FA Cup: Sheffield United vs Torquay United

[AustrianAndyGull]

Yeah agree Dave. I go to most away games in the midlands and north ( and some south ) and i very rarely hear chants or shouting that is out of keeping with decent people. Sure we all have an outburst now and again but today i think those people that were offended were just unlucky as it is rare. To be honest i didn't here anything, only a song about she said no or something which i've never heard before and couldn't work out what it was and what it meant.

[Kernowgull]

I'll still go to te odd away game, I'll be at Plymouth and I'll probably be at Macclesfield as I have friends up there, but I've always been proud to take my northern mates who are fans of other clubs to away days, and I feel quite lucky that none could make it today. I always used to love going to away games, and used to make 6/7 away trips a year, but today cost me over £100, and whilst I go into games knowing that my day could be ruined by the players, thats the risk you take supporting Torquay. I don't expect it to be ruined by our fans.

Austrian, it was about an alledged rape, I have no idea if the allegations are true or false, and frankly, I don't care. Its not what I go to football for. But as Matt says, won't make anymore of it, just slightly tarnished a very enjoyable day out.

Anyway, all in all a good performance, and I think people are being a little harsh on Danny Stevens, I thought he did alright. Rene Howe is immense. Mark Ellis lived up to recent reviews, and I reckon if we can keep the first 11 fit and fresh, we'll be in the mix at the end of the season.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Oh kernowgull, i honestly had no idea of the alleged incident you point out. Makes sense now the chant and yes its despicable. The only person in football i feel such venom towards is Lee Hughes of Notts County who decimated the lives of families but like you say, you can't go around singing songs like some of our fans did today. We're not a Leeds or similar club with a large knuckledragging fanbase so it is disappointing.

[PlainmoorRoar]

with 10K people there, any estimates on how much we might have made from the gate receipts?

[dazgull]

A lot of us on our coach were peed off on the way home about the Ched Evans singing. They were singing "she said no evans" and laughing well i wish i had gone to a steward and had them all chucked out. They then misbehaved most of the way back on the other coach, mooning, ridiculous singing and chucking sweets about. Problem is that coach company will probably say no when Steve Breed wants one or will put the price up and our loyal travellers will have to pay more. All very brave when amongst there own...oddly enough at the services on the way back when there were loads of Swansea fans i didnt hear them singing "shep shaggers"......not that brave are they! There are always going to be various players/managers as targets and they can be sung at but that was out of order today.

A very frustrating day by all and such a pity it took a goal like that to change the game. If it had been a 30 yarder into the top corner it wouldnt have been so bad, just seem to knock the stuffing out of us and we were behind before we knew it.

[markw]

I agree I think it was the nature of their first goal, and the timing that killed us, I honestly believed that if we could have held on for another 5 mins there crowd would have started to get at them, all though given how quiet they were I am not too sure!!!

As I made a late decision to go I travelled up and back on my own, first time not either gone on a coach on in a car full, and was pleasently surprised at the reaction the Torquay shirt got at the various service stations , from the 4 Wimbledon fans on the way up wishing us luck, to the Swansea, Villa and Man U. Fans on the way back ( I didn't leave Sheffield till later ) who were asking how we got on etc. wondering if that's the experience of other gulls fans when the travel ?

[MidDevon]

I must admit, I thought even at half time we would not hold on and speaking to some of the other Gulls fans at the break I certainly was not alone. Sheffield United were playing a typically boring system, the same used by Danny Wilson at Bristol City, but it was effective and all of those square balls eventually were going to wear down, what was in fairness, a pretty resiliant defence.

The balls out of defence became increasingly panicky and led to more hoofs out of defence.....and then to lapses of concentration, I suppose that is the diiference between league two and top of league once teams.

I think if you can give one reason for our lack of possession it was Lathrope being out. Without him sat in front of the defence balls to O'Kane and Stevens were limited and O'Kane in particular certainly saw less of the ball than we could have expected.

To me Oastler stood out both in commitment and positional play and probably should have got more attention and praise than previously mentioned.

We were just 30 minutes away from causing an upset, perhaps if our defence had concentrated more we would have bought Sheffield United back down to Devon, and that would have been a brilliant evening, but our younger players will learn from this and perhaps be stronger as a result. For me , we still need a strong experienced central defender at the club.

It is always nice to visit a new ground with Torquay and this one was especially friendly, altough I was somewhat dissapointed at the lack of passion around this club with so much history.

[Colorado Gull]

I’m not going to post a ‘proper’ match report, 1) because I do the home games 2) Jeff and Andy have already posted two great reports.
However I will express my views on the game yesterday. I, like many others, wasn’t really expecting much from the game. But in the first half we played really well. That showed when Howe scored on 3 minutes! From then on we decided to defend most of the 1st half and it worked, the defenders were playing well and Bobby was playing even better with great saves made from set plays. As others have said, Sheffield United didn’t really make anything special from open play, the best chance they had was from free kicks. When coming forward on a few occasions, we passed and moved really well in the midfield working with Howe and Bodin. In theory we should have scored another goal by Danny or Howe as they both had a chance to score. However when the half time whistle blew all Torquay fans were overjoyed!

Then the 2nd half came and we simply through it away. We defended really well in the 1st half, but there was no way on this earth that we could have 10 men behind the ball for the whole 2nd half and not concede. As soon as the players came out for a second 45 minutes, Sheffield United piled on the pressure, we defended well for most of it, but inevitably their pressure got through and scored 2 goals in quick succession. After this it was Sheffield United on top, we looked all over the place and we were simply shocked that they scored 2 goals so quickly. Ling then made a change (which I thought was a good one) bringing on Atieno for Morris and making the formation 4-4-2. A minute after this, Bobby made his first goalkeeping howler in a TUFC shirt by not clearing quickly and Evans just put the ball in an empty net. The change worked IMHO we went forward in force, with Oastler, Bodin and Eunan. On 93 minutes we got another goal which was deserved with a nice finish by Danny Stevens.

The Yellow Army was in full voice, the officials were a bit iffy but all in all we gave it away with a minute of madness and a goalkeeping howler. After the game I spoke to some Sheffield fans who said “Well played, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you went up this year”, which was nice. Before the game I spoke to a few Chesterfield fans that were supporting Torquay for the day joining in with our songs. Also a few Burton fans were there yesterday, I have no idea why? All I can remember them doing is joining in with the Yellow Army chants and singing about Billy Kee?

Anyway the players should be proud of their overall performance and go on to play Barnet on Friday with confidence.

[tauntongull]

Drove to Luton on Friday evening and then went to Sheffield from there Saturday morning. The weather and the temperature were great all the way up until Chesterfield - we must have then hit the 'North / South' divide because the temperature plummeted to 6 degrees and the blue sky's disappeared.

Thought it was a great game and a really nice tribute to Gary Speed. Although under extreme pressure in the first half there really was no end product by Sheffield U. They moved the ball around very well from to left-right and were an obvious presence in the penalty area for free kicks and corners with a number of chances missed. It looked like their most likely outlet for scoring. Great early goal and good touch from Mansell and well taken finish by Rene.

Never heard a single song from their fans. Even when they were 3-1 up, they were reminded by our fans that they still didn't sing. You could almost sense the expectation they had for the team - compare that with no expectation on our part - I know which I'd prefer. They even started 'booing' their own players after about 35 minutes, that always helps.

The difference in quality was obvious to see with their movement off the ball, their ability to regain possession and to pass accurately and quickly despite being put under pressure by us trying to close them down. Our longest period of posession without having a pass intercepted or giving away posession was 17 seconds - compare this with their 2min 11 seconds - I think that says a lot. We really, really need to learn to understand that sometimes you need to hold on to the ball and we need to work on our ability to so this and in doing so improve our first touch. Their general overall fitness level seemed to be higher.

That said, I felt we were solid at the back (although I am sorry I still feel Robertson is the weaker of the two centre backs - Ellis make a challenge and also reacts very quickly looking for the second ball. He also has a very good ability to read the game and nip in front of other players winning the ball before it arrives. Robertson on the other hand always seems to be slower to react in this respect. Some fantastic goalkeeping by Bobby and some couragious defending as usual by Manell our leader kept our sheet clean.

Felt very sorry for Mark Ellis and Bobby. Just hope Ellis doesn't get dropped again like the last time this happened, he has been immense recently and I think he is a great player for us. As for Bobby, it could have been 3 or more if he hadn't made some terrific saves.

No point pondering over what could of been. Mistakes happen, that's why pencils have rubbers! The emphasis should be on regaining focus and making sure we retain our confidence - especially the affected players. I thought we gave a very good account of ourselves but I can't help worrying that Bobby may be a target in January.

Sheffield United fans were very complimentary of our performance and said we were one of the better teams they had played. I don't think we should underestimate these remarks.

My biggest disappointmet of the day was I am afraid to say our own fans. The chants relating to Evan's were simply unacceptable and incredibly distasteful at best. I pride myself on the behaviour of our fans, our good nature and spirit regardless of whether we win or lose but there is no excuse for this kind of behaviour and I will not condone it. I hope these fans take a real good look at themselves and realise that this type of support is not what the rest of us want to be associated with.

Keep playing the way we do and supporting in the same way and we will continue to do well this season.

AWJ

[Gullscorer]

If anyone's interested, Totton v Bristol Rovers commentary here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13629210.stm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Kernowgull]

Having just seen the highlights on the ITV website (over 5 minutes worth!) I don't think Stevens chance in the first half could be considered a sitter. I couldn't really see yesterday, hate sitting behind the goal, but his movement was excellent to get free in the first place, and the pass was slighly behind him, whilst he had 3 players in front of him so certainly not a clear shot.

Both goals were quality, I wonder if Manse (I think) intended that throughball to Howe for the first, if he did, it was exquisite!

[Gullscorer]

A near excellent League Two team narrowly lost away in the Cup to a top League One (and probable future Championship) team. The Gulls gave a very creditable account of themselves and can be proud of their performance, knowing that they need fear no other team. This knowledge will give them confidence in the future to be sharper in their shooting and less hesitant in winning the ball. Individually and as a team, they can now move on to greater things.

League One, here we come....

[AustrianAndyGull]

Having just seen the highlights on the ITV website (over 5 minutes worth!) I don't think Stevens chance in the first half could be considered a sitter. I couldn't really see yesterday, hate sitting behind the goal, but his movement was excellent to get free in the first place, and the pass was slighly behind him, whilst he had 3 players in front of him so certainly not a clear shot.

Both goals were quality, I wonder if Manse (I think) intended that throughball to Howe for the first, if he did, it was exquisite!

OK i accept that maybe i was being a little harsh. I didn't have the best of views either and haven't yet seen the tv highlights but both efforts were poor. Credit to Stevens for finding the onion bag in injury time but he missed the chances at a vital time. I was just annoyed thats all.

[bixieupnorth]

thoroughly enjoyed my day, left home and got the 53 bus to the station where i met my cousin, his lad and few others off the train from devon, three lovely pints of thornbridge ale then a quick stroll thru the rainy streets to the rutland arms for a blue bee nectar pale, lovely stuff.

the ground looked wierd with the huge kop end closed, been to bramall lane countless times and it was just soulless yesterday, maybe the speed effect, but i felt it was embarassing that 9,500 fans couldnt get one chant going?

they had all the ball in first half without doing anything with it except the free kicks, thought we played some great football at times, certainly prettier than the stuff they were playing. ellis was heading for my motm award until that swipe but i still think the defence was superb for most of the game, with the exception that they do tend to back off, instead of getting a foot in, there were four players near evans and not one even went to tackle, just jockeyed him around

good evening with works do and a very sore head today!

[Burnhamgull]

As I made a late decision to go I travelled up and back on my own, first time not either gone on a coach on in a car full, and was pleasently surprised at the reaction the Torquay shirt got at the various service stations , from the 4 Wimbledon fans on the way up wishing us luck, to the Swansea, Villa and Man U. Fans on the way back ( I didn't leave Sheffield till later ) who were asking how we got on etc. wondering if that's the experience of other gulls fans when the travel ?

I got chatting to a a couple of Wigan fans at Strensham services (I didn't realise Wigan had fans outside Wigan!) They were really interested to know how we had got on. Also spoke to four Reading fans on their way back from Blackpool who seemed genuinely interested in the Gulls. I think a lot of supporters have a soft spot for us.

On yesterday's game, I thought the atmosphere was strange. I know the Gary Speed factor played a part but their fans were very quiet and even after going 2-1 up, they only sang about Speed. The Kop looked strange being so empty. I felt we were quieter than usual too.

Great defensive performance though and oh so close to an upset. Proud to be a Gull.