Torquay United v Burton Albion - 22/9/12

[AustrianAndyGull]

Don't say that Danny! We'll have people coming on saying we played shite AGAIN but still got another point. They'd be right but playing a bit ok against Wimbledon and completely shite in most other games is not a recipe for a promotion push. That said i can't complain as i wasn't there but the teams at the top have goals in them, we don't . Simples.

[Plymouth Gull]

Poor performance against a decent side. Thankfully we didn't lose.

Howe was my MOTM purely for not giving up and he didnt lose his rag. Thought JOastler did well too.

Regarding the ref, started off well but there were some bizarre decisions during the 2nd. Overall he was much better than others have been (Roger East, example).

Craig looked excellent for the short time on the pitch, Thompson looked good. Bodin however should be concerned, he started the season off well, but seems to have disappeared in recent games. I hope he doesn't just think he's a definite starter because more performances like that and he'll find himself on the bench.

The midfield trio were completely overrun today I thought. Mansell and Morris struggled, Easton did okay but the sooner Damon is back fit, the better.

[chardie]

We are not firing on all cyclinders at the moment.
Not sure what is wrong with Bodin at the moment but I thought he was noticably poor.
Still 1 defeat in 8 is not disaster.

[Rach]

Plainmoor seemed to really lack something today, I was thinking about it all game and there was only the lack of fans that seemed to explain it.

Family stand nearly bare, and the pop didn't look very full either.The usual singers in the pop were good but apart from that the rest of the ground had no atmosphere (until Burton scored then their fans woke up for the last 3 minutes)

I thought the game wasn't too bad although the referee was confusing at times, as in the first half he seemed quite good, then in the second half he came out and gave everything to Burton, and when we started to get on his back he gave most decisions our way. He obviously liked us cheering and clapping at him :na:

The player that stood out a mile for me was definitely Oastler as he was fantastic, as was Downes. Saah didn't have a bad game either but he didn't do anything spectacular. I agree with everyone else's posts about Bodin as he just did nothing. I was going to ask him for a pic outside the ground after the game but I was too annoyed at him, he just seemed to half heartedly jog at the ball every now and then. Rene had a good game and seemed on good form. Pokey had a good game too and the rest were just average. Although Stevens seemed to struggle as he didn't chase the ball as much as he usually does, maybe because he doesn't want to over-do it.

We definitely need to sort something out to get more people to our games!

Oh and one thing that made me laugh - I was walking the dogs after the game and came out of Westlands lane and a domino's delivery guy got onto the Burton team coach with three massive pizza's

Burton didn't bring many compared to last season, but that maybe because we played them in August at Plainmoor and it was the holidays more people came. Idk.

[Dave_Pougher]

Anyone hear Lingys comments re the negative people behind him during the match ? Don't disagree with him but suprised he lets it get to him.

[Rach]

Anyone hear Lingys comments re the negative people behind him during the match ? Don't disagree with him but suprised he lets it get to him.

Nope, I sit in Bristow's Bench but I hardly make any noise but I heard a few moaning seems to be the same people every week

[AustrianAndyGull]

Not guilty. I wasn't even there!

[Plymouth Gull]

Anyone hear Lingys comments re the negative people behind him during the match ? Don't disagree with him but suprised he lets it get to him.

Yeh, sounded quite peed off didn't he?

[MidDevon]

I was surprised by Lingy's comments. I think halfway through the interview he realised it could be a bit of an own-goal and ended saying it was only about 10 people in a crowd of 2700, to sort of lessen what he was saying.

I am not worried at all about that BUT he did concern me with the over-emphasised how hard the team worked, must have said it 4 if not 5 times in the interview

Perhaps he was trying to convince himself, but that was in no way a commited performance like we normally see.

I genuinely felt sorry for Downes, Oastler and Howe today as the rest of the team (who were really poorly led by Mansell throughout) stood back and watched.

Whilst i may get some stick for these comments, I am not normally if ever critical of the team, but today was pathetic at times and Mansell's lack of form, and today commitment may have been the reason the team did not have the gun-ho attitude we normally expect.

[ferrarilover]

You'll get no criticism from me, Mid.

I am now becoming somewhat concerned. We've played well just thrice this year. We weren't much cop against Fleetwood, Port Vale, Rotherham, Burton or Plymouth, we got 4 points from 15 from these games, scoring just 2 goals.
Even in the matches where we play well, we are either not scoring an appropriate number of goals (Wombles) or we manage to score goals, but we leave ourselves open at the back.
We had this problem last year, not scoring anything like enough goals.
It's time for 4-5-1 to go in the bin and for a genuine 4-4-2 with Macklin and Rene up front. Thompson needs to replace the ineffective Bodin and Craig needs 90 minutes every week.
If we persist in 4-5-1, then we must abandon proper football and start just hoofing it forward to Rene and hoping for something to stick.

Matt.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Now that folk have seen a performance like i have against Fleetwood, Vale and Rotherham do you now sort of see where i was coming from in terms of criticising our negativity and total lack of attacking impetus? I'm not trying to say i told you so just that i was only telling you what i saw out on the pitch in front of my eyes. And i don't want to say this but say it i will, Bodin needs to seriuosly get his finger out and work out whether he wants to play for this football club because he has been the WORST player i have seen this season on a consistent basis. We may as well have 10 men.

[MidDevon]

It is not unheard of for players to sign with a written agreemant that they will play a certain number of first team matches (if fit).
With Bodin's enthusiasm to play first team football enough to drop a division I do wonder.....

[Dave]

Our first half performance was nothing to write home about, however nor was Burtons all things pretty even at half time despite our 1.0 lead, second half Burton came out and played with alot more purpose and pretty much blew us away, I am now becoming more than some what irritated watching the away team dominate possession, we can't stick our heads in the sand any more and pretend that whilst we are soaking up a bit to much pressure away, everything at home is just fine, because Rochdale aside it has been far from it.

I stood with my normal group near the half way line on the pop pleading for some pace on the wing, Macklin or Tompson, force their full back to drop, and hopefully force them to drop someone out of midfield, Tompson came on scared the livng hell out of their full back, and for the last 10 minutes or so, our team did gain some control of the match back, sadly after defending so well during the period of Burton's dominance we let one slip after we finaly had forced them back.

Pace to me is a massive weapon to have in your locker, very difficult to defend against, doesn't allways work however Cheltenham last season was a prime example of pace down both the wings working, this would be a tad harsh as Ian Morris is doing well and does deserve his plave in the team, we must see the bigger picture in my opinion, I would like to see the trio of Stevens/Macklin and Tompson working the wings some ral pace to burn amongst those guys, and Bodin switched into the O'kane role, Billy Bodin more than has the craft to unlock the back four of any team, and to fair to him yesterday Burton clearly had targeted him as our danger man and did a very good job on him, that would be more difficult for any team to crowd him out in the middle.

I fully understand that so far we have had alot of injuries, and it will be interesting to see how the team fairs when they are going into bat with a fully fit squad, things aren't right at the moment, but what us fans must do is stay on side, their is along way to go, and the team is sat in a pretty nice position despite so woeful performances.

Got to mention the lads on the popside yesterday fantastic as good as I have heard it in along time, keep it up, loved the ironic cheering and booing of the referee's decisions that went on and on, sadly spoilt by Burtons goal.

[brucie]

Well that was by some way the worst Torquay peformance I have seen since Roberts was in charge. Ling shouldn't be whinging about the odd comment from the crowd, he should be concentrating on how he is going to sort out this shambles - he was blowing hard when he walked off at the end of the game and looked a worried man (and quite rightly so).
Credit to the defence - they performed admirably, but the rest of the team (Howe excepted) were abyssmal topped off by a ref who was a cretin.
Plymouth signed a central midfielder on loan yesterday who made a big impact. That should be a mighty big clue to Ling as to what the problem is here. Easton and Morris are average at best but putting them both in the middle equals us getting overrun by the opposition.
Thompson,Bodin and Howe looked a potent threat against Rochdale. Bodin looked on fire playing on the left against Rochdale/Cheltenham so why play him on the right where he isn't looking the same player.
Contrast Thompson and Stevens peformances yesterday. Stevens trotting up and down the wing like he did not give a shit and Thompson actually looking like he wants to play.
Actually Lings tactic of trying to win 1-0 has run its course. About time we tried playing to our strengths. We have no midfielders really but lets give Howe some support for once.
I would like to see us line up against Aldershot with this team:

Poke

Nico-Downes-Saah-Oastler

Bodin-Craig-Mansell-Thompson

Jarvis-Howe

[Dave]

Credit where its due Ladies and Gentlemen, that to me is a very good post from Brucie, one I am finding hard to dissagree with..