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Over the past few weeks we had seen a general improvement in results and performances, that made me wonder whether the Basingstoke performance and result was a blip, everyone connected with the club asked for a reaction against Altrincham, we certainly saw that in the performance, which gleaned from the commentary and match reports was vastly improved, even if the team didn’t quite secure the desired result.

This Saturday our team host promotion hopefuls Wrexham FC. We face Wrexham for the second time this season, back in early August the Gulls travelled to Wrexham for our first away game of the season, which saw Wrexham gain what can only be described as a very comfortable 3.1 home win.

Wrexham were one of the most dominant teams in the opening month of the season, 5 wins from their first 6 games, a record only beaten by FGR in August saw Wrexham climb to 2nd place in the league table.
Since then Wrexham’s overall form has suffered somewhat, a recent run of 5 games without a win and only 2 wins in 12 games saw Wrexham slip back towards mid table, however, Wrexham have recovered some form with 2 straight wins, they now sit in 6th place on 31 points in touching distance from the top spot.

Kevin Wilkin accuses Wrexham over 'abysmal' treatment

Wrexham appear to have got themselves into a sticky situation with their former manager, who says;

"The fact that Wrexham chose to stop paying me when it's well documented they have gone out and got a new manager I felt was poor," said Wilkin.
"Dismissing me is one thing but the way I've been treated is pretty abysmal really.
"I made them a lot of money last year, probably £750,000.
"I've stayed silent on the situation, I've kept my dignity over the situation and to stop paying me all of a sudden over a bit of a grey area in my contract for me was poor."

Wrexham FC maintains;

"There were no 'grey areas' in the contract between the club and Kevin Wilkin.
"Kevin received advice from the League Managers Association (LMA) both before signing his contract at Wrexham AFC and after leaving the club. The LMA are experts in drafting contracts to protect their members.
"Kevin referenced additional income generated for the football club in season 2014/15. The figures mentioned are wholly inaccurate.
"Later this year we will hold the AGM of the football club which will show our income and expenditure for season 2014/15 and how that compares to the previous financial year. Wrexham AFC is a fully transparent company owned by the fans.
"We publish our full accounts at our AGM annually which we have done from day one of supporter ownership and our accounts for the previous financial year are currently undergoing the statutory audit."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34654100

Featured Wrexham player

Dominic Vose; Born 23rd November 1993, positon midfielder, Vose started his career as youth player with West Ham although he made no senior appearances for the Hammers, Vose did enjoy a 5 game loan spell at Braintree, released in December 2012, Dominic Vose signed for Tooting and Mitcham FC scoring 1 goal from 4 appearances, January 2013 saw Vose go on trial with Stoke City however the following month Vose signed a 1 year deal with Barnet.

Dominic Vose would make just 2 football league appearances for Barnet before his contract was cancelled by mutual consent in August 2013, he would have to wind the clock on to November of that year before signing a monthly contract with Colchester United after a successful trial, Vose would make 34 appearances for the U’s before leaving to find first team opportunities.

Dominic Vose had a short but successful 16 game spell with Welling netting 5 goals before signing at Wrexham in May; Vose seems to have found his feet at Wrexham, netting 7 goals from 17 appearances to date. I seem to remember Vose ripping our team to bits in the match at their ground in August, could be one to watch this Saturday.

Wrexham top goalscorers and season stats

Connor Jennings 8
Dominic Vose 7
Wes York 6
James Gray 5
Sean Newton 3
Rob Evans 1
Blaine Hudson 1
Joe Quigley 1
Emmanuele Smith 1
Adam Smith 1
Javan Vidal 1

HOME / AWAY ADVANTAGE
% Points 64% 36%
% Goals scored 62% 38%
% Goals conceded 44% 56%

Current form

Wrexham; L-D-L-D-W-W

(league form only)

3 Oct Chester 3 - 2 Wrexham
6 Oct Wrexham 2 - 2 Tranmere
10 Oct Dover Athlet. 2 - 1 Wrexham
14 Oct Wrexham 3 - 3 Guiseley
17 Oct Woking 0 - 1 Wrexham
31 Oct Wrexham 4 – 1 Barrow

Last time out

Wrexham 4 – 1 Barrow

30 R Taylor
02 Vidal (Hudson - 67' )
04 Smith
15 Evans (Gray - 46' )
03 Newton
06 Fyfield
12 Carrington Booked
23 Nolan
16 York (Jackson - 95' )
10 Jennings
08 Vose

Substitutes
05 Hudson
09 Gray
14 Jackson
18 White
22 Royle

Wrexham manager Gary Mills told BBC Radio Wales:

"I've missed going to thump the air in front of fans. It felt good, but we've taken seven [points] from the last nine - don't forget that, it's not just about today.
"We had the slip up last week, which might have taken the icing off that a little bit.
"I thought they were decent, Barrow. They started the game really well.
"We had to show a lot of desire to stick with that, but in the end I thought we deserved it."

From a Torquay United point of view

Tyrone Marsh will no doubt serve a three match suspension now, I do not see any grounds for an appeal, in today’s football you just cannot lay your hands another player regardless of whether he’s your team mate or not, whether it was just a push or more than, it does come under violent conduct, yes the referee can use his common sense, however at this level you have a lot young referees wanting to make it to the highest level just like the players, they will referee to the letter, referees at this level do not want to be marked down, players must know this, don’t give the referee a decision to make is the best way around things.

So we may see a full home debut for French on loan striker Achille Campion.

Dan Lavercombe came in for Fabian Spiess, he didn’t have a lot do in the Altrincham game, that shouldn’t be taken as criticism by the precious little sweeties out there, however, by all accounts when he was called into action he coped well, so I see no reason why he will not keep his place and get a run in the side, fair play to the lad.

I think both the Berry/Hurst and Nicholson/Butler combinations work well, shame those combinations were broken for the Basingstoke cup game, but restored against Altrincham once again it appeared to work well on both sides.

When it comes to our form in general there can be no skirting around the issue, at the start of the season I talked about the team turning good 20-30-minute in game spells of pressure into 50-60 minutes, think we’ve seen that in a number of games since Kevin Nicholson took over, and that’s a great credit to him and all the players.

However, we’re still not seeing the team convert defeats into draws and draws into wins, since KN took over we’ve seen 1 win in 7 games, overall 1 win from our last 16 league games, some tough decisions have to made and now, we're approaching the all important Christmas fixtures and time is running out, we can't keep talking about another improvement followed by a harsh defeat we can't talk anymore about improvement followed by a glorious draw, our team has to start winning games now, if some these players are not capable of that, then Nicholson needs some support to get them out and replaced with as good a player as we can afford, a little extra needs to be found, I believe just a few hundred quid stood between us a loan striker with a real track record in this division a just few weeks ago, time for the talking to stop, and some doing, done.

Torquay United top goalscorers and season stats

James Hurst 7
Alex Fisher 5
Tyrone Marsh 5
Dan Butler 1
Josh Carmichael 1
Exodus Geohaghon 1
Angus MacDonald 1
Courtney Richards

HOME / AWAY ADVANTAGE Home Away
% Points 33% 67%
% Goals scored 39% 61%
% Goals conceded 54% 46%


Current form

(league form only)

Torquay United; L-L-W-D-D-D

3 Oct Torquay Utd 0 - 2 Aldershot To.
6 Oct Torquay Utd 2 - 3 Dover Athlet.
10 Oct Southport 0 - 1 Torquay Utd
13 Oct Woking 2 - 2 Torquay Utd
17 Oct Torquay Utd 1 - 1 Grimsby
31Oct Altrincham 1 - 1 Torquay Utd

Last time out


Altrincham 1 - 1 Torquay Utd

21 Lavercombe
16 Richards
29 Berry Booked
18 Smith
02 Hurst Booked (Briscoe - 87' )
10 Marsh Dismissed
03 Butler
26 Heslop (Murombedzi - 46' )
24 Nicholson
17 Fisher (Campion - 66' )
05 MacDonald Booked

Substitutes
01 Spiess
07 Briscoe
11 Murombedzi
23 Hancox
27 Campion

Player-manager on draw at Altrincham


“We showed a bit of everything out there,” he said. “The first half we were very, very good and the next step now is for us to be able to kill teams off in this situation.

“Altrincham didn’t know what had hit them early on, to be fair; we were defensively solid and played some good stuff, but we weren’t clinical enough.

“Our hosts came at us a bit more after the break, as we expected them to, but even then they didn’t really create anything and it took a worldly strike to bring them level.

“There was a bit of indiscipline; for me it was two team-mates showing that they care by having a go at each other. It was harsh, but the referee has followed the letter of the Law.

“The fact is you can’t give referees any reason to send you off. I’ll let the dust settle and think about the situation before deciding what to do next.

“It was disappointing because Tyrone had been excellent for us up to that point.

“That said, it was a good reaction overall to last weekend. We had great backing from the travelling fans and now we move on to our home game next weekend.”

Read more at http://www.torquayunited.com/news/artic ... XEkKZPK.99

Head to Head meetings


English Division Four (old)

24.10.1964 Torquay United 3-4 Wrexham
28.04.1965 Wrexham 2-3 Torquay United
12.02.1966 Torquay United 3-1 Wrexham
05.03.1966 Wrexham 0-2 Torquay United


English Division Three (old)

29.08.1970 Wrexham 1-0 Torquay United
02.04.1971 Torquay United 1-2 Wrexham
09.10.1971 Torquay United 2-3 Wrexham
11.03.1972 Wrexham 1-2 Torquay United


English Division Four (old)

29.10.1983 Wrexham 2-2 Torquay United
18.02.1984 Torquay United 1-0 Wrexham
06.10.1984 Torquay United 4-3 Wrexham
23.03.1985 Wrexham 2-0 Torquay United
23.11.1985 Torquay United 1-3 Wrexham
19.04.1986 Wrexham 3-2 Torquay United
06.09.1986 Torquay United 2-1 Wrexham
24.01.1987 Wrexham 2-1 Torquay United
15.08.1987 Torquay United 6-1 Wrexham
20.02.1988 Wrexham 2-3 Torquay United
04.04.1989 Torquay United 0-0 Wrexham
09.05.1989 Wrexham 1-0 Torquay United
31.10.1989 Wrexham 1-1 Torquay United
10.04.1990 Torquay United 0-1 Wrexham
16.10.1990 Torquay United 1-0 Wrexham
27.04.1991 Wrexham 2-1 Torquay United


English Division Three

15.09.1992 Torquay United 1-1 Wrexham
09.01.1993 Wrexham 4-2 Torquay United
31.08.2002 Torquay United 2-1 Wrexham
18.01.2003 Wrexham 2-1 Torquay United


English League One

23.11.2004 Torquay United 1-0 Wrexham
12.02.2005 Wrexham 1-1 Torquay United


English League Two

15.10.2005 Wrexham 4-2 Torquay United
22.04.2006 Torquay United 1-0 Wrexham
05.12.2006 Torquay United 1-1 Wrexham
21.04.2007 Wrexham 1-0 Torquay United


English Conference Premier

27.09.2008 Wrexham 1-1 Torquay United
16.01.2009 Torquay United 1-1 Wrexham


English Conference

04.10.2014 Torquay United 2-1 Wrexham
31.01.2015 Wrexham 0-0 Torquay United


English National League

11.08.2015 Wrexham 3-1 Torquay United (last meeting)

There are bound to be variations and inconsistencies in results from game to game which we can do nothing about. For example, we might have won the Basingstoke* game if we had taken just a little bit more advantage of our first half supremacy, or had it not been for that Basingstoke* goal-of-the-season contender. Other games may go our way undeservedly. And there will be occasional bad days such as the FA Cup game, about which, the least said the better, but from which KN and the team will have learned something. That's football.

But what is undeniable is that, since Kevin Nicholson arrived as manager, barring the odd blip here and there there has been a slow but steady improvement. I believe that will continue over the rest of the season, sufficiently so to put us in a safe mid-table position and provide us with a springboard to make further progress the following season. Certainly there are improvements still to be made, and there are positions which need strengthening. And it is essential for supporters to continue their support for the team.

Wrexham on Saturday will provide a good test by which to measure our progress. I'm looking forward to it with some relish.

*Edit/update: I meant Altrincham not Basingstoke..!!

Gullscorer wrote:There are bound to be variations and inconsistencies in results from game to game which we can do nothing about. For example, we might have won the Basingstoke game if we had taken just a little bit more advantage of our first half supremacy, or had it not been for that Basingstoke goal-of-the-season contender. Other games may go our way undeservedly. And there will be occasional bad days such as the FA Cup game, about which, the least said the better, but from which KN and the team will have learned something. That's football.

I think you mean Altrincham, Gullscorer. We prefer to forget Basinstoke ....... Another very good summary, Forever. Checking back on that long list of matches between the two clubs must have taken some time - interesting reading.

Gullscorer - Suggesting that we "might" have won at Basingstoke is nonsense. Stop making excuses - we lost 3-0 for Christ sake. One win out of seven isn't really that much of an improvement to be fair. Six points out of eighteen and a poor cup defeat.
That sort of "form" won't see us mid table - it will see us relegated.

brucie wrote:Gullscorer - Suggesting that we "might" have won at Basingstoke is nonsense. Stop making excuses - we lost 3-0 for Christ sake. One win out of seven isn't really that much of an improvement to be fair. Six points out of eighteen and a poor cup defeat.
That sort of "form" won't see us mid table - it will see us relegated.

Ha ha, sorry Brucie.. I had just finished a rare superb bottle of port wine and wasn't thinking clearly. As Tomogull suggests, I meant Altrincham, not Basingstoke. And, as I tried to indicate, our slow and steady improvement is not yet to be measured in terms of a run of good results. The best is yet to come..!!

Good old brucie - right again!

Meanwhile,
TUFC (1) 1
Wrexham (1) 3

Att: 1,808

This from Swivelgull, who can't even spell his own name.. :~D

Meanwhile, Torquay United 3, Wrexham 1.. Att. 5763

Gullscorer wrote:This from Swivelgull, who can't even spell his own name.. :~D

Meanwhile, Torquay United 3, Wrexham 1.. Att. 5763

This from "Goalscorer", who can't spell HIS own name too....

Scott, you're a fine one to talk:

"Spelling variations of this family name include: Labrie, Labre, Labree, Labret, L'Abri, Brie, DeBrie, Debrie, Dubray, Brehaut, Briart and many more." https://www.houseofnames.com/brehaut-family-crest :~D

Brehaut is the correct spelling - accept no imitations....

I know brucie likes to analysis the betting side of things. But seriously are we that bad for us to be 17/4 for a home win(bet365). I have no problem Wrexham being 4/6. Surely our new signings, and recent league form makes this a tad bizarre , it's not as if Wrexham are top and on fire. On this basis value lies with us.

Mind you in the week our club made a couple of signings ,Wrexham did one of their own..http://www.wrexhamafc.co.uk/news/articl ... 86301.aspx. On paper knocks ours out of the water some what.

forevertufc wrote:Mind you in the week our club made a couple of signings ,Wrexham did one of their own..http://www.wrexhamafc.co.uk/news/articl ... 86301.aspx. On paper knocks ours out of the water some what.

A decent signing but I wouldn't say it blows any of ours out of the water. He started high and it has taken him longer to fall but just because he had contracts with the mighty Bolton, Blackpool and Shrewsbury doesn't mean he is any better than any of our lot. Indeed, he may even still be falling - we may find tomorrow that even the National League is too much for him (heres hoping!)

What is the weather like in Torquay. Do they have decent covers on the pitch.

Lucy - there is only value on our side if there is a likelihood of us winning the game. There is a 68% positive value on a Torquay win in the match odds market at a price of 5 on betfair. The fair odds price on a Torquay win is 3.38.

Wrexham are 1.76 to win - their fair odds price is 1.98 (just shy of evens) so that's a negative value price of -22%.

So on the face of it Torquay are value. However if you do factor in team news I don't think that does us any favours. Saying "we have a couple of new signings" is all well and good.

However losing Marsh makes us weaker I would say. So we will have Campion (completely unproven and doubts if he can go 90 minutes) as well as two players who couldn't seem to cement a place in the leagues worst team.

That's three new players in a woeful team who don't even have a goalkeeper who is fit for purpose.

I cannot see any way we can win tomorrow really - I think the best we can hope for is to somehow hang on for a point but realistically we will lose this.