Torquay United Fans Forum

Gullscorer wrote: The game? Or Brucie's comment?

Both. What has the sexy beast been saying now?

Someone remind me, is Angus Mac a competent right back?

He's got his rod out and he doesn't even seem to need it, he just stands on the beach and the fish queue up to chuck themselves in his net. Bloke's a genius.

Devastated to have missed this. Absolutely gutted.

tommyg wrote:Ajala a Championship standard player - are you being serious or just looking for a bite? The last Torquay player you were wetting yourself over was Nathan Craig who is now playing part-time in the Welsh league. I suppose that's the "inner workings of football" holding him back. Ajala has pace and a trick or two but to suggest he would walk into a top L1 side when he can't actually get in our starting XI shows that you are the one who doesn't have a clue how football actually works.

Talk to people who actually know, and they'll tell you talent (which is what I always said Craig had) was never his problem. You're right, that's the inner workings of football, and it's a story repeated hundreds of thousands of times every year.

If all you can see in Ajala is pace and tricks, I'm afraid any further conversation on the subject will go miles over your head.

Why are we shoehorning Chappell, who isn't a striker, into that role when Yeoman, who is a striker, is available?

PlainmoorRoar wrote:Wanting to move on quickly from a far from ideal start to the league I have concerns over the game on Tuesday!

We've had our dry days but we know it doesn't take a lot to make some areas of the pitch unplayable!

It's raining now and most of the evening, praying to miss most of the rain tomorrow and hopefully Monday and Tuesday will be downgraded (as the met office usually do closer to the day)

Like last year, you mean, when we suffered the heaviest and most prolonged rainfall in history and still lost fewer games than moneybags Crawley or Newport County (to name just two of the many)?

I'm sure the highlights portray it wrongly, but that looks to me like we lost 3-1 to a side with a L1 striker up front, who hammered in two goals which would have graced any top flight match in the world. Considering we also missed a penalty, the scoring of which would have meant that we were at 2-2 (and earning a creditable away point) before their guy knocked in a 30-yarder. The only other game I've seen in this division this year featured Bristol Rovers (bookies favourites for the title) and Grimsby (playoff semi-finalists). Neither of those sides, with all their efforts combined, managed to produce anything of the quality that Gateshead seem to possess.

Have we, perhaps, just come across the outstanding talent in this division and been rightly beaten? Are Gateshead merely average and us, Rovers and Grimsby (on the evidence thus far available) going to be lucky to score half a dozen points between us?
I think the former is considerably more likely, but I'm happy to concede that that view is based on one televised match and 6 minutes of YouTube highlights.

That said, the first goal is nothing short of embarrassing. We just let the worst corner ever taken simply bobble and bounce, slowly and unchecked, straight to a player who was patently stood where he was in order to avoid getting involved at all.
Two and three for them, well, what do you want us to do. Might be nice if someone had got in his face for the second, rather than giving him a free shot from 18 yards, but the third is unstoppable. You can have two goalkeepers in and they're not getting that.

My real concern is some of our old shit who keep getting pitch time, despite the glaringly obvious fact that they simply aren't good enough. Imagine Benyon in the same place as their guy was for their second goal. 18 yards out, on his own, centre of goal. Does he A) smash it into the bottom corner or B) get flustered, take a heavy touch out for a goal kick, and then fall over his own feet?

Time for him to go. I don't give a shit about age, or size or experience, our best XI includes Ives, Richards, Ajala and Yeoman. If some other players have to miss out or we have to play an odd formation because of it, then so be it.
And finally, will someone, please, for **** sake, get hold of our strikers and teach them how to take a **** penalty!

tommyg wrote: If he was unreal then he wouldn't have been on the bench for Welling six months ago and would have secured a contract with a club in the Football League. I don't intend to knock him - he was excellent in pre-season and I'm happy he was rewarded with a contract, but I'm not getting carried away after a few friendlies. Hopefully he will produce similar displays when given a chance in competitive fixtures, but I was more than happy with Hargreaves' decision to start Cameron and Briscoe on the wings today.

Here speaketh someone who hasn't the first clue how football actually works. Not every talented player can be in the Barcelona starting XI. Believe me or don't, I don't care either way, the kid is so far beyond our level it's untrue. He'd slot straight into a top L1 side without any trouble at all and he'd take not more than a month to get up to Championship standard. All this Brucie style bollocks about "he wouldn't have been on the bench for Welling" just demonstrates an appalling lack of appreciation for how the inner workings of football actually function.

I once overheard someone say "if Ben Collins was actually a talented driver, he'd be in F1, not pissing about on Top Gear". I can't believe people that stupid manage to make it to adulthood.

tommyg wrote:How can you possibly say Ajala is our best player on the back of a couple of pre-season games? I don't blame Hargreaves for starting him on the bench. Cameron was excellent towards the end of last season and Briscoe was our stand-out performer today. I suppose you could have played all three with one of them alongside or just behind Bowman and that could be something to look at in future games.

My biggest problem with the line-up was Benyon starting and Yeoman not even on the bench. Hargreaves transfer listed one and gave a new contract to the other, but the one he apparently doesn't want played and the one he does want was left at home!

Thing with Ajala is that he wasn't just our best player, he was the best player on the pitch by a thousand miles. He wasn't simply the best of a bad bunch, he was at a level so far advanced of his team mates and opposition that he was very nearly playing a completely different game. The kid isn't just good, he's unreal.

We're losing 2-0 to the best side left in the division, away, after a 12 hour trip to get there, having missed a pen. We're suffering in exactly the way we knew we would, at full back.
If we were 2-0 up at home against Hyde or Histon (or whoever is shit in this division), there'd be plenty of people telling us not to get carried away. The same is true here. Let's get into Welling on Tuesday and see what happens.

**** me, when was the last time we scored a penalty?

What the hell is Benyon doing anywhere near the starting XI of a professional football club. He's scored a handful of goals in the last 5 years. I've given lifts to mates a handful of times over the last 5 years, I don't claim to be a taxi driver. I've mown the lawn similarly, I don't refer to myself as a 'professional gardener'. Bloke's a bloody idiot.

For **** sake.

That missed shot was funny, but the truly hilarious thing was that the commo tried to excuse the miss, explaining that the ball came to him on his 'wrong foot'. As if that matters to a pro from a yard out with no one to beat.