Torquay United Fans Forum

You're spot on about Harrold in the play-offs. I've never seen a decent football side like Shrewsbury resort so persistently to an increasingly futile long-ball game. Robbo has dominated such battles plenty of times, most impressively as a 20 year-old against Fortune-West at Shrewbury in 2007. The forearm smashes he dished out in the Conference play-offs at Histon and Wembley also showed he can up the aggression!

Hopefully it was just a blip, but on Saturday we missed Branston as much as he seemingly missed us. As I said in my last post, considering the number of balls that sailed over Saah's head, maybe our defence was simply guilty of pushing up too far.

Only from the games i've seen mate, bit more culture about him. Whilst he's put the tackles in as well, Mansell to me is that fiery leader that will dish out the bollockings when needed as well as the challenges. Oastler is a young player and may take a bit of time to develop those kind of personal attributes.

If you don't think Oastler is quite as fiery as Mansell you're in for a pleasant surprise Ian, by all accounts he's a nasty little basket in training and on the pitch ;-)

Funnily enough I've always thought the opposite. Sides that boot it long haven't really had massive success against us, especially when Branston was here. Him and robertson could deal with that all day long. We didn't turn up as an attacking foce against stevenage but before that we'd never lost to them, Shrewsbury went long to Harrold and he didn't win anything against our lads in 180 minutes of play off football. When teams had some pace and mobility was when we struggled a bit, Nicholson, Robertson and Branston not the most athletic players.

I don't think we quite have that rugged strength that we had with BRanston marshalling the back line. Robertson is a big lad but has always struck me as a gentle giant, he's quite a timid guy and needs his arse kicked every now and then, Saah by all accounts is a bit more of a footballer and with Oastler at full back now I don't think he's quite as fiery as Mansell. I'm hoping Saturday was just a one off, but this is a big year for Robbo. He needs to be the leader and the bruiser in the back 4 this season. He needs to do Branston's job of kicking anything that moves and more importantly heading absolutely everything.

[quote="ferrarilover"] I wait with anticipation to see what happens when this defence comes up against an actual football team, rather than the rubbish of Burton Albion. Perhaps, against sides who try to pass their way through, rather than blast their way over, a defence, we will have more luck. [/quote]

We may well come up against a footballing side tonight, but my experience of League 2 football tells me we're going to face far more sides who'll go long like Burton, than those wanting to pass it through us. Our inability to deal with it on Saturday (and at Old Trafford) is unlikely to dissuade the more direct approach against us. Part of me wonders whether our defensive line was just too advanced.

In any case, it's a no-brainer to put Robbo against Harrold on Saturday, given Saah's inability to win a header last weekend. I'd like to think Brian's mobility will be suited against the likes of McGleish.

Hmmm, ok, couple of days to reflect, and ensure that my initial thoughts are indeed definitely what I believe, and I'm almost certain they are.

Give the team some time, no-one looked good Saturday, all mighty Rovers struggled past relegation fodder Wimbledon despite being gifted all three goals be shockingly bad defending, and managed to concede two goals in the process. Burton were totally devoid of any creativity at all. Their ONE and ONLY trick was to hoof the ball as long as they could in the hope that Richards could get on the end of one.
Nothing JOastler could do for the first one. If he makes any kind of tackle, Richards goes down and JOastler is off. Add to this the idea that he is also fecking huge and looks as if he could pull a reluctant hippo up a steep slope, and happens to be a better than average finisher and it was always likely to happen at some stage.
The second goal, well, yes, the marking went AWOL and their winger had the freedom of the bay, but his cross was simply shocking and Robbo (?) can consider himself almost unbelievably unlucky that the ball ricocheted off his foot, straight onto the head of that man Richards. Give him another 100,000 goes at that, and he couldn't do it again.

I wait with anticipation to see what happens when this defence comes up against an actual football team, rather than the rubbish of Burton Albion. Perhaps, against sides who try to pass their way through, rather than blast their way over, a defence, we will have more luck.

Also, as an aside, I liked the ref. Aside from missing what I'm told was a fairly blatant handball for their goal (and another one where the BAFC guy actually reached above his head with both hands and batted down the ball, no more than 10 yards from the official) I think he did well, and showed some bottle to send off their guy AND add on 5 or 6 minutes for all their shenanigans.

Matt.

I'd heard Saah had a decent pre season? Hopefully saturday was just a bad day for him. Happens, especially at our level!

We'll know more once we are 10-15 games in.

I was more going by the sensational headline of the thread to be honest more than individual posters and their views. For me, our squad is a midtable squad and mid table sides tend to blow a bit hot and cold both offensively and defensively. I imagine we'll do that this season.

I don't think myself and many others are saying we are crap at the back royalgull, just that we looked out of sorts with communication and positioning the major issues. We all know what Robbo, Nico and to some extent Oastler can do but many of us were concerned about the performance of Saah. You are right to point out that we will know more about the development and cohesion of the defence after 10 games when they have had the opportunity to bed themselves in and get used to each other in competetive games. I am a bit concerned about the quality of Saah but its only 1 game and i'm not reading too much into it. It is likely that if we had gone on to win the game (which we could have done), the frailties of the defending would not have been so highlighted.

[quote="royalgull"]Nothing like 1 match to throw a massive generalisation that we are toilet at the back. Even though in pre season our 'first team' barely conceeded a goal.

As with anything you can't make decisions until a real minimum of 10 games. That goes for individual players and collective performance.

I'd like to see a couple of little changes for tomorrow though. LRT in and Macklin in, maybe Atieno as well. Lets try the pacey game and see if that works.[/quote]

Totally agree. I didn't see the match, haven't seen any of the PSFs but aftermany years of watching and playing foorball itsfar too early to make comments about how the season will develop. What we do know is that we were 0-2 down and found a way back to 2-2 and learnt a bit about strengths and weaknessess, both of which will serve us well.

Nothing like 1 match to throw a massive generalisation that we are toilet at the back. Even though in pre season our 'first team' barely conceeded a goal.

As with anything you can't make decisions until a real minimum of 10 games. That goes for individual players and collective performance.

I'd like to see a couple of little changes for tomorrow though. LRT in and Macklin in, maybe Atieno as well. Lets try the pacey game and see if that works.

last season at northampton (i think), at half time, Danny attempted to thunder one into the empty net during his half time warm up, but missed the target and almost took some poor blokes head off as he was happily making his way down the steps en route to the coffee bar.

it was truly one of the funniest things i've EVER seen, in fact i'm smiling about it now as i type. if only danny could fire in crosses onto someone's head like that, we'd be onto a winner.

(apologies if the person hit by the ball is one of our members on here - but it was f**kin' funny :rofl: :rofl: )

[quote="Father Jack"]Chris, it's the fact that the likes of Carlisle could get a dangerous pass into the front men pretty much 9 times out of 10 from the wing. He didnt need to hare down the touchline to do it, though he did enough times despite not being overly blessed with lightning pace. The same goes for Jase Fowler to be honest. Zebs when on the wing could confuse the living daylights out of a defender and get a powerful cross low into the box. Robinson, Thompson and Carayol were all played on the wrong side to cross the ball into the danger areas hence they usually ended up cutting in and shooting. If they played on the right wing then dangerous crosses would have been provided. One of the two wide players needs to have the pace to provide the outlet to force the defences back. Morris seems to be the preferred option on the left but certainly didnt look dangerous or particularly quick yesterday so that leaves the right wing slot to get the service to the front men. Without that service it we are going to struggle to score many goals[/quote]

I agree with a lot of this. Indeed, my point about Carlisle and Fowler was that wingers with quality but not necessarily outstanding pace can offer a lot. The feeling I have got standing on the Popside over the years is a lot of our fans don't have time for a winger - no matter how effective he is - unless he streaks past the full-back and crosses from the by-line. You make a valid point about the wing Robinson, Thomson and Carayol played on, but I would maintain they were overly selfish. Whilst I rate Muzzy much more highly than many and fear what he may do to us next weekend, he never convinced me he could consistently provide dangerous crosses.

Re. the balance of our current attacking options, during pre-season I too suggested we needed to go with a pacy right-winger (Macklin) to compliment Morris as a Carlisle-like wide man. This is particularly crucial with two back-to-goal strikers in Howe and Kee.

On Stevens, anyone with GullsPlayer can fast-forward to Kee's shot in the 2nd half to see the best of the few good runs he went on (even if the commentator credits Morris!).

Well I suppose the thread title may have occurred to many at the start of the 1965/66 season when with a new manager from a non-league club and a number of new players including one from that same non-league club we opened our account with a 4-1 defeat to Bradford City. Before the season was half-way through we had also lost two home games to Stockport County (4-1) and Darlington (4-0).

However in those days before fans' forums when discussions on Plainmoor matters took place in the pub or the park dependent on age, we all kept believing and stuck together resulting in over 1000 of us making the long long trek to Darlington for the final game of the season on 21 May 1966.

In these days of motorways when you can set off at 7am for an afternoon kick off at Darlington, back in those days we left in a long line of Wallace Arnold coaches leaving Plainmoor at 7.30pm on the Friday evening before the game and picking me and a multitude of other fans up at Newton Abbot opposite the railway station at 8pm. The long overnight journey took us through every village, town, and city en route with a change of driver being made at the Wallace Arnold depot in
Leeds.

But having started the season with a 4-1 hammering and losing 4-0 at home to Darlington who were above us in the table ... we drew 0-0 and got promoted.

.... and then only a few weeks to wait for England to win the World Cup.

Good days to be a 14 year old English Torquay United supporter! :scarf:

Chris, it's the fact that the likes of Carlisle could get a dangerous pass into the front men pretty much 9 times out of 10 from the wing. He didnt need to hare down the touchline to do it, though he did enough times despite not being overly blessed with lightning pace. The same goes for Jase Fowler to be honest. Zebs when on the wing could confuse the living daylights out of a defender and get a powerful cross low into the box. Robinson, Thompson and Carayol were all played on the wrong side to cross the ball into the danger areas hence they usually ended up cutting in and shooting. If they played on the right wing then dangerous crosses would have been provided. One of the two wide players needs to have the pace to provide the outlet to force the defences back. Morris seems to be the preferred option on the left but certainly didnt look dangerous or particularly quick yesterday so that leaves the right wing slot to get the service to the front men. Without that service it we are going to struggle to score many goals

I think we can all agree familiarity has bred contempt when it comes to Danny Stevens. As you say, Andy, he has always (often frustratingly) cut inside or checked back on his runs. And yet some outstanding moments have come when he has done so. Two, admittedly old examples, are his goal at Burton in 2008, and the cross for Sills against Exeter in the New Year's Day derby. As an aside, I've always thought him more useful on the left, but I think Morris has a firm grip of that position.

On a slightly different note, I find TUFC supporters' views on wingers a strange one. There seems to be an insistence that they beat a man, get to the by-line, and put in a cross. I can't think of a winger we’ve had in recent times who fits that criteria, aside from the disappointing Buster Phillips. Hill, Fowler and Carlisle certainly didn't, and the likes of Robinson, Thomson and Carayol had the potential to do so, but often were more interested in getting on the score sheet themselves.