. These players,and I can understand why, are brought back too early from injuries, we are painfully thin on players, Rotation is a word that will never exist in Nicholsons vocabulary because he doesn't have that luxury and probably never will do.
This season if we put up a fight in every game like we did yesterday I will be content considering everything.

jimhart · Post by **jimhart** » 23 Oct 2016, 13:49

In my 50 years of going to Plainmoor I cannot recall a team having as many shots on and off target as Aldershot did without scoring.
Thanks mainly to Moore in goal and their own just off target efforts. Aldershot must be gutted!!!
From Torquay's point of view a valiant effort from all player to hold on with the injuries incurred.
Despite not being positive and creative in midfield, Reid and Williams did ok with crumbs, but Brendan Moore 's performance took me back to Mike Mahoney who often saved us. All our players however showed tremendous efforts throughout.
Overall an amazing afternoon with a bonus point.

arcadia · Post by **arcadia** » 23 Oct 2016, 14:13

forevertufc wrote:Today it felt a bit like Aldershot v Brendan Moore, Moore has had some criticism, and partly deserved at times for some poor decision making, but today Moore was outstanding in every aspect of the game, bar his distribution, which was high, long and constantly down the middle, but he won his team a point single handily, so massive well done to him.

The situation with our mounting injury list is bugging me, I've posted a couple of times about this, at this stage of the season we simply should NOT being seeing this number of players pulling up with muscle injuries, Gareth Law is a very well qualified physio, the blame certainly does not lie at his door, there, to me is something fatally wrong with the training schedules, I saw Chaney a number of times feel his hamstring as well, think it was lucky he made it through to full time, not sure that LRT isn't carrying a strain also, as I'm sure his leg was taped under his shorts.

Is our mounting injury crisis bad luck, to me, it's self inflicted, and wants sorting.

Today again, the team performance as a whole was poor, yes, we can look at Reid, Young today and others, and say, yes we saw plenty of effort, but it's all huff and puff, we have a team that lacks pace and width, and a reason why we're not seeing the best of Luke Young. Yes our club is short of cash, but what's wrong with looking down a couple of levels and source a couple of young hungry wingers, is crying out for it, it's stifling the likes of Young, who is constantly looking for an outlet, but there isn't one on the park.

Thought to be fair, the team looked nice and compact during the early stages, but when you end up with LRT at centre back, and Nicho at left back, you know your in trouble, so the steal a point was, in the end quite pleasing.

Chaney is also strapped up below the knee which indicates slight ligament strain I noticed it at the Bideford friendly a few weeks ago.

Post by **Gulliball** » 23 Oct 2016, 15:06

Richards had the magic tape on his thigh area as well. I think a lot of players will carry niggles throughout the season, it's not that unusual.

tomogull · Post by **tomogull** » 23 Oct 2016, 19:59

You could not fault any of the players yesterday. Without Sparks & Blissett, and then losing Lathrope & Verma in the first half, the make-shift 11 in the second half gave everything for the team against a good Aldershot side. Kev Nicholson has never been renowned for speed, but what he lacks in speed, he makes up with good positional sense. The old boy did okay when he came on. It was a hard earned point.

We missed Nathan Blissett of course, but in one respect we didn't. When he's on the pitch, everything is aimed for his head - goalkicks, throw ins, free kicks - it becomes soooo predictabe for the fans, and the opposition. Yesterday, we had to try something different. Brett Williams put in a better shift without actually busting a gut. He is not the type of player who will chase long through balls. I suspect he would be a better player, and score a few goals, if he was getting crosses from the wings. But we've got no wingers .......

Because of our wafer thin squad, it seems as if players are returning from injury too soon. Sparks returned from injury to play in the Woking replay and now he's out again. Verma was out injured, returned yesterday, and had to go off again. Will he now be out for several weeks? Lathrope missed most of last season at Aldershot and it was said on the Aldershot forum that he is 'carrying a long term injury' whatever that means. Surely this should have been picked up by the club before he signed? He is a shadow of the player that played under Martin Ling. We can't afford to carry players who are going to be out injured for half the season.

Aldershot looked a good side - one of the best Aldershot teams for a long time. They play at pace and take throw ins quickly - unlike us where we take an age to decide where the ball should be thrown (usually waiting for Blissett to get in position). They could be a suprise package this season but I think they will fall short at the play off stage. I was surprised (but pleased) Iffy Allen wasn't brought on earlier. He would have been a nightmare for either Gallifuoco or Nicho.

And then there was the referee. Oh dear ...... The refs we have had in recent weeks have been okay - no complaints. I thought the ref for the Woking game was rather fussy but overall he didn't get much wrong. Yesterday, an example of stupidity and inconsistency - he made Brendan Moore move sideways by about six feet to take a free kick way back in his own half. Ten minutes later, he allowed an Aldershot player to take a free kick five yards (no exaggeration) forward from where the free kick was given to almost on the half way line. Luke Young's booking was ridiculous. The Aldershot player deliberately ran into him - Young didn't block him. I see the ref was one ADRIAN QUELCH - the same ref we had for the Dover match. He was appalling in that game as well. He is by far the worst ref he have had this season.

Post by **Dave** » 23 Oct 2016, 21:03

Competitors in all sports do indeed carry niggles, but when you see a collection of footballers from the same team picking up the same injuries, and carrying niggles 16 games into the season (October) it goes past nothing unusual, and becomes a serious concern. Also we do see lots of sports men and woman wearing the magic tape, but when you see players wearing it, and constantly holding a particular area of their body, you know that niggle is progressing.

I posted about this a couple of weeks ago. Our team hasn't been staying in games for 90 minutes since day one, and now we're seeing our squad dropping like flies with very similar injuries, is down to an inexperienced manager, is he taking fitness and conditioning advice from the wrong person, something is not right here.

nickbrod · Post by **nickbrod** » 23 Oct 2016, 21:56

Referring? Adrian Quelch? Where's Brett Huxtable when you need him?!

gullpower · Post by **gullpower** » 24 Oct 2016, 09:11

tomogull wrote:

And then there was the referee. Oh dear ...... The refs we have had in recent weeks have been okay - no complaints. I thought the ref for the Woking game was rather fussy but overall he didn't get much wrong. Yesterday, an example of stupidity and inconsistency - he made Brendan Moore move sideways by about six feet to take a free kick way back in his own half. Ten minutes later, he allowed an Aldershot player to take a free kick five yards (no exaggeration) forward from where the free kick was given to almost on the half way line. Luke Young's booking was ridiculous. The Aldershot player deliberately ran into him - Young didn't block him. I see the ref was one ADRIAN QUELCH - the same ref we had for the Dover match. He was appalling in that game as well. He is by far the worst ref he have had this season.

Unfortunately, as one of my mates always says, fifth division football - fifth division officials. But Adrian Quelch really takes the biscuit.

Also, why is it that the linos are petrified of making any decision that is not either an off side or right under their noses? When was the last time you saw a ref trot over to the side line to have a word with the lino?

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