Torquay United Fans Forum

Brewers boy wrote: ↑24 Jul 2023, 11:11 A red card doesn't benefit anyone really in a friendly. Perhaps it would be better if the Ref could insist on the offender being substituted.

I disagree, it actually gives both team an opportunity to play under forced circumstances that they will encounter in a full season and learn from it.

happytorq wrote: ↑30 Apr 2023, 15:46 Nothing to do with the players, then?

Cause and effect, who signed the players?

Well, we went down with all guns blazing and I'm still proudly wearing my TU shirt as I type this.

One little aside, hats off to their keeper Foster who took time out just before the second half started to allow youngsters from the Family Stand to take selfies with him. Well done that man.

I can't add any more as the pain is taking over.

Mr Tea808 wrote: ↑24 Apr 2023, 12:42 Got a major hunch that GJ will be asked to stay on........

Am I reading too much into the statement as George and Mel get a mention by name but GJ doesn't.

Admiral wrote: ↑16 Apr 2023, 19:56 I just can’t see Maidenhead picking up a win! But it’s a funny old game..

I hope you are right about Maidenhead, if you are, our win there the other day will have proved to be absolutely priceless.

However, there is nothing funny about the game for me at the moment!

My emotions, which were just about permanently gloomy until a couple of weeks ago, are now yo yo-ing about like I don't know what. For a few hours after each of the wins it's been euphoria but that then subsides into a gloom as the next match looms on the horizon.

Willowgull wrote: ↑15 Apr 2023, 17:52 ........Our second goal was probably off side but who cares........

I was in line with their last man in the build up and I'm fairly sure it wasn't offside, but as you state, who cares, the goal (which was a peach) was given.

MellowYellow wrote: ↑28 Feb 2023, 22:22 Mystified! we play horrific hoof-ball for 80min with Halstead majestically taking aimless long punts up the pitch. Then in 80min for reason still unfathomable to me Halstead having retrieved the ball from a chaotic melee in our box decides to play ball to feet to one yellow shirt who is outnumbered by three red shirts. Outcome-penalty! Can anyone unravel this game-plan puzzle for me.

It goes with the corner routine, no doubt straight off the training ground, in the first half where we played it short, caught their defence napping for a moment and then the ball was played back to the corner taker who was offside. Schoolboy stuff.

Even the Dorking commentator on their highlights didn't see that as a card for Evans.

I see from the club website that there was a TU presence at the unveiling of a replacement gate plaque at KGV playing fields yesterday.

The fields (and those further up the hill at Easterbrook Lane) have a place in my heart as my childhood bedroom window in Halsteads Road looked straight across the valley, over the puffing chimney of Watcombe Pottery to them. So apart from playing on Barton Downs, I spent many childhood hours playing football or a rudimentary form of cricket there.

As some of the pitches had a serious slope from side to side and from end to end football watching was always interesting there on days when TU were playing away. I can particularly recall watching Ernie Pym still plying his trade, I think for St Marychurch Spurs, well after he had retired from Plainmoor and I can also recall a grand scout jamboree when rows and rows of tents were erected across the fields. If my memory doesn't fail me it was accorded a Royal Visit and the Queen's representative arrived in a helicopter. Witnessing that was a first for me but I can't recall the year.

I'm not hiding away from our first half defensive frailty but, having just seen the highlights, they just about sum up how one sided it was at times. There was a clear foul on Aguiar in the build up for their first and we should have had a second penalty late on when a shot from Jervis hit a very out stretched arm, bounced back to Jervis and went out for a goal kick. Result, the ref gives a corner as he presumably saw the handball but thought we still needed a another go if not from the spot! It's just as well that didn't matter by then.

As an aside, Jack Bycroft, their keeper, was quite a character.

I had a bit of banter with him during a long stoppage in the second half (not for the penalty when he was in Jervis's ear all the time the wait went on while their dying swan managed to avoid getting a card for deliberate handball by writhing around for an age).

He complained about a long journey back to Bournemouth where he lives and took time during the match to compliment our play!

We outplayed them for most of the match and for all the hype beforehand they weren't up to our level. We made a good start and witnessed a goal of the season from De Silva who was outstanding down his flank. He'd already beaten his marker so many times on the outside that the poor fella, in trying to block that route, gave him all the space he wanted to cut inside and curve a glorious shot around the keeper.

A second soon followed and their defence couldn't cope with our attacks so how we didn't score more was a mystery to me. We then lost our way after the ref had ignored a foul on one of our players and we didn't play the whistle - schoolboy stuff. We then followed this by leaving a gaping hole in the centre of our defence, 2 -2 but Taunton had already started to cut up rough and their number five then raked his studs down Evans' back to be rightly shown a straight red card.

Considering we had an extra man we didn't start the second half out of the blocks and took some time to settle. Our third was another peach of a goal, Wyatt left a defender for dead by passing the ball round him and nipping the other side to plant a cross onto the head of Jervis. We then won a penalty for deliberate handball and after the defender had writhed around for a while Jervis was finally able to calmly send the keeper the wrong way.

We should have had more as Taunton tired towards the end.

Lawrence looked composed and had a good and solid start but while being ok neither Aguiar nor Crole set my pulse racing.

That's two competitive wins on the bounce.

portugull wrote: ↑17 Jan 2023, 16:38 Wolborough I am surprised you include Wyatt in your list.

Perhaps he means Reg? Now there was a player.

Have courage my friend, both results did us no harm tonight, so it's about time we stopped self harming.

desperado wrote: ↑23 Nov 2022, 20:38 Wonder if Canada's Richie Laryea is related to our once star striker Benny ! one of Webb's awful signings.
Both of Ghanaian descent.

Can't answer that one but your comment implying a lack of footballing skill got me looking at his record. Admittedly at a (then) lower level he scored in just about every other match when at Maidenhead and was player of the season at Dundalk. He's done well since hanging up his boots, I quote:

Ben is a board member of The Guinness Partnership Limited, a member of the Health, Safety & Environmental Committee and a board member of Guinness Housing Association Limited. He has worked in the sector for over 30 years. He is Chief Executive of Ekaya Housing Association, which provides housing and support services primarily to black and ethnic minority women, their families and groups with similar needs. He has acted as an independent housing professional, supporting organisations through change and service transformation, and worked as a mentor to address the lack of diversity at senior management level within the sector. Ben is a Board Member of Dolphin Living and he sits on the Audit & Risk Committee of the Dolphin Square Foundation.