Barnet v Torquay United - 6/11/12

[AustrianAndyGull]

Most of my comments are negative though and i wouldn't class myself as a negative person. Don't laugh it wasn't a joke.

[royalgull]

Fcuk me Howe's not playing Saturday? Think it might be worth not turning up and taking the 2-0 loss.

[portugull]

It sounds like Mr Deadman yet again was influential in failing to give a stonewall penalty.
I await the highlights on Gulls Player with particular interest.
Oxford have their problems. 9 defeats in 16 games and only Craddock scoring the goals. 18th minus 6 goal difference.
We are hard to beat but the real worry is no Rene.
I so wish Martin Ling would come to Portugal!! So many very good players all playing for very little money.
The few playing in UK are all doing well.
Come on Martin see what you are missing!

[AustrianAndyGull]

I think the only thing worse about the whole day apart from the defeat is the fact i visited Barnsley.

[OllieGull]

The only other problem apart from Rene being out is if Poke misses the game due to injury as well. Craddock vs Ricey is not going to be a nice match up at all...

[royalgull]

Oxford are absolutely Danny Dire, It shouldn't be Craddock vs Rice tbh. Pretty confident in our defense to be ok against them, their defense is 100 times worse than ours the problem is we won't have anything to exploit it.

looking at bodin up front on his own with Stevens coming into one of the wide positions. Jeez that's desperate.

[usagullmichigan]

The problem is the same as last year and it won't ever change until something actually gets done about it.

Other than Howe our forward players are absolutely shocking. you can't rely on one person to score all the goals and until we bring in better technical players or easier better forward options we will continue to struggle to score any goals.

it really isn't rocket science. Our forwards as a group were crap last year and they are worse this year.

Should we just say screw it and give Carl Baker a run out?

[royalgull]

To steal and edit a Ling quote

The answers aren't in the building.

[jonnyfive]

Quite cute to see the Barnet fans creaming themselves over nicking a 1-0 home win. At least we are not in their position.

A draw would probably have been the fair result, but only because of our poor finishing. On another day, our good 1st half play would have seen us go in 1 or 2 goals up. Bodin looked MUCH better than on Saturday, Mansell was much improved, and if Rene had put his laces through that one-on-one, things could have been so different.

The worrying thing, however, is a lack of a Plan B, in terms of both strategy and personnel. Jarvis is the new Atieno (as I stated in July); Danny flatters to deceive just like he always has; and sad to say that Yeoman appears to be yet another youth product who will never cut it. Shades of Benefield, Byng, Bond and others.

For us to be in and around the playoffs suggests that League 2 is very mediocre this season.

As someone so succinctly points out, the answers are not in the building, but with home crowds of 2400, can we really expect the board to dig deep and fund the necessary additions?

[miltonkeynesgull]

Not long back - thought I'd do a quick report whilst I'm waiting to see whether America will balls everything up and elect Mitt Romney.

Nice of our friend Dick Turpin to put in an appearance for our final game at Underhill. Barnet couldn't have had any complaints if we'd gone into the break two or three nil up, such was our superiority. But for all the tweets about "never deserving to lose" (Rene), being "confused about how we lost tonight's game" (Billy), and that we "totally dominated and got mugged" (Nicho), you can't complain if you don't take your chances. And boy did we waste some chances.

It was just about as frustrating a game as I can remember in my time watching the Gulls. Some of the football in the first half was absolutely sublime. Shooting up the slope, the build-up and approach play was, at times, excellent, and Barnet had absolutely no answer.

Just a few minutes into the game, Bodin was tripped in the box as he was moving towards a pass coming his way. It was right in front of us, and as clear a penalty as there'll ever be. But Mr Deadman and his glamorous assistant decided otherwise. Speaking of Mr Bodin, he was excellent on the ball, skinning men and working himself into great positions. But as soon as it came to the finish, he just looks awfully devoid of any confidence, a point emphasised by an unbelievable miss - think Gazza at Euro 96 against Germany - that compounded an awful evening in front of goal.

We continued to zip it about nicely, and bombard the Barnet box with crosses, but to no avail. Saah's header from a free-kick, a long range effort from Oastler that skimmed the bar, and a Rene one-on-one miss (which he tried to chip over the keeper instead of place) and a wonderful curling shot just wide, were the pick of the Torquay chances. On the stroke of half time, Bodin again worked himself into an excellent position, nutmegging the fullback and moving in on goal, before blasting a shot at the corner flag.

Half time came and the Gulls contigent were left rueing the team's inability to hit the proverbial bovine derriere with the proverbial four-stringed folk instrument. Although I thought nothing of it at the time, Rice was being warmed up vigorously by the subs, and a minute or so into the half, Poke was signalling that he needed to come off. Have to say I was a little worried about Ricey, but he did ok.

Unfortunately, it was another Jekyll and Hyde performance, and our second half was nothing like our first half. The chances dried up, and only a Nathan Craig glancing header stands out as a decent attempt on goal. The longer the half went on, the more Barnet grew in confidence (not that they ever really went all out to win it, they were dire - timewasting from the first whistle), and a goal seemed a possibility. And so it came (almost immediately after withdrawing Easton). A mistake, I think, by Oastler seemed to give the ball away to Kamdjo, who played a one-two on the edge of the box before shooting across Rice and into the far corner. Would like to see it again, but think Martin could've done a little better.

From there, the game seemed to fizzle out. We did little else, and neither did they, the only action in the remaining minutes being a booking for Rene. Walking out of Underhill, I couldn't help but feel a little dissapointed that it will be our last game there. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoy it's quirkiness, atmosphere and character. Always a nice visit. Can't say I'm looking forward to visiting the Kassam on Saturday, though - a trip made even more tricky in the absence of Rene or Pokey.

Was interesting to watch Edgar Davids play. Some classy passing aside, he was pretty quiet. His main contribution being to bring a touch of the continent to North London, by flinging himself to the floor whenever an opponent came withing two feet of him.

It was a performance that can't be faulted for lack of effort or determination, but one that can be faulted, as against Harrogate, on ability. Namely our ability to score, or rather not score.

[ferrarilover]

Lots I agree with in here but will comment only to say that we could do worse than Carl Baker. He won't score, but he won't be worse than Stevens (not a slight on Danny). He's almost identical to Bodin in the way he likes to play and he will be a real secret weapon, since absolutely no amount of research by the opposition is realistically going to uncover him.

Matt.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Thanks for the report MKGull, appreciated mate. I'm not up because of the elections but because my little un has booted me out of my own bed the little sh*t!

[gullintwoplaces]

What an absolute joke - great reaction after Saturday, we now get beat by the bottom of the league. And if anyone thinks we are going to beat Oxford they are nuts. Howe is out and we will most likely have that clown Rice in goal. We are a shambles.

True to form, the Jeremiah of the forum comes out to spread doom and misery. I imagine he must wear black sack cloth and carry a bell.

And did he go to the game, I can't see it myself. However, the black sack cloth and bell give him the powers of insight so that he KNOWS exactly how we played.

The person who DID see the game seems to be saying that we played OK, but the usual problems cropped up, not a "shambles" though. Silly bu**er Brucie.

[coley in stripes]

I agree with Brucie to a certain extent...I was frozen last night but did see some positives !!! Our kit looked good and the warm up was a bit special !! (No abuse please)

[Regiment]

I agree with a lot of what has been said, and i wasn't at the game on saturday, so i can only assume that we played much worse on saturday, because i thought for large periods, we played pretty well at Barnet, particularly in the first half. Unfortunately though, football being a game of cliche's, and if you don't take your chances............

the longer the game went on, and the more chances we missed, you just knew we'd end up on the wrong end of a 1-0.

what concerned me the most, was not our failure to score as such, because we were at least creating chances, but it was of all those chances we had, their keeper only had three saves to make. you'll never score if you don't hit the target. get the shots on target, and if the keeper saves them, credit to him, but for all our efforts, their keeper had a pretty easy night.

a few words about Edgar Davids too. over the years, i've always tried to get to various games to see some of the biggest stars in world football, so i've seen Man Utd, Real Madrid, Juventus, Internationals etc etc, but i'd never seen Davids play until this game. ok, so he was no Messi or Ronaldo, but in his prime, was definitely up there. So, what did he do for Barnet ?? He didn't do a great deal, but he was a real calming influence in an otherwise scrappy side, and he got the ball, played it simple and made them just tick over. some of his passing, and balls into the box were excellent. I think last night, more than ever, i realised how much we miss Eunan. we haven't got one of those players in midfield doing the Davids/Eunan role. Craig is as close as we have, but spent 75 minutes on the left wing.

Ok, back to our own performance. I thought Oastler was fantastic, some excellent forward runs, and defended well, although was part at fault in the build up to the Barnet goal. Rene was superb first half, but why was he out wide on the right for so much of the second half ?? Everything good going forward goes through him, and yet in the second half, he was barely in the game. And then he goes and gets another daft booking, so will miss the oxford game on saturday - great, we really need that right now. I thought Bodin looked sharp in the first half, but just needed a better final ball, and a bit more composure around the box. Manse looked a bit more like his old self and having Lathrope in the side following his absence until recently, really helps the midfield as a whole.

bottom line, we need to find our shooting boots, and the midfield need to start chipping in with a few goals like last season.