Torquay United v Enfield Town(VNLS game 1) - Aug 10th

[UnitedinDevon]

Torquay 2 - 0 Enfield

[exilegull]

0-1 Enfield

Fair play, really nice goal on the break.

[exilegull]

1-1 Carson, well deserved after good pressure and a couple of quality corner deliveries

[exilegull]

2-1 Brad Ash, nice header from a Carson cross.

Carson is looking really good at both ends so far.

[TUFCfan]

Mussa and Carson seem like a massive upgrade on our set piece takers from last year.

[RedGull1902]

Very good first half ok second , but overall dominant apart from the 3rd minute and last minute let off, very good start and very good crowd

[Gull in black]

Fantastic to get the 3 points and a home win. Some very strong performances and a high level of energy and running from the team especially in the first half.
Early days but would have liked to have taken one of the other chances to kill the game off.
Would be interesting to see Crosbie and Seymour start.
Great start to the season, great crowd. COYY

[tufcyellowarmy]

Just got back from the game. I really like our shape as it creates so much space inside.
Threlkeld , Mussa , and Dreyer stood out but everyone of them look so much better than what we had last year.
Well done PW and the lads.

[Dave]

As the new era swung into action, could Enfield spoil the party. The pre match build UP was excellent with the popside youngsters with their new flags making quite a racket but sadly the atmosphere whilst good in places was a little patchy.

Torquay caught very early doors, far too slow on the ball wanting too much time, Enfield stole the ball and from the resulting cross found the net with a well placed glancing header, then it's about not panicking, you can almost hear coach/managers at all levels barking out to their teams, stick to the game plan.

Think it's fair to say Torquay as a team did stick to the plan, soon settling, we saw lots of nice passing moves, and the team went long when needed, it wasn't long before TUFC got their first meaningful shot of, which I still think the keeper touched onto the crossbar, but was duly given as a goal kick.

However by now TUFC were in control of the midfield, and I said to a friend if this pattern continues we'll soon be back in this game, we didn't have to wait long, as a goal disputed by some Enfield players was allowed to stand after a short talk between the referee and assistant, and slick move finished by Ash had Torquay in front.

One criticism for me today was our finishing, not a huge concern going forward after all this was game one, but Cooke fluffed his lines with a gift of chance towards the end of the first half, and we saw a lack of composure in our finishing through out the game with several good chances not taken.

Second half a little more difficult to talk about, Enfield came out after the break with more purpose than us, having a decent 10 -15 minutes, with Mussa tiring, and perhaps one or two others, it's at this point PW started to ring the changes, what a breath of fresh having a manager who is pro-active, rather than re-active.

With the lively Hasani on, the team certainly started get more on the front foot, but Enfield continued to pose more of a threat in the second half, with a third goal for United ruled out, a great chance for Ash wasted, with the ball that seemed to rebound of the post from a penalty area scramble, was it going to be our day ? Well a point blank save from Hamon, with the rebound shot cleared off the line, yep, it was our day and the 3 points banked.

Dreyer again the stand out player at the back, Folivi for Enfield was areal handful throughout, certainly gave Dreyer a few headaches, Mussa in Midfield excellent maybe needs a bit more time on fitness, I like the look of Tonks also.

More positives than negatives, every player did gave their upmost best as promised they would, apart from some poor finishing, think the team lost lost a few physical battles, but considering the lack of time they've had together so far, no complaints from me.

[culmstockgull]

Good match report Dave, I thought certainly second half we were not as fit as we had been led to believe by Wootton, more so as we were up against a part time team, Foulston is a good left back and matt carson is going to be a favourite at plainmoor if he keeps doing his man down the wing, I agree about Cooke who was the one disappointment for me, he has no pace and when he should have been in the air for crosses he was attached to the turf or on his arse moaning at the ref. Hasani was a revelation when he came on although at tiverton I wondered why we had signed him. Mussa what a player, probably too good for our level, although I do wonder if we will ever get 90 minutes out of him. Hayfield, always thought of him as a forward but he seemed to spend more time as a holding midfielder. Other than the last five minutes which was horrible to watch it was a positive afternoon.

[Southampton Gull]

Can anyone verify the attendance today?

[Kingswear Gull]

3,839 (214 away supporters )
Generally an excellent performance.
COYY

[portugull]

3,837 including 214 away fans.

[numpte]

Watched 70 of the 90 on the fabulous service that is National league telly. Good first half, liked Carson and Dreyer, 2nd half less so and slightly hanging on with 2 goal line clearances saving our bacon in injury time. But, new team and 3pts is 3 pts. Wasted a lot of opportunities but good to see 4 strikers for competition.

[portugull]

Despite conceding a goal after just 3 minutes this was a very entertaining match which contained many positives for United Fans.

What I enjoyed was the speed of passing, the accuracey of passing and the shape of the team from which you could see each player knew his job and concentrated well.

Mussa made one fantastic run which showed how good he can be when match fit. Sam Dreyer is excellent at CB and on 77 minutes he got in a great recovery block tackle which possibly saved us 2 points. Carson was prominent and scored an excellent goal just when we needed it most.

Oscar Threlkeld shows how important his experience is and I like Tonks and Hayfield who has a great shot in his bag for free kicks.

As others have said Cooke will feel dissappointed with today but its our first League game and on the whole I think Paul Wotton has worked miracles in such a short time with so many new players.

You only need study todays results to know this League is very competitve and and all but three games was decided by the odd goal.

Looking forward to Dorking at Plainmoor on 24th August