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Alfreton Town v Torquay United – Saturday 11th October 2014 – 5.30pm

It’s Alfreton v Torquay AND IT’S LIVE (said in a Martin Tyler voice). For those watching this game on BT Sport, the Gulls nest is open and will be showing the game. For those making the 245 mile trip to Alfreton, you will be treated by the delight of the Impact Arena. Calling the ground an arena, you expect a 90,000 seated stadium, which each seat made out of leather and your name embroidered on it. Not 3,600 capacity with 1,500 seating in a very strange looking ‘arena’ having to pay £18 to get in. The ground can only be described as an ‘Accrington Stanley’ styled ground. It’s not pretty, let’s hope the football is! Away fans are mostly housed in the mostly open 'Tin End' terrace at one end of the ground. In addition a small amount of seats are also made available in the covered seating area on one side of the pitch. This area though does have a number of supporting pillars that may impede your view. At the back of the open terrace there is a small covered area, which can provide some shelter but only for a relatively small number of fans, plus again there are a number of supporting pillars to contend with.

The last game for Alfreton saw them losing to Gateshead 2-0 away from home. Town are currently 23rd with 10 points and with the worst goal difference in the whole league, -21. We should win easily then! Well, I said that against Telford and look what happened! Karl Hawley will be playing for Alfreton...we all know it’s going to happen! Here’s how the home side for Saturday’s game lined up against Gateshead:

20 Dawson
02 Wood
03 Rowe-Turner
04 Courtney
05 Graham
10 Bradley
11 Howell
15 Keane (Shaw - 10' )
16 Gray
18 Ironside (Clayton - 79' )
23 Hawley (McDonald - 79' )

Substitutes
09 Clayton
12 Shaw
14 Sheridan
17 McDonald

We cannot go into this game thinking we’ve already won. United will be without both Downes and MacDonald, I’m not sure who will replace one of them, Hutchings maybe?. Ricey has had a few dodgy games recently, he needs to improve for this one. Richards will be back for this one, we should see him return back in the starting XI. Courtney has been poor and needs to be dropped; other players deserve to play more than him. Louis Briscoe played surprisingly well last Saturday, it’ll be interesting to see how he performs. Ofori should be back for this one and hopefully will see him get Bowman more involved. Super Lukey Young is still on four yellow cards, let’s hope he’s careful and perhaps we’ll see another wonder strike.

Rice

Tonge
Pearce
Hutchings
Cruise

Chappell
Young
Richards
Briscoe

Ofori
Bowman

Substitutes
Seabright
Cameron
Harding
Wakefield
Yeoman

The subs are probably too attacking minded, but who else can we choose? Anyway, if you’re going to the game or watching it at home, support the lads and let’s hope they bring the points home!

COYY.

(Edit - Written this very quickly so apologies for any spelling or grammatical errors.)

Wakefield, thought he did ok v Wrexham, and Sullivan is on loan at Hereford. Anyone else think Wakefield looks a lot like Jake Gyllenhal?

I take it the ground has not suffered from the tornado that hit the town, or is it a case of you wouldn't notice if it had.

http://www.itv.com/news/central/update/ ... y-tornado/

Thanks Danny for your summary but what has Toby Ajala done to upset you ? Not even on the bench ??? I'd have Ajala in the side ahead of Chappell and Chappell on the bench instead of Harding. It will be interesting to see what CH does in defence. I wonder if he might toy with the idea of moving Cruise to the middle and playing Josh Wakefield at full back. He'd be playing out of position of course but I reckon he'd do okay. Just a thought ..........

As for the Tornado Hector, let's hope Sunday morning's headlines will read 'Alfreton taken by storm'. I was rather looking forward to Andy coming on here and telling us all about Alfreton but silence so far ......

Wouldn't be too suprised if CH went for Harding at centre back to match the lack of pace of Hawley!
The unthinkable would be for Pearce to pick up an early injury in the game and then we really would be struggling.
Good shout on the Wakefield full back idea perhaps. It seems to me as though Ch wants to play Cruise at centre half as he tried to get Levi Ives back.
I do think he will just make the one change in defence though and that will be Harding.
He seems to have too many forwards to pick from, but we won last week so don't expect too many changes there - possibly O'Archie will have to wait on the bench perhaps?

I willl go

Rice

Tonge,Pearce,Harding,Cruise,

Ajala,Young,Richards,Cameron,

Bowman,Briscoe

I would go the same as Brucie.

Just think that Harding's experience might give him the edge over young Hutchings, who is after all still only 18 years old. Not only that, but Harding has all the attributes you feel would be needed in that role and might even add a touch of class with his ability to play out from the back too. As for the bench, I would go with Seabright, Hutchings, Wakefield, Chapell and O'Achie ... with Yeoman stepping out.

It would be nice to have a couple hundred fans there to make a bit of noise for the cameras (and team ofcourse)

I'd be surprised to see too many changes, I think Hutchings will start and Briscoe/Ajala will start in their reversed roles where they ended up last week.
The bench will be interesting. Will Odolfin get a spot? Will Harding be used as emergency centre-back cover? Will both Richards and Harding find a place on the bench?
I think we'll see the lack of defensive cover used as a way to get both centre-mids on the bench with Harding ready to step in to the back four if needed.

CP Gull wrote:I would go the same as Brucie.

Just think that Harding's experience might give him the edge over young Hutchings, who is after all still only 18 years old. Not only that, but Harding has all the attributes you feel would be needed in that role and might even add a touch of class with his ability to play out from the back too. As for the bench, I would go with Seabright, Hutchings, Wakefield, Chapell and O'Achie ... with Yeoman stepping out.

Is Harding a recognised defender? If Hutchings does not start in this game, then I would have my doubts as to whether its worth paying his wages at all . After training week in and week out and honing his defensive skills, then making the bench. You would hope that he is ready to make the step up, if not, why on earth put him on the bench.

If I were Hutchings and my chance came and went due to a Midfielder coming back from injury and taking my place, I would be well p*ssed off.

Give the lad a chance and put Harding on the bench as cover.

Hargreaves will want to win the game and isn't going to be bothered about hurting anyones feelings.
Hutchings is 18 years old with no first team experience. Harding has 351 pro appearances,is an England c international.
He might not be a natural centre back but he is going to be marking Karl Hawley. Think he might get the nod.

I agree with brucie.

If Hutchings isn't going to start, for one game, with 10 properly fit players around him, against an Alfreton side who haven't scored for over 4 games and playing with Hawley up front, then he's not going to start at all.

Everyone has to start their first team career somewhere, so talk of other guys having played 14,000,000 games is largely irrelevant. At one time, they too made their professional début. In order to play 351 games, one must first play 1 game. We did it with Ives. Hutchings is either good enough to make the first XI as and when required, or he isn't. If he is, then chuck him in. If he's not, then chuck him in the bin. There is the secret third option that we're hoping he'll develop to a suitable level, but if he's far enough from that level at 18, I really don't think he'll get there.

Matt.

if anybody knows of a way than an exile could watch this game in the US - entirely legally, of course - please send me a PM!

Harding has played however many games but he's a central midfielder. Hutchings for me, centre back by trade, sink or swim time for him. Eagerly anticipating what type of mistake Ricey will make as he always seemed to do so on TV. I'll say he gets nutmegged.

Rice
Tonge Pearce Hutchings Cruise
Ajala Wakefield Young Briscoe
Bowman Ofori

I think we'll lose 2-1 because of missing MacDownes and Hawley is obviously going to score.

happytorq wrote:if anybody knows of a way than an exile could watch this game in the US - entirely legally, of course - please send me a PM!

Have sent you a PM