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Martin Ling and his players will be looking to keep the promotion train chugging along nicely and on time to reach the last stop at League 1 by recording a win at home to Accrington Stanley on Good Friday. Off the back of a somewhat fortunate victory at Underhill last friday night AND a poor performance the previous week at home to Port Vale , the Gulls could really do with a five star performance to keep confidence levels high.

The banana skin at Barnet was not slipped on and another has put in it's place in the shape of Accrington Stanley. Our opponents on saturday have not kept a clean sheet since a 0-0 draw at Aldershot on the 21st of January, 13 games ago and they only have 3 away wins this season which is joint worst alongside Bradford ( who beat us ) and Macclesfield. We could be forgiven for taking this game at face value and expect another 3 points; however, they have registered 11 away league draws which is by far the most in the division including an unlikely 2-2 at Roots Hall with a last minute Amond goal when Accy were down to 10 men. Draw number 12 would represent a valuable AND not unexpected point for Accy but such a result would give Torquay's promotion push a huge setback given a trip to the Kassam is on the horizon.

Accy are currently positioned 13th in League 2 on 53 points and are safe from relegation and will not make the play offs as they are 12 points behind. It has been a poor season compared to last when they made the play offs with us but going out to Stevenage and they lost manager John Coleman to Rochdale in february who was replaced by Paul Cook. Scoring goals has been a problem as Padraig Amond is their top goal getter on 7 in all competitions, next best is Craig Lindfield on 5.

Our record against Accrington is not good with the Gulls registering only one win in the last three seasons ( 2-1 at Plainmoor in 2009/10 season ). Last season we drew 0-0 at home and lost 1-0 away which was my first AND will be my last visit to the Crown Ground and Accrington too as the whole atmosphere of the ground and the town make me want to self harm. If the beer goes straight through you there and you need the bog fast then you've had it! I know Emet had a go at the facilities at Barnet on friday but bloody hell, Accrington is the pits. Jeff will remember that particular game as the one where i had a manic but audible rant on leaving the ground!

Anyway, i digress.

Last time out Accy won 2-1 at home to AFC Wimbledon and their line up was:

1. Ian Dunbavin
2. Peter Murphy
3. Michael Liddle
4. Charlie Barnett
5. Kevin McIntyre
6. Luke Joyce
7. Jamie Devitt
8. Micah Evans
9. Craig Lindfield
10. Bobby Grant ( on a month loan from Scunthorpe )
11. Padraig Amond

SUBS: GK Lee Nicholls ( on loan from Wigan ), Liam Willis, Ian Craney ( came of for Amond on 77 ), Ryan Hopper ( came on for Devitt on 77 ), Will Hatfield ( came on for Evans on 63 ).

I think at this stage of the season a win is a win no matter how we get it but it would be nice for Torquay to get their foot on the ball once again and start spraying it about ala Crewe away, and most of all make the game comfortable for themselves. Accrington ARE a poor side and have no real quality individually IMO but i won't underestimate their ability to play as a cohesive and committed team unit. I don't think Martin will for one moment either and will have the lads fired up from the first whistle. I am going for a 2-0 win with goals from Howe and Mansell.

Apart from the 4-1 victory at Burton we've not had a really big win this season and it shows in our goal difference, which compares badly with those of our promotion rivals.

I guess our biggest chance of making up ground with goals would be in the last game of the season at Hereford. Otherwise, it will be in the game at home to Accrington. Accrington's defence is not the greatest, but ours is one of the best. Maybe partly as a result of our style of play, we don't have any free-scoring forwards but our goals are likely to come from anyone in the team. We can and should seize the opportunity to make up our goal difference on Friday. A runaway victory may be too much to hope for (though you never know) but I would expect a good win, 2-0 or 3-0.

Those extra goals may prove crucial come the end of the season.

If Accrington do anything like they did under Coleman they will park the bus and counter attack so it could be a frustrating afternoon.

AlexGulls wrote:If Accrington do anything like they did under Coleman they will park the bus and counter attack so it could be a frustrating afternoon.

I can see this happening as well. Lets hope ML has his tactics sorted out to get around them.

Don't go round them, go though them. BRING ON RENE HOWE!

Matt.

Might try and get down for this and drive back after the game, most i've driven back on the day of a game is about 150 miles or so 3 hours max so i'm in unfamiliar territory! Is it the same price as the pop to go in the away end?

442 anyone?? get tai and rene in from the start and see how we do until ht, this is on paper the easiest game we have left, hereford will be scrapping for their lives between now and may the 5th and may still be in with a chance of survival against us

i'd really like to see us go for it as we should at every home game, it is the best form of defence after all!! people will say we're not used to playing it this season, but every single player in our squad has been brought up all their lives playing football the english way and i'd love to see it happen on tuesday

however if st martin wants to keep it 451 then i'll bow to his superior knowledge

scores 1-0 if ML picks team, 5-0 if i get my way, howe 2, stevens, atieno, jarvis, 3101, 17 from accrington

We should go for a big big win, then we can overtake Swindon to win the League Two title on goal difference..

58 - 0 ? :~D

austrianandygull wrote:Might try and get down for this and drive back after the game, most i've driven back on the day of a game is about 150 miles or so 3 hours max so i'm in unfamiliar territory! Is it the same price as the pop to go in the away end?

Yep, you'll have to enter through the pop as normal and you'll be allowed to walk round. At least thats what i presume - this is how it happened last time we were allowed to go in the away end vs Histon.

Well, the other option is to go in via the away entrance, but that might mean holding back both the Accrington fans as we walk past, and that might be a bit much for our stewards to cope with.

Matt.

ferrarilover wrote:Well, the other option is to go in via the away entrance, but that might mean holding back both the Accrington fans as we walk past, and that might be a bit much for our stewards to cope with.

Matt.

Credit to them both though.


Wasn't there a game once where there was only 1 fan turned up?

austrianandygull wrote:


Credit to them both though.


Wasn't there a game once where there was only 1 fan turned up?

You must be referring to the "Leigh RMI one". There are two pictures of him doing the rounds - one at Dagenham and one at Woking. Unfortunately I've not seen either for a while

austrianandygull wrote:


Credit to them both though.


Wasn't there a game once where there was only 1 fan turned up?

I have a friend who is a Darlington fan who tells me the story of Darlington v Exeter one horrible midwinter Tuesday night, when apparently the Exeter supporters team coach broke down on the journey and so there were 2 fans in the away end - 1 Exeter and 1 from Hartlepool who often attended Darlington games in the away end because he hated them so much.

Probably an urban legend but a nice one nevertheless.

Jeff wrote: You must be referring to the "Leigh RMI one". There are two pictures of him doing the rounds - one at Dagenham and one at Woking. Unfortunately I've not seen either for a while

Comment no 8 on this page - http://www.thefootballforum.net/index.p ... y-support/ - shows the Dagenham one.

Easter matches have always been squeaky bum time (defining moments as a pointer to who really challenges the promotion places, or conversely, slips down into the relegation deep sh*t. Thankfully this season, we are not the latter.

What the result against Stanley will be, I don't know. I'm hoping the attendance will be 3000+, more towards 3500+ with the massed ranks of the bouncy castle youth (Yellow Army) making their baker dozen number well heard in the Babbacombe End. I hope the "mass exit" from the Popside doesn't subdue the atmosphere of the aforementioned or indeed of the found its voice again Ellacombe End.