Torquay United v St Albans F C Saturday 21 Sept KO 3pm

[Taelee73]

Difficult watch that match, we were poor again until the red card, slow, ponderous, but against 10 we were a different side, one full of energy and incisiveness.

Certain hand ball in the first half, certain penalty in the second as well. However we should have been 0-2 before we scored with the one off the line and the one on one save by our keeper.

The ref was terrible in almost every way possible, fussy about the position of free kicks, rolling ball, also gave strange yellow card decisions and then didn’t give yellow cards when he should. He got one red card correct, but there should have been another and a pen for that terrible challenge on Mussa.

Wotton needs to calm down a little, he was so angry he wasn’t thinking straight towards the end, the Mussa injury situation to me it looked as if he was telling/shouting at Mussa to get back up and onto the pitch. He was going absolutely ballistic as the physio has left his phone behind and Wotton didn’t know what was happening. whatever it was he wasn’t happy.

Fantastic attendance, I hope they keep coming.

As I’ve said multiple times, this season has to be one of building, there will be lows and highs, 10 odd games in and I read someone already wants Wotton out. Ridiculous.

[culmstockgull]

So we’ve drawn at home to Averly and St Albans , bottom and second bottom , lost at welling who as proved today and last week are crap and been embarrassed by a village team in the cup .Where was this reaction today we were promised it was awful again . 3300 and we’re getting results like this . I think the consortium need to have a long hard look at their manager and ask him some serious questions because we deserve a lot better than is being served up .

If you wish to be taken half seriously on the forum do not make your first post about the perceived shortcomings of the manager, does he make mistakes, by his own admission he does every day, but he is vocal and the team should know exactly what they are doing with him, some players and it is more than one or two have consistently under erperformed at the standard the supporters or wotton exoects but that is typical of any new squad, they cannot hide for ever, I am sure that will jenkins davies will not be the only quality loan brought in to imorove the squad.

[kerswellgull]

Disgraceful challenge on Mussa and appalling refereeing decision
Midfield overrun yet again, we need a Tom Lapsie type to pressurise the opposition

[Dave]

Pretty much every point I will make has already been covered but here goes anyway.

To start a real positive, another 3,200 gate, what fantastic support we have at TUFC and I did post several times last season, with right owners, right direction, 3,000 gates were possible it also shows just how the fanbase and community are getting behind the project, which is in its infancy.

If we want to start a Gary Johnson V Paul Wotton debate, we know from the fans forum at the start of the season, the players budgets were as follows in the region of.

GJ £1 million
PW £0.5 k

It does beg the question, what kind of squad would PW have assembled if he'd had £1 million to spend compared to what Gary Johnson actually did.

On to the game, I'm loathed to critise any referee, for so many reasons, on so many levels it's possibly the hardest most thankless job in football, but this referee yesterday I have to question why he's even allowed to referee at any serious level

From own understanding from watching referee's explanations on decisions made during premier league games, we saw the denial of a clear penalty in the first half, the St Albans players hand was above his head, clearly well outside the natural silhouette of his body when it hit his hand, and there seemed to be slight movement of the hand towards the ball.

I didn't see the foul on Cooke in the build up to their goal, but in the first half, a St Albans players has got both hands around Cooke's arm for a good 30+ seconds before Cooke goes down, only to have the ref, tell him to get up and wave play on, bizarre.

In the second half one of the few time we tried to play out from the back, the ball has clearly struck the referee on the leg, I thought that was supposed to be re-start with a drop ball for the team in possession, ref played on.

In the second half, the ball goes out for TUFC goal kick, St Albans player picked up the ball and threw it into the empty away end, I have no problem with a bit of dark arts, but I thought a deliberate prevention of the re-start was now a yellow card ?

As for the mussa penalty incident, don't get me started, can't fathom what decision the ref's made there, everyone in ground can see it's not a clean tackle, and if the ref thinks Mussa has dived, surely it's a yellow card and a free kick the other way, of we course all know it was the clearest penalty you'll ever see.

All that said, the team didn't deserve the win yesterday, Dreyer was outstanding, and pure instinct to to block a goal bound shot in the first half, and Hamon showed the benefit of not going down too early on a 1v1 situation stayed big and made a crucial save.

Our overall performance was lacking, if you're going to knock the ball long the midfield have to get up and support, that wasn't happening, so Cooke and Seymour were some what isolated, Threlkeld and Hasani were having no impact on the game at all, both looked wiped out, would have liked to have seen WJD come on earlier, to get a bit more industry in the middle, and Crosbie up front to add more physicality against their defence.

Some are questioning PW's ability to motivate, Mussa has been such a disappointment after a positive start here, after his last few performances I would wonder was there even a point to keeping him here, he's looked so diss-interested, well he came on in this game certainly fired up, looked more like the player that arrived, it was only after he and WJD came on our team had any control of the game.

Two points dropped, could have been worse.

[Dave]

Can someone tell me why the manager is proud of his players tonight after drawing at home to the bottom side and not being able to beat 10 men , we are Torquay not Truro

What the hell has Truro got to do with any thing, and what do expect or want PW to say , what do even think he's going to say, no football a manger can or will come out after every game, shouting, screaming a slagging off his own players.

No player will trust a manager, who doesn't trust his players, and there has to be two way trust/respect between a manager and his squad, it won't work with out.

[UnitedinDevon]

Ed Palmer with a rumoured broken eye socket

[North Curry House]

Ed Palmer with a rumoured broken eye socket

Incident should be reported to the police. It was GBH, do that in the town centre and you will be arrested.

[leetufc]

Thoughts on the game having taken time to let it sink in and watch the highlights back

Lets start with the ref - atrocious. Not just saying that because we didn't win, genuinely on the worst performances I have seen. Two blatant penalties missed (handball was potential just outside the box). No clue how him and the lino missed the Mussa foul. Got the red card right, but as others have said, he looked at pains to give it. Brandished three yellows to our players for dissent, yet somehow gave them none despite the protests after the red card. With the yellows for our dissent - all were given in a very rash manner - for one it doesn't look through through on the refs part and it also incenced the crowd needlessly. I can't recall a situation before where fans are telling the ref he doesn't know what he is doing after he gave the opposition a red card! To sum up his performance, he also blew his whistle for us to restart after their goal despite on of the St Albans players being a good 15 yards inside our half.

Performance - average at best. We struggled to create many chances of note until the red card, but defensively we looked okay. St Albans had two clear chances other than the goal – a great block by Dreyer and a good 1on1 save from Hamon. Cooke went over too easy for their goal to give the ball away – it’s a foul in another game but based on what the ref was giving up to that point, he was never giving it. We then allowed their player too much space to pick his shot.

Midfield was bypassed too much going forward. We looked much better once Tonks, Mussa and WJD were introduced but this also coincided with playing against 10. Strikers were poor, but they also don’t get great service. Seymour took his goal well, but only after he played a terrible pass instead of shooting first time around, other than that offered little. It looks to me that PW has focussed his initial setups and training on getting the team stronger defensively, so hopefully the attacking performances will come in time.

Too many times we take the easy pass and/or don’t have good decision making. A couple of examples - Hayfield had the ball in their half and a clear pass to put WJD through in the middle but never looked up once and played the ball to Tonks on the right, and near the end of the game Ash beat their left back to ball comfortably for pace, he should have taken him on as it looked a clear mismatch but instead he slowed the game down.

I understand why fans are saying we should aim for promotion, and I agree that this should be our aim. However, I think as a fan base we also need realistic expectations that promotion and the playoffs aren’t a given and a midtable finish should not lead to calls for PW to be sacked (performances depending). We were nearly out of business a few months ago and are rebuilding the club (not just the first team). A core of our signings have come from clubs in this league and don’t come with glittering careers at a higher level, or are young and unproven, and they also need time to gel together.

I do think our league position probably flatters us having had a relatively easy run of fixtures based on current league positions of those we have faced, but you can only play who is in front of you. I think we are moving in the right direction, and hopefully more games will lead to better performances.

[Modgull]

Quite amazing that one numpty actually thinks that the Mussa incident wasnt a penalty.

The ball doesnt move and the defender goes straight through Mussa - its a blatant penalty.

Yes, thought it was a penalty at the time and am even more certain having seen the video - as Brucie says, if he had made contact with the ball it would not have stayed put - the force of that tackle would have sent it into the family stand. And' given that Mussa's standing foot was taken out, it should have been a red card - it is a miracle that his ankle was not broken.

The referee was the poorest I think I have ever seen - how the handball was not given I will never know although I don't know if it was in the area.

Even with the red card incident he showed such little concern for Palmer's well being it was not for some time that he checked on the damage and only then issued the red card. But only after brandishing a yellow to Sam Dreyer who was justifiably upset at the incident.

Nevertheless, he was not the reason we dropped two points - our performance was generally well below par and I am not quite sure why the manager was so proud of the performance. Too much aimless lofting of the ball to two strikers who had a generally torrid time against some giant defenders and no spark in midfield.

[portugull]

Big credit to the Club for the Statement today on Ed Palmer and Omar Mussa.

I would like to ask those who might know has the Club the right to report the conduct of the Referee and Banton who was guilty of violent conduct which could have ended Palmers career?

An Orbital Fracture is very serious I would have thought.

Will the Club be showing the video to the National League as evidence of the Referees incompetence and does the NL have any authority to ban Banton for more than 3 games? The immediate reaction of the Popside made it very clear to us in Bristows Bench that Banton was guilty of a terrible foul on a fellow Professional.

[portugull]

I should have made it clear also that the Referees failure to award a Penalty and give No 31 a straight Red for taking out Mussa in the 96th minute is unfathomable as the defender played the man and not the ball no question.

[Taelee73]

Some similarities to John Uzzel tbh, when you jump in with your arm raised like that.
Same with the tackle on Mussa, neither challenge can be classed as committed, but instead reckless.
I don’t know if they can be reported to the league, but certainly both players deserve more punishment.

[AdrianC]

Common sense would dictate that you could use video evidence as you can use it I believe to appeal red card if you believe that to have been harsh.

[The Eternal Optimist]

I think Paul Wotton will be getting another call from a referee this week to apologise.

[PL21gull]

RE any action by the League, from an off-the-ball incident decades ago Utd v Hull, a deliberate elbow injury to our central defender, prior to Hull taking a freekick, which reduced us to 10 men and Hull thereby scored the winner, the League will only review if any of the officials saw and noted the incident (hence nothing happened!). I think the club can only mark the referee poorly and explain clearly why a low mark is given...?