Torquay United v Maidenhead United 13/8/19

[tomogull]

Bullied by Maidenhead ?? What game were you watching !? We battered them for most of the first half and all the second. One of those farcical games you get from time to time, Maidenhead defended for the entire match frantically at times and their goal led a charmed life. Two breakaway goals. .With a bit of luck we could have been 4 up before they scored . Freak result.

Yep - that's the game I watched, desperado. We played some great football for most of the first half but didn't get a break for that vital first goal. However, I do believe we are missing Saiko Janneh big time. Playing Jamie Reid as a lone striker with Connor Evans just behind is not the answer, and I'm yet to be convinced that Manny Duku is the answer. I'm not sure I'd blame MacDonald for their first goal. He made a decent save but the ball ran out to their unmarked forward. Maybe at this level he should have hung on to the ball, but at the other end Jamie Reid and Conor Evans missed some good chances.

I was surprised Niate was replaced by Joe Lewis. To me, it seemed more obvious to take off Kalala and bring on Opi Edwards. Edwards and Wynter worked well together in the Boreham game. Kalala, for all his skill, doesn't seem to have the same positional sense and there is little end product. He certainly wasn't my Man of the Match tonight.

An earlier poster said that Maidenhead weren't a pretty team to watch, but you have to give credit to their defence in the second half. We just couldn't find a way through. If one of those early chances had gone in, I think we would have gone on to win comfortably. But it didn't happen. A frustrating match for the fans, the players and the manager. I'm sure all of us who have played football at any level have played in similar games where the Football Gods have decided you aint going to score. The defence will look more balanced when Liam Davies returns, but that's taking nothing away from Frankie Vincent who looked very good going forward, but he isn't a left back. Onwards to Dover ...... never an easy place to go. Never fear - GJ will sort it out.

[tomogull]

Some decent performances though - Vincent, Niate, Kalala and the non stop Evans. We should have won Saturday and should have won tonight but the cold hard fact is that we have lost five points due to not having a fit for purpose keeper.

There was some booing at the end which to my mind was ridiculous. The players tried hard but its not just coming off at the moment

We all have different viewpoints at football matches. I think you're too critical on Shaun MacDonald, but their 'keeper did make some excellent saves. For all Kalala's skill, for me there's little end product. So many times he tries to do too much and runs into trouble, and in the second half Wynter was waiting for him to run into space (as Opi Edwards did against Boreham) but he stood waiting for the ball.

I thought the boo-ing at the end was aimed at the Maidenhead team, which if it was, was also ridiculous because they defended well and caught us with two sucker punches. I am told by a mate who supports Stockport that is exactly how they played at their place on the first day of the season. Stockport battered them but they grabbed a goal against the run of play near the end of the game.

[Teigngull]

Can only say I saw it as a naive performance, some experience at this level desperately needed.

[TUFC92]

Definitely a frustrating game. Absolutely battered them for the first half hour or so, but as soon as the first goal went in heads dropped and we looked like a completely different team. Came out in the second half and started the same as the first and I really thought we’d nick a goal, but just wouldn’t happen. I think if we’d got one, we’d have got three or four by the end.

Surprised by some saying that Niate had a good game, I thought he was poor and the weak link at the back. Says it all that McDonald wouldn’t go short to him all game but as soon as Lewis came on he was more than willing.

Think Reidy was unlucky tonight and if he keeps getting in the positions he was tonight it’ll come, but agree with others that he isn’t a lone striker and CLE is better slightly deeper. Think Johnson has to choose between him or Little for the midfield. Was surprised when Hall was taken off tonight.

All in all, I do think we will be fine this season but we’ve just got to take those chances when we are putting the pressure on. Special mention to Vincent as well, who considering is not a full back, looked good last night. Might have dived in a couple of times or been a bit out of position but recovered well and did his best.

[kevgull]

Shipping too many goals.

Keeper and Leftback need replacing (when fit).
Keeper distribution poor.
Strikers unable to hold up ball and bring others into play.
The whole team need to get a grip with the step up in physicality and stick to the game plan.

[dawlishmatt]

well, 4 games in and what a reality check. 2 defeats, 1 draw and a lucky win. A lot of people have commented in this post and others on this forum about how unlucky we have been. what i find frustrating is the word if and how well the opposition goalkeeper has played. Ifs, buts and maybes don't win football matches, goals win matches. we need to understand that we simply havn't been good enough. The goalkeeper is there to do a job and the Maidenhead keeper did his job last night. Jamie Reid was guilty of missing several chances last night, as he has in every game this season, as have several other players. That's not down to good goalkeeping, that's awful finishing. The goalkeeper and our defence are sadly not up to this level, indeed i posted pre-season that i feared that the defence was going to struggle this season and after 4 games iv'e seen nothing to change my mind. Please don't make excuses for our players, so far we've not performed as many fans had expected. I think that some fans turning on the team last night and at Bromley is pathetic and unacceptable. Torquay United have by far the best man in Gary Johnson to sort out this poor start and i'm sure he already knows what changes are needed to the team and i'm sure that after the start we have had this season, plans are already being made to ship out the players who are not up to this level and to bring in experienced players who are. As fans of this great club, we all need to trust our manager and be realistic about are expectations this season.

[Watford Gull sort of]

Despite the result I think you guys should take a lot of positives from last night. I obviously don’t see your games very often so not biased towards any players. Little in the centre of midfield looks like a player that could play at a higher level. Is his first name really Armani? Reid gets in good positions but heading does not appear to be his strength and there were too many high balls to him. When it was played on the floor he was fine. Goalkeepers distribution was awful. He didn’t have a great game full stop but I lost count of the time he rushed his kick and it went to nobody.
It was one of those games unfortunately where you have all the play but just can’t score. I certainly would not be too down about it. You have some good players for this standard and will be absolutely fine.

[culmstockgull]

A new day and just listened to Johnsons after match report which depressed me as much as our performance last night. He reckoned he had to calm down before the interviews but he sounded like a depressed man,He states that the team are not listening to what he is saying. Most of our squad have been here a season or longer so to mind the old expression of "If what I am saying is not being understood then I am saying it wrongly" comes to mind,
I can understand to a certain extent the Bristol contingent doing their own thing, most have been trained to play a certain way since they could walk and if it wasn't for their class last season we would not be in this league. Johnson continues to talk about a young team, then takes off Hall who was arguably the only seasoned pro available to him, certainly after he came off we lost our system.
Duku worries me , not his ability, but his attitude , why chase him for more than a year to have him bench warm when we are crying out for someone to lead the line, his past indiscretions and indiscipline may be coming back to haunt us.
If Downes cannot turn our centre half's into competent performers in this league then plainly they are not National league standard, same for Mcdonald although in his defence we are not renowned for the quality of our goalkeeping coaching in recent seasons.

[SBP]

You have to give Maidenhead credit for their performance. They had done their homework on us. They let us have possession sat back and pounced when their opportunity came.
At the moment to me we are playing in a mindset that the opponents are National League South. Defensively we have been poor. That is not just the back 4 and keeper, its as a team. Offensively in the last third we have to be more clinical. However last nights starting 11 at home playing Jamie Reid as a lone striker??
Last season for example Kalala had the freedom and against NLS players, nobody could get near him. We all know he has the talent and ability to compete. Last night you could see how frustrated he was getting. He went very narrow when it was crying out for width.He then becomes less effective.
We still need to show patience.
GJ knows the game inside out and it will take time.

[desperado]

Listening to GJs comments I think for once he is being slightly over critical. Ok we didn't create enough clear chances 2nd half despite all the possession but we've all seen these type of games before and it is very difficult to create clear chances when there are 21 players within 30-40 yards of the goal. You need a little bit of luck , a deflection in your path whatever and the floodgates open. Obviously the killer was that poor goal we gave them, on another day Cameron's header bounces down off the bar the right side of the line, we get ahead , opposition have to be more adventurous, and that game is a 4 goal win. I have defended MacDonald up til now , haven't seen it again but he should have stopped the first goal, think Covolan will get his chance now and that run out for Lewis for me means he will be in for Niate.
Agree Reid misses Janneh and Duku not doing enough so far. A couple of chances Reid should have done better, a couple he was unlucky with but you can't expect him to convert all his chances /half chances or he'd get 70-80 goals a season !

[desperado]

If that performance last night depressed you Culmstock , I wouldn't like to have seen you after a Gary Owers game !

[gls]

Seems pretty obvious that

1. GJ isn't playing the best midfielder at the club (CLE) in his best position

2. Reid not clinical enough/ not good enough

3. Janneh not been adequately replaced. Which in turn now highlights how important he was at creating space for Reid

4. Centre backs not up to it. Cameron at fault twice on Saturday. Last night their lad up front had a free uncontested header to set up the initial shot for first goal.


Points 1 & 3 mean the side isn't as good as it was last season. Little nowhere near as good as CLE in central midfield. And unfortunately as soon as Duku came on they just hoofed it. Surely should have had Edwards on. For what it's worth thought Kalala was actually our biggest threat in the 2nd half- caused them more problems than anyone else. First 30 minutes the football was great so think they're good enough to get results.

[hector]

A disappointing night but the script was written after we battered them for half an hour and could not score. Maidenhead’s no.10, Kelly was excellent in the first half and whilst their first goal was somewhat fortuitous, spilling from MacDonald, into his path, Kelly caused us quite a few problems as Maidenhead grew into the game.

We’ve been promoted with many making the assumption that we were going to go for promotion again even though last season, the two teams promoted from NLS were immediately relegated. A year ago we were a struggling NLS side, so maybe we are back to what we were two years ago which is a mediocre NL Side. And yet, had we scored in that half hour spell, no doubt Maidenhead would have gone home on the other end of another Plainmoor hiding.

As previously pointed out, we miss Janneh. I hoped Duku would prove to be the answer but based on last night he has some way to go. I’d forgotten about the lad from Newport, who I don’t think was even on the bench.

However, the difference between now and two years ago is that we have Gary Johnson as manager rather than Nicholson/Owers and that puts us in a much better place.

[brucie]

Theres no way we are the side that we were two years ago. There is plenty of ability in the side.

I don't think this was a game plan by Maidenhead - they couldn't get near us in the first half. By all accounts we outplayed Bromley in the second half so should have won the last two games really.

The football last night was a mile away from some of the inept bollocks we have witnessed over recent years. You cannot get away from the fact that we are conceding really soft goals. Its really galling when you see opposition goalkeepers looking rock solid and performing miracles every game when your keeper is looking like a frightened rabbit caught in the headlights.

It s no coincidence that in the game that we actually won Macdonald wasn't responsible for any errors leading to goals. In every other game he's been directly responsible for some of the goals conceded.

I don't think we actually missed any chances as such - it was a combination of great goalkeeping, ill luck, the woodwork and the ball just not dropping in the right place at times. Had we scored first we would have won easily.

[SuperNickyWroe]

You can take your complaint against the moaners elsewhere, I am not one of them. I was simply saying that tonight's result was a very disappointing result, seeing as for 35 minutes it sounded like we were the far better side and deserved at least a point. We just can't seem to find our confidence and take advantage of the game when being on top. A lot of games to go and I believe GJ can motivate the lads.

Alright keep your knickers on....
For some reason (not mine) it decided to quote your post - my post wasn't actually a reference to yours.