Torquay United v Harrogate Town - FA Cup Rnd 1 - 3/11/12

[Richinns]

Exactly forever. I'd go with something like;

Poke

Leadbitter, Saah, Downes, Cruise

Mansell, Lathrope, Craig

Bodin, Howe, Stevens

Like this. Cruise deserves a chance and Nico havng a week off will do him good. Might be tempted to put Thompson in for Stevens though - has recently returnrd from injury so a break might help at this stage.

[Plymouth Gull]

Yep.. and bearing in mind we're at Barnet on Tuesday aswell, give Nicho a rest.

[Glostergull]

Bloody hell - team of part timers, who had to play extra time on Wednesday night - they now face a nice long trip to Plainmoor and have to play again on what will surely be a nice heavy pitch.
Sure they will be up for it but lets face it they will be blowing out their arses come quarter past four or so on saturday. If Howe,Bodin and co cannot get past this lot we might as well jack it in.
A gilt edge chance to get to round 2 if ever there was one.

Brucie. Please don't treat the opposition with contempt. You could have egg on your face if you do.
Yate are about as small a team as we are likely to see in this competition. You could say they are even smaller than Harrogate. You say come 4:15 they will be blowing out their arses.
Yate had Newport. Who although you may not believe it are full time. As full time as The Gulls are. They are running away with the league. Yet Yate nearly knocked them out in the first match, Got marked down as likely to be comprehensvively hammered in the replay.and as luck would have it managed to be level at full time in the replay. It went to extra time and you would think that they would be blowing out thier arses after only a few minutes into extra time. yet it was Newport who were blowing out their arses. Yate looked like they could play another hour. I was indeed glad we were not playing them.
My point is. All teams in this round deserve respect. Look on them with contempt and you will be left looking foolish come full time.
I bet Harrogate will be fitter than you all ever imagine. they didn't get this far through just turning up. They had to work for it Like we will. They will be up for our encounter and looking to see if they can either beat us or get us back to their gaff to turn us over.
Don't think it will be easy or we will be looking the chumps come 5pm. if we get through. I hope we don't get the winner of the Yate / Cheltenham tie if they draw, because i wouldn't like to predict the outcome. Yate play with more energy and flowing football than you realise. I was certainly surprised.
I will indeed just be glad if we get into the next round without looking foolish.

[MidDevon]

That is a good post Glostergull

I notice that José Veiga is now goalkeeper at Harrogate Town. We have seen him before playing for Macclesfield. Having started at Benfica as a youth player he has more pedigree than most of our squad and is a full international for the Cape Verde Islands.

We could also see Lee Elam, the old Exeter City midfileder who had a sweet pass in his younger days

In fact looking at their squad on Wiki, they appear an extremley experienced squad overall and it would not surprise me if they had a similar number of football league appearances to ourselves.

The Contempt for non league football from some of The Yellow Army always amazes me, especially considering Torquay's, at times pathetic performances against lower league opposition over the years.

At this level these are semi professional players and in some cases fully proffessional. Any you are not talking just booze money. They get paid for a reason and we would be best to remember that.

[Plymouth Gull]

Mansell may be out as he's ill.

[brucie]

Gloster gull - Its not a question of contempt but lets be realistic here. This is a team of part timers who had a long game on Wednesday night. Far from looking for reasons why they might beat us lets face facts ie this should be an easy passage to the second round.
Yate won't beat Cheltenham either but if they do I will happily take them at home in the second round.
As for Lee Elam? - well he was absolutely crap when he was at Exeter and if thats the quality of player they have facing up on saturday, well I won't exactly be quaking in my boots.

[usagullmichigan]

Gloster gull - Its not a question of contempt but lets be realistic here. This is a team of part timers who had a long game on Wednesday night. Far from looking for reasons why they might beat us lets face facts ie this should be an easy passage to the second round.
Yate won't beat Cheltenham either but if they do I will happily take them at home in the second round.
As for Lee Elam? - well he was absolutely crap when he was at Exeter and if thats the quality of player they have facing up on saturday, well I won't exactly be quaking in my boots.

I think you have just made your worst two posts in your history on here. You are so deluded it's unreal.

[AlexGulls]

That is a good post Glostergull

I notice that José Veiga is now goalkeeper at Harrogate Town. We have seen him before playing for Macclesfield. Having started at Benfica as a youth player he has more pedigree than most of our squad and is a full international for the Cape Verde Islands.

We could also see Lee Elam, the old Exeter City midfileder who had a sweet pass in his younger days

In fact looking at their squad on Wiki, they appear an extremley experienced squad overall and it would not surprise me if they had a similar number of football league appearances to ourselves.

The Contempt for non league football from some of The Yellow Army always amazes me, especially considering Torquay's, at times pathetic performances against lower league opposition over the years.

At this level these are semi professional players and in some cases fully proffessional. Any you are not talking just booze money. They get paid for a reason and we would be best to remember that.

I believe they have Adam Bolder aswell who was at Burton not long ago always thought he was a decent player at this level never mind the BSN.

[Scott Brehaut]

Gloster gull - Its not a question of contempt but lets be realistic here. This is a team of part timers who had a long game on Wednesday night. Far from looking for reasons why they might beat us lets face facts ie this should be an easy passage to the second round.
Yate won't beat Cheltenham either but if they do I will happily take them at home in the second round.
As for Lee Elam? - well he was absolutely crap when he was at Exeter and if thats the quality of player they have facing up on saturday, well I won't exactly be quaking in my boots.

Brucie,

I see your point - at the end of the day these are games we should be winning.

However we all know that in football things are not as simple as that.
January this year - Brighton 1 - 0 Newcastle
January this year - Swindon 2- 1 Wigan
January 2011 - Stevenage 3 -1 Newcastle
January 2009 - Us 1 - 0 Blackpool

And that's just a few - there are always upsets. Usually by teams that have been "looked down upon" by higher ranked opposition.

If we go into this game thinking we will walk it, we are in for a bumpy ride. I'm all for confidence, but being over confident, cocky even, and that could be our downfall.

[Lloyder5]

When I played for a team in the SDLP, our coach said something to us that stuck with me. When you play teams that are supposedly below you, you have to stick to your usual approach. You don't need to do anything special or clever because the way you normally set up will be good enough to beat them. But if you don't keep that basic structure that's when you risk losing. So its business as usual and a win by 2 goals.

[Behind-the-Gulls]

Seems Harrogate may even be struggling to get enough interest for a supporters coach to travel down. Have given their fans until 4pm today to book a seat and need 30 to make it viable according to their website.
Perhaps some of the Yorkshire based Gulls should help them out and travel down with them !

[ferrarilover]

Their average attendance is 540 (this year), it costs not more than £12 to get in and is 313 miles away by the shortest route. It doesn't surprise me at all that they are struggling to get 30 people to travel over 600 miles to pay £20 to watch their team, in all likelihood, get narrowly beaten by a slightly superior side, I mean, would you?

Their website is worth a visit, considerably better than anything else I've seen down at that level (no large white spaces, plenty of useful content etc, probably better than the shit the FL make us have, if I'm honest). Interesting to see, however, that they call their ground a 'stadium'... :~D

Matt.

[TorquayTim]

Their average attendance is 540 (this year), it costs not more than £12 to get in and is 313 miles away by the shortest route. It doesn't surprise me at all that they are struggling to get 30 people to travel over 600 miles to pay £20 to watch their team, in all likelihood, get narrowly beaten by a slightly superior side, I mean, would you?

Their website is worth a visit, considerably better than anything else I've seen down at that level (no large white spaces, plenty of useful content etc, probably better than the sh*t the FL make us have, if I'm honest). Interesting to see, however, that they call their ground a 'stadium'... :~D

Matt.

Could learn a thing or too from there website.

[MidDevon]

Calling your ground a "stadium" and getting a local company to sponsor it, as Harrogate have done, is a great idea and shows proffesionalism which I sadly believe is beyond Torquay's commercial Acumen at present to be honest.

Mind you, even Willand Rovers managed to get a 5 figure sum from Stan Robinson Transport to rename Silver Street "The Stan Robinson Stadium"

Some non league clubs are fantastic commercially in their local area and reap the rewards.

[wodger of awabia]

Gloster gull - Its not a question of contempt but lets be realistic here. This is a team of part timers who had a long game on Wednesday night. Far from looking for reasons why they might beat us lets face facts ie this should be an easy passage to the second round.
Yate won't beat Cheltenham either but if they do I will happily take them at home in the second round.
As for Lee Elam? - well he was absolutely crap when he was at Exeter and if thats the quality of player they have facing up on saturday, well I won't exactly be quaking in my boots.

I do wish that you would try & learn the difference between facts & your own opinions.