Torquay United v Burton Albion - League 2 - 06/08/11

[ferrarilover]

Football League Two
Plainmoor, Torquay, Devon
Kick-off 1500.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the time is finally upon us. Following the shortest break between seasons for many a year, The Gulls (no apostrophe) get right back into it against Burton Albion at Plainmoor on Saturday.

There's a lot to do for this one, so best get on with it...

Pre-Season – TUFC

We’re all pretty familiar with the pre-season that the boys have had, but I’ll flip through it just for posterity.
We kicked off with a narrow 2-1 win at Tiverton Town. Taking a one goal lead in the first half with a superb half way line lob from JOastler. Pegged back shortly into the second half by a goal from local legend Kevin Hill, we finally sealed the match with a penalty from, then trialist, Taiwo Atieno.
We followed this up with a particularly satisfying defeat of Bristol City at Plainmoor. A nice reaction finish from Taiwo and a well hit, but badly fielded, shot from Rene Howe early in each half was the difference between the two sides. The visitors, despite a clogged pre-season schedule, fielded a team full of star names. Make no mistake, this was a decent win.
Days later came the visit of That Lot From Up The Road. Despite a load of old rubbish to the contrary from their supporters, their teams enthusiasm and spirit was summed up by the TWO bookings they collected. The final score of 3-0 doesn’t quite reflect the absolute lesson which was doled out by the Yellows. Lloyd Macklin was the star of the show, despite an excellent showing from Rene Howe, Eunan O’Kane and others. The goals were supplied by Rene Howe (get used to reading that) with a delightful finish from a Macklin cross. Billy Kee headed the second from an identical set up and Morris added a relatively late third with a sweet strike from the edge of the box after good work from Halpin down the deeply vulnerable ECFC right hand side.
Shortly thereafter, we suffered our only defeat of the pre-season, going down 3-1 to a Burnley side who were, in truth, much too good for us for large portions of the match. Undoubtedly, the highlight of the match was a wonder strike from that man Howe, who beat Brian “The Beast” Jensen from all of 35 yards with a strike which, had it been scored by Messi or the like, would be up for international awards.
Lastly came an absolute demolition of Truro City, who, despite their lowly standing in the Conference South, are absolutely no mugs. Any team at that level sporting the likes of Les Afful and, quite astoundingly, Barry Hales, must be doing something right. The final score of 6-2 was not the full story of a match which United dominated. Some excellent work was done by Morris, who showed he certainly has some class, as well as Eunan in the middle and Taiwo up front, who was not adequately rewarded for some good play on the shoulder of the last defender. Aside from Atieno, goals came from Billy Kee (penner which would have killed the keeper had it hit him), McPhee (defensive error from our own Ed Palmer, but put the keeper on his arse and finished simply) Lathrope (excellent 25 yard strike with his first touch), Oastler (nice work by EoK, decent finish from the RB) and Howe (terrible and very unfortunate error from their young keeper who really did not deserve to concede 6, headed in by Howe from about 1/3 inch).

Pre-season – Burton Albion

Burton have played a number of matches this pre season.
The first came against Derby County, who had recently secured the services of former Brewers ‘keeper Adam Legzdins. Burton went ahead as early as the 7th minute, but were soon pegged back, and eventually fell to a 3-1 defeat.
Three days later, Burton played their first away match of the year at local league side Rochester. A 5-2 victory is perhaps as good as it needed to be against such weak opposition.
Some short time later, all their good work against Rochester was severly undermined when they were roundly thrashed by Conference side Tamworth. A 4-0 drubbing can never be good and, despite the presence of a couple of trialists and a full outfield switch at half time, make no mistake, this was a first team fixture and Saturday’s opponents were absolutely mullered.
A mixture of youth and experience was the order of the day for their next match, against Conference North outfit Solihull Motors. A 1-0 halftime score line was unchanged at the final whistle, and, despite the win, this victory is hardly in the same class as the 6-2 victory TUFC managed against opposition from the equivalent division.
One final match against AFC Telford produced another disappointing result, as the Brewers were held to a meagre 1-1 draw against yet more lower league opponents.
All in, it is plain and obvious which side has had the better pre-season. While we have been strolling past upper L1/Championship opponents and soundly thrashing the lower league played just one set of full timers, and were beaten comfortably enough, and have singly failed to impress in any of their jaunts against vastly inferior opposition.

Ins and outs

Torquay have lost Manager Paul Buckle, Goalkeepers Scott Bevan and Danny Potter, Defender Guy Branston, Winger Chris Zebroski and various members of back room staff.
By way of replacement, we have bought in the simply superb Austrian international goalkeeper Bobby Olejnik from the obscurities of Scottish “football”.
Benchwarmer Potter has been replaced by returning Gull, Martin Rice, who, from his brief showings in pre-season is a far removed man from the boy we once knew.
Replacing POTS Pickles Branston is Martin Ling’s prodigal son, Brian Saah. The central defender is a smaller, blacker, better version of the man mountain who left us for the bright lights and big money of Bradford City, good luck to him, I say.
Zebroski has been replaced by, well, depends on how you look at it I suppose, but I guess his most direct replacement is McPhee. Another returnee to the fold, Chris McPhee comes to us for the second time, having established himself as a very competent Conference National striker. Famed for his versatility, Chris is equally happy playing at right back as he is on the left wing, in goal, or up front.
Also joining the Yellow revolution is striker Rene Howe, unsettled in his career thus far and trapped in a loveless relationship with Peterborough United, he has come to the bay to settle down and get his career back on track.
Also along for the ride is classy left winger Ian Morris who, despite looking like an original member of Boyzone, certainly seems the ticket on a football pitch.
Further to his trial, striker Taiwo Atenio has signed on the dotted line. Tall and faster than Trojan leaving B&L when it's his round, Taiwo has shown that he knows where the back of the net is.
Of course, it would be remiss of me to neglect to extend a warm Devonshire welcome to new manager, Martin Ling. Met with almost universal consternation upon appointment, Dinger has VERY quickly reminded us what the Plainmoor dugouts look like, the previous incumbent choosing instead to obscure them from view with his ego. From the backroom, Shaun Taylor has replaced Shaun North as wingman. Come on then Evans, let’s see you push this particular TUFC assistant manager, see how far it gets you. Torbay A&E is my guess.

Ins and outs – Burton Albion

The Brewers failed to offer a contract to bit part striker Rickard Walker, so he left for pastures new. His 37 apps (5 goals) in two years is unlikely to be missed. Also departing on a Bosman is midfielder Russell Penn, who chose to go to Cheltenham Town, rather than remain with the Brewers. He was Manager Paul Peschisolido’s first money signing two years ago and his departure to opponents of such low regard in the same division is likely to be a little concerning to the Burton hardcore. Of course, the real loss to BAFC is that of goalkeeper Adam Legzdins to Derby County. The big goalie was the difference between success and failure in many matches last season for our visitors, and they may well struggle to equal last year’s moderate success without him at the back.
By way of replacement, Burton have made a couple of very good signings. Chief among which is poaching striker Justin Richards from Port Vale. One of a pair of Richards brothers, Justin was instrumental in guiding PV to a perfectly respectable finish last season. Among their other signings is Derby County keeper (in a loan arrangement, which is widely believed to have been part of the AL deal) Ross Atkins. A brace of Leicester City folk arrive in the shape of striker Adi Yussuf and defender Tom Parkes on a 6 month loan deal. Also at the back comes Danny Blanchett from Crewe.
I’m simply not qualified to comment on the quality of the Burton squad. I am indebted to those among the membership of this site who have a far reaching knowledge of lower league footballers and I welcome the thoughts from these people on the signings Burton have made and the players they have lost.

Last Season

Well, by way of comparison, there is no comparison.

We are all well aware of how our season finished at Old Trafford. We exceeded all expectations by finishing in the final playoff place, following a dramatic last day turn of events which saw both ourselves and Gillingham lose, allowing the Gulls to advance to the post season while leaving a very good Gillingham side (and others beside) wondering where it all went wrong.
By contrast, Burton Albion had an unsteady and, at one stage, perilous season. Somehow managing to accumulate 9 games in hand over the Christmas period, Burton were, at one stage, so many games behind that, despite being in the bottom two, able to get into the automatic promotion places with a favourable run. Sadly, this favourable run turned out to be anything but, and soon, those matches in hand evaporated without any real advancement in points tally, Burton were in serious danger of going down and, in the end, slightly lucky that there were simply two teams worse than them, rather than avoiding the drop through their own endeavours. Finishing fully 17 points (68/51) and a whopping 35 goals (+21/-14) behind the Gulls, it is clear to see which team has found their feet in L2 (back in L2, in our case).

The match ahead

Since there is little to say about what has gone on already this season, I am looking ahead to the match on Saturday, but since my crystal ball is STILL at the menders, I’m going to have to give opinion.
I think we’ll do alright. Burton have had a terrible pre-season, failing to beat some absolute cannon fodder and just generally not appearing, on paper at least, to be all that much of a threat. I think BAFC will struggle this season, especially with the loss of their talismanic goalkeeper. As for Saturday, I can only realistically predict a TUFC win, with the proviso that this is based largely on a knowledge that Burton have never been good enough to trouble us greatly before, and we look as good now as we have at any time int he last few years, so why would they do differently this time.
Good luck to Burton for the rest of the season, Got absolutely nothing against them and genuinely hope they stay up, if for no reason other than we often do well against them and their ground has a covered away end (unlike some “big” clubs I could name...)
Prediction then, I’ll say 3-0 Gulls, With the line up featuring all the usual suspects, Nico at LB, and Kee partnering Howe up front and Macklin getting the nod over Stevens.

Sorry it’s gone on for so long, I hope it was worth it. As usual, errors and omissions to be reported to:

Matt is an idiot and has failed to research YET ANOTHER match day thread correctly,
BBC Television Centre,
Wood Lane,
London.

Matt.

[chippygull]

What a very nice, well judged, informative preview if I may say so. Thank you.

[Sexy_Gulls]

The previews on this site are fantastic. Way more balanced and informative about the opposition than the majority of other fans forums. A real credit etc etc.

Anyway my first chance to see the Ling regime in action. I'm fairly confident we can hit the ground running and win 2-0.

Howe, O' Kane.

[gullno4]

2-1 Torquay, Howe and Kee

[Colorado Gull]

A very good starter Match Thread!

I'm going for a 2-1 victory, with Howe to score and O'Kane!

COYY!

[SteveDeckchair]

Starting to get excited about this now. Woo hoo!

Torquay 2-0 Burton

Kee and howe.

Thankyou please!

[Richinns]

A win for me.

2-1 (Howe and a Morris thunderbolt!)

[blueboy]

Good post and very witty! I think you should win this one fairly comfortably, I'm going for 2-0.

I didn't realise they'd signed Justin Richards, possibly one of the worst strikers to ever wear the blue & white quarters. Great bit of business from Holloway, only £75,000 and zero goals in 16 appearances. Can't imagine he'll cause your defence too many problems.

Good luck guys, hope you start off with a win!

[SteveDeckchair]

Cheers blueboy, I fully expect him to score a hat trick now!

[Southampton Gull]

Well, I've worked my backside off today to make sure my diary is free for tomorrow so there better be a bloody ticket waiting for me when I get there

Great OP Matt, a real credit to us and for you personally. Brilliant stuff.

I hate making forecasts and I'm worried so many are predicting an easy win for us, I'm expecting a tough game that could go either way. Whatever the result as long as we show some of the endeavour we have in pre-season I'll be happy.

[stevegull]

As with 'Southampton Gull' i would urge more caution for the opening day of the season.

I see a close game which we might edge, although i wouldn't be overly disappointed with a draw.

Despite my caution, looking forward to the season now!

[Fonda]

Excellent opening post. There's a lot of effort right there.

As for the game, opening day is always tough to predict as it largely comes down to who's fitness work has them best prepared for competetive football.

Having said that, despite a decent looking strikeforce, i think Burton are going to struggle this season. I obviously hope their problems start tomorrow. I'm worryingly confident, and think we might take ir 3-1. Which probably guarantee's a bore draw.

[tktufc91]

I've been looking forward to this game all week. Finally, football is back!!!

I think Burton will provide a tough test, but personally I don't think they will do well this season and I think we will be able to start the campaign with a win. 3-1 Gulls.

Got my ticket paid for over the phone today so I'm happy.

"COME ON YOU YELLOWS!!!"

[stefano]

Top of the table by 4.50pm tomorrow with a comprehensive 4-0 win

[Dave]

Cracking post Matt, dont really do prediction's rubbish at them,just hope stefano is right, COYY