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After 3 successive away games, which saw two games we probably should have taken 6 points from, in hindsight, but both were at tough places, so in a way I'm glad we came out unbeaten. We also exited the Johnstones Paint Trophy, losing 2-0 to Swindon. Next week we return to Plainmoor as we host Bury, who have been on very good form recently. The Shakers sit 4th in the table at the moment, 4 points off leaders Port Vale.

I imagine that this will prove a very tough test for us, as Bury have an experienced manager in Alan Knill. They have something we don't - a goalscorer. Ryan Lowe, who recently signed a new two-year deal, is in great form so far this season, among the top scorers already.

LAST 5 SEASONS.

2005/06 - League 2 - 19th place - 52 points
2006/07 - League 2 - 21st place - 50 points
2007/08 - League 2 - 13th place - 59 points
2008/09 - League 2 - 4th place - 78 points
2009/10 - League 2 - 9th place - 69 points

Four/five seasons ago, I would have put Bury in the same bracket as ourselves - they always finished in the bottom half, but more recently, they have progressed into a bigger club in this division. Their 4th placed finish in 2008/09 saw them lose to Shrewsbury in the Playoff Semi Final, which was extremely unfortunate for the club who were only 1 point off 2nd place, and missed out on automatic promotion by 1 goal. They missed the playoffs by 3 points last year, and I expect them to be around the top 7 again this time around.

HEAD TO HEAD.

Bury wins - 21 (1 FA Cup win)
Torquay wins - 10
Draws - 13 (1 FA Cup draw)

Our record against Bury is quite a poor one. They have won over double the amount that we have beaten them. They knocked us out of the FA Cup, when the two clubs met, back in 1930. In recent times, we have done fairly well at Gigg Lane, winning there in 2002/03, 2006/07, and then again last season. However, results at Plainmoor have been draws, recently. The previous 3 meetings have all ended all square - infact our last victory over Bury at Plainmoor was in 2003/04, when we beat them 3-1.

FORM (LAST 6 GAMES).

DWWDWW

Unbeaten in 6, and their previous two away games have resulted in comfortable wins. We will need to be at our best to stop them getting anything from Plainmoor, in my opinion. Away wins at tricky places like Cheltenham (2-0), who started well, and Morecambe (4-1) suggest that they can score plenty of goals away from home too. Their home form is good so far, too. In their past 6 games, they've drawn two at home in the league, against Rotherham and Hereford, knocked Shrewsbury out of the Johnstones Paint Trophy and smashed Accrington 3-0, which is a decent result considering how defensively-sound Accy were just a few weeks ago.

PROBABLE LINEUP.

This is the line up that beat Accrington 3-0:

Cameron Belford

Phil Picken
Tom Lees
Efe Sodje
Joe Skarz

David Worrall
Steven Schumacher
Damien Mozika
Mike Jones

Ryan Lowe
Nicholas Ajose

Subs: Ritchie Branagan, Ben Futcher, Peter Sweeney, Andy Haworth, Lenell John-Lewis, Max Harrop and Kyle Bennett.

PLAYERS TO WATCH.

For me, the players to watch will be Ryan Lowe, David Worrall and Efe Sodje. Lowe has been in great form, as I mentioned earlier, with 7 goals in the League already. He will need to be well marked, if he is to be kept quiet on Saturday. David Worrall is a young winger, who chips in with the odd goal too. He has one to his name already. We all know Efe Sodje well, having come up against him when he has been with Bury, Huddersfield and Macclesfield.

PREDICTION.

We will need to keep Lowe quiet, and need our forwards to cause Sodje and co problems, if we are to do well.

I'll say..

Gulls 2-1 Shakers

Cant really see us winning this one. Torquay 1-2 Bury. One of those games where we fail to kill of the opposition yet again, and our lack of pace within our defence shows. Here to be proved wrong!

I agree with Mister Murphy, thus:
Torquay United (0) 1
Bury (2) 2

Att: 2,444

YellowMurphy wrote:Cant really see us winning this one. Torquay 1-2 Bury. One of those games where we fail to kill of the opposition yet again, and our lack of pace within our defence shows. Here to be proved wrong!

If your defence is short of pace then you don't want to be playing Bury just now as we have pace in abundance.
We have 4/5 lads playing wide or just behind Lowey, meaning 2 on the pitch and 2 on the bench to bring on the last 15/20 minutes.
Watch out especially for Nicky Ajose, a local boy on loan to us from United - he's only about 17, but he looks the business.
Think it will be a good close game, wish I was attending.
Good luck to you Gulls (from Sunday,obv!)

I'll take a draw right now.

Cheers

Bruce

To be honest I've only seen Bury once this season - against Northampton at home where we drew 1-1 and could have easily bagged another couple of goals.

Up until a few weeks ago and most of last season our problem was scoring goals, nicking 1-0 wins here and there or allowing teams to draw level after being only 1-0 up but recently the 4/5 new players brought in have started to gel and unfortunately for the Gulls you are facing a Shakers team very much on the up, with strong quick wingers, Worrall and Jones and the lively Ajose - on loan from Man U.

My realistic forecast is 2-1 to the Shakers. It's not often we keep a clean sheet but at the same time the defence seems to have sorted it's earlier problems out. Conversely although scoring seems to be on the up, I've plucked for the average.

Here's to a great game and a Shakers win.

All the Best for the rest of the season, Gulls fans....!

Need a win, goanna win!

3-1

COYY!

Not a hope in hell of winning this...

Ok, that's not quite fair, but Bury have some absolute quality in their side. We found last season what one quality loan signing (with a little help from two awful Mark Ellis mistakes) can do to us. The man in question that day was Davide Somma on loan at Lincoln from Leeds United.

As usual with TUFC, it very much depends how we play. With the quality of the Crewe match, we can win. Any level below that and we will be in trouble.

Hmmm, since my crystal balls are in for a service, I'll go with

TUFC 0 - 4 Bury.

Matt.

Isn't Ajose on loan from Man Utd?

This will be a tough one but I'm going to stick it out as a 1-0 TUFC win

Benyon to score(49min)

2100 crowd


Oh and Nickgull...thanks for texting me the result on Saturday !?? Oh wait, you didnt!

Yellow4life wrote:Isn't Ajose on loan from Man Utd?

This will be a tough one but I'm going to stick it out as a 1-0 TUFC win

Benyon to score(49min)

2100 crowd


Oh and Nickgull...thanks for texting me the result on Saturday !?? Oh wait, you didnt!

Quick scan of this thread shows that this question has been answered THREE TIMES!!!

My guess is that Nick did indeed text you Saturday's result, but you failed to notice.

Matt.

ferrarilover wrote:
Quick scan of this thread shows that this question has been answered THREE TIMES!!!

My guess is that Nick did indeed text you Saturday's result, but you failed to notice.

Matt.

Unfortunately you guess wrong Matt. (but I still like your joke in there )

I did indeed forget to tell you the result, but I was doing something that you might not have heard of.. errm.. oh yeah, it's called work.

I dont bother reading ALL the other posts.

Well, I shall remember that the next time you go to Austria- when I text you about 100 times each game- almost everytime time the ball was passed

Plus you already agreed to tell me the result after you finished something that I do know of...work. Good job I text someone else for the result ay!

Here come the Bury mob saying how brilliant their team are....we've sooo been here before with over confident Northampton fans painting the picture that because their team is filled with brilliant players they will dick us.

17 year old striker upfront, ability to shed goals....I mean seriously I'm not that worried personally.

We're at home off the back of two positive results & thus shouldn't be under-estimated!

To be fair, they were nothing like the Northampton fan, he was just a total plank with no respect. The Bury fans on here have been nothing other than positive while remaining polite. That's why we nearly always welcome fans of other clubs on here.

Always polite, us Shakers fans - you never know when too much boasting kicks you upthe ARSenal

Less than 24 hours to go cmonnnnnnn..