Torquay Vs Crawley (Reserves)

[stratfordgull]

Finished 4-1. That's more like it, although against mostly youthies........

[stevegull]

Let's hope the first team can now follow suit....

[bobby93]

although against mostly youthies........

That may well be, but hopefully those that got on the scoresheet or played alright today can take a bit of confidence from the game. Certainly an improvement on last week's scoreline at the very least.

[CP Gull]

Much better second half after a pretty dull 1st half. We could and should have won by a lot more but to put it into perspective it was only Crawley's Youth team - they only had the one pro on show (Rusk) and he only played for an hour or so.

McPhee could and should have had a hatful but somehow failed to get on the scoresheet although his link up play got better as the game wore on - perhaps understandably though as it was only kids we were up against. He even missed a penalty (tame shot) early on after Spear was fouled and had several other chances to make amends but couldn't hit the proverbial barn door unfortunately! Ellis played for an hour, won lots of headers and was never troubled.

Macklin scored a decent goal at the start of the second half and was probably our best player on the day. Lathrope came into the game a lot more in the 2nd half although both him and Yeoman gave the ball away too cheaply, too often, for my liking. Spear scored with a header after a good cross from Macklin to make it 2-0 and then we made a couple of subs (Ellis and Spear off and Quinn and Thompson on). At this stage Ricey had had pretty much nothing to do but he then, single handedly, almost brought Crawley back into a game they should have been out of sight of!

He misckicked a clearance near the corner which went straight to one of their men and the guy calmly stroked it back into the empty net and then blow me but if he didn't do exactly the same thing again a few minutes later, only this time he managed to get back and (only just) got something on the ball to put it behind for a corner when it looked for all the world as though it was going to be 2-2. Pure comic genius there Ricey - made me laugh anyway!

McPhee set up Yeoman on the edge of the box for 3-1 and then Thompson who looked lively when he came on won a penalty after being tripped by their full back. McPhee, as captain, gave young Thompson the chance to convert - Macklin wanted it - and he made no mistake this time.

Like I say, Macklin was the stand out performer for me. Leadbitter doesn't look ready for the first team just yet - although he did get a lot better as the game wore on and his link up play down the right with Macklin was much, much better in the 2nd half than it had been in the 1st when he gave the ball away far too much. Young McKenzie played well, bar a couple of lapses and Rowe-Turner was ok, with a couple of decent runs early on. Ellis was very solid for the hour that he played and Halpin did well at times but generally lacked the end product on this occasion. Lathrope started spraying it around the park 2nd half and Yeoman had his moments and could also have added to his tally near the end.

Overall not too bad, general impression would be that Macklin, Lathrope and Ellis have done their first team chances no harm - but that Ricey and McPhee probably did!

[stevegull]

Spear to get onto the bench after his goal? Also got substituted along with Ellis - who we know will be playing....

[player2]

Any sign of Jamie hatch !!!

[AlexGulls]

Wasnt on the bench.

[ferrarilover]

You're "his mate" ( we all know the truth, Jamie) Player 2, you tell us... :~D

Matt.