Torquay United v Dover Athletic – Saturday 20th September

[Colorado Gull]

“And it’s Torquay United, Torquay United FC, we’re by far the greatest team, the Vanarama has ever seen!” Too soon? We had chants of “we are going up” and “E-I-E-I-E-I-O” on Tuesday. The positivity at TQ1 is absolutely fantastic; it’s so refreshing to see. Going to PLAINMOOR is something which I cannot wait for every week; this is what football is supposed to be about! You can see what it means to the players, the way they celebrated Luke Young’s winner against Woking was like we've just been promoted. We have a great team with a great set of players. They play for each other, they play for the manager, and they play for the fans. I feel so excited writing and thinking about TUFC, it’s brilliant.

With all respect to Dover, this shouldn't be as difficult as it was against Woking on Tuesday night. The visitors for Saturday are where United were after the first game of the season, 22nd with a -11 goal difference. They have conceded 20 goals, the second most highest in the league (compared to Torquay who have conceded the least on 5) while scoring 9. They have only won 2 games, drawing 1 and losing 7. One of those loses was their last game against Dartford losing 2-1 away from home. The Whites (nickname of Dover Athletic) were in the Conference South last season, finishing 5th but were promoted to the Conference Premier for this season. Ex-League v Ex-Conference South, Torquay should win comfortably, but you never know. Here’s the side Dover had against Dartford:

01 Walker (Raggett - 75' )
16 Sterling
26 Bonner
29 Essam
12 Lock (Nanetti - 68' )
06 Orlu
02 Stone
04 Kinnear
17 Deverdics
27 Miller
19 Reid (Payne - 46' )

Substitutes
05 Raggett
09 Elder
11 Cogan
14 Payne
20 Nanetti

Torquay will be unchanged for this game I would’ve thought. Chappell will most probably keep his place in the starting XI despite Courtney Cameron being fit. You can tell we have a great side at the moment when we can afford to keep Pearce and Cameron on the bench.

Rice

Tonge
MacDonald
Downes
Cruise

Ajala
Richards
(Super Lukey) Young
Chappell

Ofori-Acheampong
Bowman

Substitutes
Seabright
Pearce
Wakefield
Cameron
Yeoman

A crowd of over 2,000 on a Tuesday night, oh we will see the fans crawling back to Plainmoor. Can we get a crowd of 2,500 on Saturday? We should do, the players deserve it. Against Woking, the place was rocking. The whole crowd singing and getting behind the lads, it was spectacular! We need that and more for the game against Dover. We have so much confidence and why not! If we win, we will have won 6 games in a row and the longest run of wins this season so far. Torquay have the chance of being in 1st place, let’s go United!

COYY.

[Jeff]

You realise you have listed the Dartford team above? Thought the names looked familiar!

[Gullscorer]

“And it’s Torquay United, Torquay United FC, we’re by far the greatest team, the Vanarama has ever seen!” Too soon? We had chants of “we are going up” and “E-I-E-I-E-I-O” on Tuesday. The positivity at TQ1 is absolutely fantastic; it’s so refreshing to see. Going to PLAINMOOR is something which I cannot wait for every week; this is what football is supposed to be about! You can see what it means to the players, the way they celebrated Luke Young’s winner against Woking was like we've just been promoted. We have a great team with a great set of players. They play for each other, they play for the manager, and they play for the fans. I feel so excited writing and thinking about TUFC, it’s brilliant.

With all respect to Dover, this shouldn't be as difficult as it was against Woking on Tuesday night. The visitors for Saturday are where United were after the first game of the season, 22nd with a -11 goal difference. They have conceded 20 goals, the second most highest in the league (compared to Torquay who have conceded the least on 5) while scoring 9. They have only won 2 games, drawing 1 and losing 7. One of those loses was their last game against Dartford losing 2-1 away from home. The Whites (nickname of Dover Athletic) were in the Conference South last season, finishing 5th but were promoted to the Conference Premier for this season. Ex-League v Ex-Conference South, Torquay should win comfortably, but you never know. Here’s the side Dover had against Dartford:

01 Brown
04 McAuley
03 Green
14 Mitchell-King
05 Bradbrook
08 Noble (Hayes - 55' )
09 Daley
16 Sweeney
20 Burns (Bradbrook - 44' )
15 Collier
17 Crawford (Cornhill - 95' )

Substitutes
06 Cornhill
07 Hayes
11 Harris
21 Ibrahim
23 Bradbrook

You realise you have listed the Dartford team above? Thought the names looked familiar!

This is what happens when people get too excited.. =D

[brooker]

Well done on the match threads Danny, great stuff. Also mate, well done on the drumming recently, Woking was an insane atmosphere, honestly better than I can remember for years, even before the goal. A huge part of that is down to your drumming. You don't do the stupid Pompey thing of bashing it all game long no matter what is happening in the game, you pick your moments and know when to get involved and lift the crowd.

On tuesday night at around 70 minutes there was a sudden upsurge in crowd noise levels, I can't remember what in particular happened in the game to start it, but it felt like everybody on the pop had the same idea at the same time, and it was incredible. Hopefully we'll get another decent crowd on Saturday, and make a similar amount of noise.

P.S can someone post the lyrics to Bowmans new chant, i want to get involved but don't have a clue how the middle bit goes.

[Colorado Gull]

You realise you have listed the Dartford team above? Thought the names looked familiar!

Oops :Oops:

Corrected.

[Colorado Gull]

Well done on the match threads Danny, great stuff. Also mate, well done on the drumming recently, Woking was an insane atmosphere, honestly better than I can remember for years, even before the goal. A huge part of that is down to your drumming. You don't do the stupid Pompey thing of bashing it all game long no matter what is happening in the game, you pick your moments and know when to get involved and lift the crowd.

On tuesday night at around 70 minutes there was a sudden upsurge in crowd noise levels, I can't remember what in particular happened in the game to start it, but it felt like everybody on the pop had the same idea at the same time, and it was incredible. Hopefully we'll get another decent crowd on Saturday, and make a similar amount of noise.

P.S can someone post the lyrics to Bowmans new chant, i want to get involved but don't have a clue how the middle bit goes.

Cheers mate, appreciate it! I do my best.

Oh Ryan Bowman's magic,
He wears a magic hat,
And when he signed for Torquay,
He said "I'm having that".
He didn't sign for City or Rovers 'cos they're sh*te,
Instead he signed for Torquay 'cause they're f***ing dynamite!

[A Realist]

I think if Cameron is fully fit he will start in place of Chapple.

[tomogull]

Don't know why but I've got a slightly uneasy feeling about this match. Yes - Woking beat Dover 6 - 1 and Barnet beat them 3 - 0, but Kidderminster, Halifax and Macclesfield (all top half teams) all beat them 1 - 0 only. Plus they've beaten Eastleigh and drawn away to Grimsby. I just think their next-to-bottom position doesn't do them justice cos they've played several of the potential top half teams in their first 10 games. I hope CH and LH make sure the players don't relax for this game - I'm sure they won't. And we fans mustn't turn up thinking it's an easy three points in the bag either ! I think it will be a tougher match than we think.

By the way, does anyone know if Luke Young is suspended for this match? I thought it was his fifth booking on Tuesday but there's no mention in the Herald Express.

[taxilady]

Luke was booked at Southport H, Dartford A,Lincoln A & again on Saturday. So.one to go !!!!!

[DJ Gull]

Cheers mate, appreciate it! I do my best.

Oh Ryan Bowman's magic,
He wears a magic hat,
And when he signed for Torquay,
He said "I'm having that".
He didn't sign for City or Rovers 'cos they're sh*te,
Instead he signed for Torquay 'cause they're f***ing dynamite!

Whilst We're learning, Can someone post the lyrics to another song for me?
Its just that I stand on the pop, Humming along to the full song before shouting out the final few words "We're Torquay United, We sing on our own"

[brucie]

Looking at the formlines this looks a nailed on three points. Dover have brought in three new signings including a goalkeeper as theirs was injured in the week.
They are part time, have a 300 mile journey to get here on saturday morning and were beaten 6-1 by Woking. Their managers full time job is a PE Teacher!
Having watched them against Barnet all I can say is Barnet won that 3-0 playing in reverse gear. I would agree with Tomogull they are in a false position. They are too high - they should be bottom!
I cannot go tomorrow - damn it.
I wouldn't have expected any value left in our price to win this game but Billy Hills are going an extremely generous 1.53 on a Torquay win. Thats a 65.35% chance that Torquay will win the game. I would put it more like 85% so value i'd say.
Of course there could be a shock but can't really see it myself. Would expect them to be run ragged after an hour or so and go the same way as Nuneaton.

[Gullscorer]

Our lads will have disgraced themselves if they don't score double figures in this game, assuming of course that the referee will be reasonably competent.. That should be worth a bet..!!

[Richinns]

I really hope the mentality they go in with is nothing like what has been shown in the previous two posts. If they are as professional as they have been recently then we should win the game but if they turn up expecting the three points then this is when football will punish you.

[Gullscorer]

I don't think Brucie, and certainly not myself, are expecting us to win the game simply by making an appearance on the pitch. Yes it's quite correct to say that if players go into a game with that attitude, that's when they're going to be surprised and punished by the opposition. But, given the records of the teams this season and the fact that Dover are part-timers, the knowledge that we are capable of not only winning but winning handsomely should spur our team on to even greater efforts to achieve perhaps a record score, rather than resting on our laurels waiting for a big result to fall into our laps (if that's possible on a football pitch)..

[brucie]

Richinns - its got nothing to do with anyones mentality. Plain fact is pure and simple that we should win this game easily.
We arn't a team of world beaters but they are a couple of classes below us. We are full timers, they are part timers who train a couple of hours a week and are faced with a long journey to get here.
Obviously if we turn up half arsed, or get someone sent off we probably won't win but we should be too good for them.