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Often with out international football tournaments, the summer breaks can seem long and boring, with so much uncertainty on whether our club would retain it's place in the NL premier division, or whether the club even had a future kept our minds on our football through out, thanks to a group of fans, who some would say have committed financial suicide, I prefer to call it bravery, our club remains in tact, and we start the season in the NL premier division.

With the new board coming in, new manager and coaching staff, and transfer revolving door that is still turning, this close season break seems to have flown by for me, and certainly has not on any way dragged. In a touch of Deja vu and the weird way fixtures seem to be worked out at this level, our team start the new season exactly as they ended last season, by entertaining Macclesfield Town at Plainmoor (LWS) It is to Macclesfield we can look for some hope, last year they went through similar turmoil we've just experienced, with on off takeover saga, expectations hit an all time low for the silkmen, yet they surprised many, narrowly missing out on a play-off place on the final day against us, proof of just what can be achieved on little or no money.

Featured Macclesfield Town player

Danny Whitaker ; Born 14th November 1980, Danny has been a free scoring midfielder through out his career, Danny Whitaker the former Manchester United youth player, turned professional in 2001 with Macclesfield, scoring 23 goals from 172 league games. In 2006 Danny Whitaker moved to League one Port Vale, and would spend the majority of his career at that level making over 270 appearances, scoring 42 goals for Port Vale, Oldham and Chesterfield, after his release from Chesterfield Danny re-signed for Macclesfield and has scored 10 times in 73 games, still very much a player to watch.

Macclesfield pre-season results

Kidsgrove Athletic 0 - 0 Macclesfield Town
Macclesfield Town 0 - 0 Rochdale
Macclesfield Town 0 - 1 Bury
Macclesfield Town 2 - 1 Stockport County
Macclesfield Town 0 - 4 Sheffield United

Macclesfield Town squad


1. Ritchie Branagan
2. Andy Halls
3. Curtis Haynes-Brown
4. Neill Byrne
5. George Pilkington
6. Paul Turnbull
7. Theo Bailey-Jones
8. Paul Lewis
9. Chris Holroyd
10. Jack Sampson
11. Danny Rowe
12. Dan Cowan
14. Kristian Dennis
15. Tony Diagne
16. Efe Sodje
23. Danny Whitaker
I believe they have since signed Danny Whitehead

Read more at http://www.mtfc.co.uk/news/article/2015 ... OLz0VIo.99

From a Torquay point of view

We know that new signing James Hurst and last seasons captain Luke Young will both miss this game through injury, loan signing Nathan Smith had a very solid game at right back against Exeter so would expect him to play, in Bayan Fenwick we seem to have a player in the squad more than able to fill in for Luke Young.

Will Waide Fairhurst line up against his old club, personally not sure, to me he seemed off the pace Friday night, but them I'm not the manager, there's also the Lavercombe v Speiss argument, who will start as no1 keeper, personally expect a big clue in tonight's friendly at Bideford, with so many new signings, and I think we're all expecting perhaps 1-2 further signings to be made this week, it's difficult to know at this stage how our team will line up for Saturday.

Pre-season results

Galmpton 0 v 9 Torquay
Dartmouth 2 v 5 Torquay
Tiverton Town 2 - 3 Torquay United
Torquay United 1 - 3 Newport County
Torquay United 1 - 2 Yeovil Town
Truro City 0 - 1 Torquay United
Torquay United 0 - 1 Plymouth Argyle
Torquay United 2 - 1 Exeter City

Line up v Exeter City

Spiess
Smith
MacDonald
Geohaghon
Butler
Murombedzi (Marsh-81)
C Richards
Fenwick
Brobbel (Lavelle-Moore-63) -Both trial players.
Briscoe
Fairhurst (Chaney-45)

Subs:
J Richards-trial player
Marsh
Yeoman
Prynn
Lavelle-Moore-trial player
Chaney
Odofin
Lavercombe

Target 4,000 gate

An over ambitious target no doubt, very valuable to the club having people with the time and the skill set volunteering to help out with jobs around the ground, however as we all know what our club needs the most right now is money and support. So if you're a casual fan please make Saturday a must go to fixture, if you're a stay away fan, new board, new club, new beginning at least give it a try, the clubs future is still be no means certain, the S-D-L doesn't start until August 22 , if you've not got a friendly match Saturday come along, persuade, encourage your football loving friends to attend this match, would be great to achieve this, if only for one game, a great way to thank the new board.

I'm calling a Fairhurst hattrick now But in all seriousness, I think 1-1.

Fairhurst hattrick would be nice can't see it, thought he looked a couple of weeks behind everyone else in terms of fitness, no surprise to me he played last night. Fairly certain Spiess will start ahead of Lavercombe, and wondering about a Marsh/Fisher partnership up front, was plainly obvious against Exeter the team were lacking some height up top.

Gate isn't going to be swelled by many coming down from Macclesford-they've cancelled the supporters coach due to lack of interest,though there's a weekend trip organised which appears to be quite well supported.

0-2

3-1 Fairhurst, Marsh, Fenwick, Holroyd
2104 in attendance

We will win 2-1. The first 3 points of the 12 we are going to get in August.

I'm going for a narrow Home win. 1-0.

Very tough first 7 games for TQ. Playing Macclesfield, Wrexham, Halifax, Woking, Grimsby, Cheltenham and Eastleigh.

Good start is Vital.

COYY!!!

We'll get a good crowd (3,066) but lose badly (0-3). This will put paid to good crowds for the rest of the season.

Not underestimating Macclesfield, however I see no reason why we should lose this game 0.2 or 0.3, Macclesfield are no better off in terms of recruitment than we are, personally think we've over taken them on that front now, like us they have some individually good players, Macclesfield do not look as strong as they did last term, in my opinion.

wivelgull wrote:We'll get a good crowd (3,066) but lose badly (0-3). This will put paid to good crowds for the rest of the season.

Over optimistic about gate, Wivel, and over pessimistic about score. I think gate will be about 2200. Difficult to predict the result as both sides have gone through a re-building process since the end of last season. I'll go for a score of 2 - 2, goals from Briscoe and Yeoman, coming on as a second half sub.

I think the gate will top 2000 but possibly suffer a narrow defeat. However, a Macclesfield side that challenged for the play-offs all season, will be a good barometer for our newly constructed side.

Just had a look on the Macc Fans Forum predictor thread.

They are not confident ! So far from 28 predictions it falls :

Macc Win 3
Draw 9
Tqy Win 16

I'm with them !!!

I think they've lost a lot of their better players this season, including Fairhurst to us which is why they're less confident. They're very much in the same club as us in terms of them being an ex league club without the financial resources to throw around at the top of the league.

I think we'll win; I've seen enough from us pre-season that would lead me to believe we'll beat teams around Macclesfield's (perceived) level and with the fans very much behind the players, manager and the club I think we'll start aggressively and successfully. There won't be much in it though I don't think, but I fancy us to knick a tight game.

Torquay 1-0 Macclesfield, Briscoe with the goal.

On the matter of the gate, I think we'll be higher than some predict - 2,674.

3 points for us, 3-1 win, 2,500 plus gate, i think cox will have them fired up from the start, looking forward to this game. lets get behind the team and the club, the popside needs to rock, lets shake off this morgue like silence , come on you yellows!