by AustrianAndyGull » 24 Oct 2011, 19:34
Good post Portugull. I think the start we had coming back from 2-0 down against Burton, apparently giving Southampton a good run for their money in the cup despite conceding 4, and the win at Rovers and Aldershot (although we were poor) probably is now working against Martin somewhat because now, in contrast we are performing appallingly and on the end of some heavy defeats and on a run of consistent games without winning. I like to think we deserved the good start we had but you can pick holes in the games and when you do so you do see signs of eventual struggle which has now arrived. Bristol Rovers was probably our best game although we should have been beaten PLUS we needed a refs decision to award us a penalty. How we won at Aldershot i will never know as we were so lucky and so poor. Crawley exposed us big time in the 3-1 home defeat and we sort of got back on track the following week away at Dagenham where again we conceded, were poor and needed another refs decision in awarding a late penalty which Howe converted. We despatched Macc 3-0 at home next. Yes they parked the bus and had no ambition of attacking which kind of put the onus on us to go forward which we did and eventually broke them down. You could argue that the victory was inevitable when the opposition were so defensive and by the same token you could also say that because Macc were spending lots of time in their own half they didn't put our defence under any pressure therefore we kept a rare clean sheet. Another less than vintage performance by all accounts but like Matt said i would rather give the team credit for sticking to their guns and eventually breaking them down than to say Macc were shite. A shite 0-0 draw at Northampton was positive as it was an away point and another clean sheet despite us only having 33% of the possession and Northampton creating chance after chance. I think the turning point in our season so far came in the 2-2 draw at home to Cheltenham as we have been unable to keep a clean sheet ever since and have shipped 18 goals in the games since then. Again the lads showed spirit to again come from behind but we drew. Same v Rotherham, 3-0 down and conceding keystone cops-esque goals. Again credit to the lads for getting a draw but we seemed to be giving the opposition a head start all the time. The last three away games have been the worst i have possible ever seen as a Torquay fan including losing comfortably and tamely to a Bradford side low on confidence who played 3/4 of the game with 10 men. We managed a creditable draw at home to high flying Morecambe in between but again conceded late. Hammerings v Gillingham and Southend followed. So that is it. In my opinion we are in for a hell of a relegation scrap from what i've seen so far but if we can get the spirit back that we showed at home to Rotherham then we might have a slim chance of avoiding a basement battle. It is just sad that there is just the one game in which we have showed true character. That is worrying. We have a lot of problems at the moment and i don't have any answers to them, i just hope Martin does. For what its worth i would drop Saah (not saying its the answer nor that doing this will make the team better but it must be tried on a regular basis as his confidence is shot to bits and he looks all over the place in every game nearly). This anxiety and uncertainty has an unsettling effect on the rest of the defence. I would also prefer that McPhee played in preference to Atieno. He gives us workrate and a physical presence up top. Atieno gives us nothing.
Good post Portugull. I think the start we had coming back from 2-0 down against Burton, apparently giving Southampton a good run for their money in the cup despite conceding 4, and the win at Rovers and Aldershot (although we were poor) probably is now working against Martin somewhat because now, in contrast we are performing appallingly and on the end of some heavy defeats and on a run of consistent games without winning. I like to think we deserved the good start we had but you can pick holes in the games and when you do so you do see signs of eventual struggle which has now arrived. Bristol Rovers was probably our best game although we should have been beaten PLUS we needed a refs decision to award us a penalty. How we won at Aldershot i will never know as we were so lucky and so poor. Crawley exposed us big time in the 3-1 home defeat and we sort of got back on track the following week away at Dagenham where again we conceded, were poor and needed another refs decision in awarding a late penalty which Howe converted. We despatched Macc 3-0 at home next. Yes they parked the bus and had no ambition of attacking which kind of put the onus on us to go forward which we did and eventually broke them down. You could argue that the victory was inevitable when the opposition were so defensive and by the same token you could also say that because Macc were spending lots of time in their own half they didn't put our defence under any pressure therefore we kept a rare clean sheet. Another less than vintage performance by all accounts but like Matt said i would rather give the team credit for sticking to their guns and eventually breaking them down than to say Macc were shite. A shite 0-0 draw at Northampton was positive as it was an away point and another clean sheet despite us only having 33% of the possession and Northampton creating chance after chance. I think the turning point in our season so far came in the 2-2 draw at home to Cheltenham as we have been unable to keep a clean sheet ever since and have shipped 18 goals in the games since then. Again the lads showed spirit to again come from behind but we drew. Same v Rotherham, 3-0 down and conceding keystone cops-esque goals. Again credit to the lads for getting a draw but we seemed to be giving the opposition a head start all the time. The last three away games have been the worst i have possible ever seen as a Torquay fan including losing comfortably and tamely to a Bradford side low on confidence who played 3/4 of the game with 10 men. We managed a creditable draw at home to high flying Morecambe in between but again conceded late. Hammerings v Gillingham and Southend followed. So that is it. In my opinion we are in for a hell of a relegation scrap from what i've seen so far but if we can get the spirit back that we showed at home to Rotherham then we might have a slim chance of avoiding a basement battle. It is just sad that there is just the one game in which we have showed true character. That is worrying. We have a lot of problems at the moment and i don't have any answers to them, i just hope Martin does. For what its worth i would drop Saah (not saying its the answer nor that doing this will make the team better but it must be tried on a regular basis as his confidence is shot to bits and he looks all over the place in every game nearly). This anxiety and uncertainty has an unsettling effect on the rest of the defence. I would also prefer that McPhee played in preference to Atieno. He gives us workrate and a physical presence up top. Atieno gives us nothing.
