Torquay United Fans Forum

Just seen a tweet from a Southend journo saying that "Benyon's deal was affected by Martin Ling's illness".

Seems as though we were definitely interested. Hopefully there's a chance of a short term deal happening when the loan window opens (when is that, anyone?), as I reckon it'd work well for all parties to have him back.

austrianandygull wrote:I was going to do my match ratings later MKGull but yours would be exactly the same as mine so thanks for saving me the job mate! Oh, and the ref WAS garbage too!

Nice to know we both saw the game the same way mate!

Ref was atrocious. Wildly inconsistent, gave free kicks for the slightest contact, and was easily swayed by the home crowd. Rubbish!

Poke
Downes
Jarvis
Saah

Just in and I'm at a loss to explain how we lost that. We played well, did more than enough to get a draw, perhaps even a win, but mystifyingly we managed to chuck it away.

The game took a while to get going, with both sides cagey and nervy, but after around 15 minutes the game came to life. Burton volleyed just over after a lack of communication between Downes and Poke presented them with the ball just inside the box, and at the other end Nathan Craig set Ryan Jarvis through on goal with a beautiful dinked through ball, but he could only find the side netting. It was pretty much end to end for the rest of the half, with Pokey pulling out a top draw save to tip over a curling effort from Maghoma, and Saah blocking a goal-bound effort from Zola. At the other end Rene managed to bustle his man off the ball, setting himself clean through on goal, before firing straight at the keeper.

Then came the goal on the stroke of half time. The corner came in from our left, Downes headed it on at the edge of the box and Jarvis turned it in. 0-0 would probably have been fair at half time but who cares. Did feel at the break like we needed a second goal to kill off the Brewers, and so it transpired.

We started the second half the brightest. Craig nearly caught the Burton keeper out with a looping free kick from 30 yards which the man between the sticks managed to just tip over, before Jarvis shot wide when clean through. We were made to rue those chances when Danny (who was utterly, utterly abysmal - more on that later) played Manse a hospital pass which was intercepted, and blasted home emphatically by Zola. Undeterred, the chances kept coming for us. Lathrope went close twice, before Rene, through on goal, shot straight at the keeper, and then had the rebound deflected a matter of inches wide.

But of course, on 84 minutes, the inevitable happened, and a deep free kick from our right seemed to sail straight over Poke and into the far corner. Undeserved, but not unexpected. Starting to worry about our freefalling down the table now.

Poke - 9 - My MOTM. Was absolutely outstanding. Dealt with every shot and cross that came his way, and once more pulled out some top drawer saves. Only stopped short of giving him a 10 as it looked like he was caught out for their winner, but I'd need to see it again.
Nicho - 7 - Did everything well. Had a pacey winger to deal with and did as best as he could, and managed to limit his effectiveness.
Downes - 9 - Outstanding. Nothing got past him.
Saah - 8 - Dealt manfully with Zola. As with Downes, did everything asked of him. Good to have him back.
Oastler - 7 - Quiet, as Burton offered no real threat down his side. Did his job well.
Manse - 6 - Subdued performance. Did nothing wrong, but didn't seem himself.
Lathrope - 7 - Put in some crucial tackles and had a couple of decent efforts on goal. Thought he did ok.
Craig - 7 - Not a winger by any stretch, but put in some great crosses from the flank, passed neatly, and was a danger from FK's.
Stevens - 2 - Hopeless. Couldn't find a teammate with a pass, continually bottled it and didn't go into tackles, and didn't take on his man once. More of a hindrance than a help, and gifted Burton an equaliser. I'm a fan of Stevens usually, but we'd have been better off with 10 men today.
Howe - 7 - Put himself about well, posed a threat and should have scored, but had to contend with Burton trying their hardest to get himself sent off.
Jarvis - 8 - Good return from Jarvy. Great to get on the scoresheet, made some great runs, and always did the right thing in possession. Quality.

SUBS:
Did nothing. Bodin failed to hit the target from 6/7 yards with a volley, and that was about it.

OFFICIALS:
Ref was garbage.

Certainly not a decision I'd like to have to make! Saah I'd agree should come back in, despite being tough on Angus. Absolutely with you on having Bodin on the wing and Craig in the middle Jeff, but can't help feel Ling may bring Billy straight back in for Yeoman instead. Still feel at this stage that Bodin offers us more than Ashley, and should be ahead of him in the pecking order if fit.

Setting off for this before too long, will be my 4th trip to Burton and I'm yet to see us lose, so bizarre as it seems I'm quietly confident of a result.

Whilst Burton's home form is excellent, and our away form is anything but, Rene has scored in our last 3 meetings with them, we've only lost against them once at the Pirelli in five trips there, and eight out of our twelve meetings in total have been draws or Torquay wins, so there's reason for a little optimism.

Lingy has a little selection dilemma with Saah and Bodin returning. I think both may return, as we could do with that little extra experience for an away game. it might be a bit harsh on MacDonald if he was dropped, but I'd agree on bringing Bodin back in for Yeoman, despite how well he apparently played against Wimbledon.

Hopefully we can keep Kee and Zola quiet, and perhaps sneak it by the odd goal for a 2-1. Think we'd settle for a point at this stage though. COYY!

All compounded by a fairly rude gesture to the Torquay faithful who weren't best pleased when King Leroy decided to bring him on as a sub in a thrashing away at Rochdale in the final days of the Rosenior reign. Must've been about 36/37 when he made that appearance. Pretty much in-keeping with that debacle of a season...until Ian Atkins worked his magic.

Think we've gone slightly into the realms of ridiculousness with some of the comments here.

Needs to be said that I wasn't there, and I know how it feels when you've spent so much money attending games and feel like you've got nothing in return. I have, however, spent a fortune getting to Wycombe, Barnet and Oxford to watch varying degrees of sub-standard performances. But that's how it is being a football fan - especially one who follows a small League 2 club.

To call it the worst football since 2005 is an exaggeration because, as poor as it is at the moment, it is nowhere even close to those dark days. It's not 2003/4 Leroy-esque, that's for certain, but it's not bad enough to deserve comparison with the Roberts era.

I also don't think it's fair to be accusing some of not trying. The effort has been there in every game I've seen so far - that is without question. Performances haven't been what we'd like, and I think ML could do a lot differently (loanees, tactics, mindset etc), but he puts everything into it.

The squad's not great - it won't go down as a classic in years to come - and performances have been poor, but I'm confident we'll be ok. We won't go up, but we won't go down. We've had huge changes to the squad over the summer that have weakened us, but also made massive strides off the pitch that will help us in the long term. Actually, by mentioning 2005/2006, I've been reminded of just how much of a better place this club is at.

Yep we haven't got much money, and we're probably going to have to make do with what we've got, but I still think we'll be ok. This is not a crisis. It's not great, but it's not a crisis. Lets face it, most of us have seen far worse in our time! Any talk of not going again whilst Ling is there is, frankly (in purely my opinion), a massive overreaction.

Problems that need sorting, and changes that need to be made, yes...but not a crisis.

Neal wrote:Just got in.

I'm usually a positive poster, but not this eve. That was dire. Nicco had an absolute mare.

I didn't see any urgency, belief or a will to win. The best word I can use is lethargic. Southend were bright, keen, quick and sharp, exactly what we werent.

Its going to be a long, tough winter in my opinion. We have very little threat going forward and all those who have posted this over the last few weeks, you were right.

Sounds like an exact copy of the Oxford performance...except without the positive bits (i.e strong defensive performance and heroics from Rice).

Sounded desperate today. Credit to all who stuck it out till the end. Far from a crisis, but time to see some action from Mr Ling. Says the same things time and again after every game, but yet to see any improvement in performances on the pitch.

Absolutely imperative that we don't lose Rene in January, otherwise we really are buggered.

stefano wrote: Judging by some of the things I've heard shouted from the terraces I think he could be on to something!

Very true Stefano! I just happened to be sat in front of two such muppets on Saturday.

We all know the type...know-it-all, frustrated wannabe managers who seem to know exactly where we're going wrong and how we should be playing. Their moronic - and mostly incorrect - comments were incessant, and it took all of my self-control not to turn round and say something.

But Manse, and a to a certain extent Lingy (who seems a little touchy when it comes to this sort thing), have been in and around the game long enough to know that a small percentage - and it is a small percentage - of every club has it's brainless serial whingers and moaners, for whom the club can do nothing right.

To seemingly tar all the Torquay fans with that brush just seemed a tad harsh to me, as on the whole I think we're pretty realistic about who and what we are, but immensely proud of our club, and just want it to do the best it can.

Having said that, we are perhaps getting a bit too gloomy, too early. Yes, the performances have been poor at times. Having been at Oxford and Barnet - and having spent upwards of £100 getting to them - I can testify to that. But it's also clear it's just a temporary thing, and there's been enough decent performances this year to see that there's still a good chance we can do something.

Interesting tweets from Manse. Someone suggested to him that we were poor today and he replied - "how were we poor today ??". The guy replied that he thought we were poor going forward and Manse tweeted back: "fair do's I agree with that nice to see someone who watches has a clue what's going on".

If Manse (and any other team members) are genuinely happy with that today, and thought that was anything better than a poor performance, then I'm worried. Lingy also seems similarly differing in opinion to many of us there, saying in his interview that the players can be proud of their workrate today. I wouldn't be if I'd just played a game of football like that.

Also, hope I'm wrong, but don't really like the way in which Manse seems to be suggesting the fans don't know what they're talking about. Maybe it's a joke and it's just gone flying over my head. Hopefully I'm wrong and it's not aimed at the fans.

Oastler
Downes
Rice
Saah

Well, we got away with murder there. Oxford could and should have stuck 2 or 3 past us in the second half, but thankfully their finishing is as bad as, if not worse than, ours.

I was thinking on the way there that a draw would be a decent result, and I suppose I still stand by that, but after seeing how poor Oxford were, I feel annoyed that we didn't at least attempt to go for all three points. But as soon as I saw that we were going 4-5-1 with Jarvis up top on his own, I had a feeling this wouldn't be a vintage performance.

The first half was one of the most dismal halves of football I've ever seen. Defensively we were fine, but going forward there was no energy, no urgency, and it was just lacklustre. None of the lads seemed to want the ball, and as soon as they got it, it was like the proverbial hot potato and booted away as soon as possible. Our entire plan seemed to be to knock it in the air up the middle to Jarvis and just hope for the best. He of course isn't Rene, and couldn't bring it down and bring anyone else in, so we created very little. I can barely remember us venturing up the wing at all, and there was very little in terms of goalbound efforts (I guess that one way of curing a strikeforce that can't shoot is to just not shoot!).

By far our best chances came from Bodin. Due to his complete lack of service, he was having very little joy, but a couple of times he managed to create something out of nothing, and pinged in a couple of good efforts and won us a couple of free kicks in good positions. Thankfully, Oxford were equally poor. They had a few decent chances, but Rice was solid in the first half without really being tested.

It was one of those games were, at half-time, you thought the other team would be there for the taking, but as soon as the second period began, it was clear they were more fired up and we'd have a storm to weather. Pitman, Constable and a host of others all missed glorious chances for Oxford early on. A rare foray to their box, and a free kick, saw Jarvis (I think) head the ball in, but it was offside. Oxford continued to ramp up the pressure, and in the last 15 minutes or so, it was an almost constant bombardment. Only a goal-line clearance from Downes, some excellent saves from Ricey, and some utterly dreadful finishing from them kept us in the game.

Our only other notable attack, right at the death, saw Yeoman cross and Thompson head over from point blank range. It would've been a travesty if we'd won it, but perhaps justice after Barnet on Tuesday.

At the FT time whistle the relief was palpable amongst our fans, knowing we'd got away with it. It was a terrible performance in truth, just dreadful football with absolutely no intention to attack and give Oxford a game. Performing successfully away from home is always going to see a more defensive mindset, and a lot of soaking up of pressure. But after winning the ball back, we should be counter attacking with pace and invention. But we just had no creativity, and lumped it up the pitch time and again, and we were back to square one. One of the worst midfield performances - Lathrope in particular - that I've seen in a long time. It was always going to be tough without Rene, but the fact we go to pieces without him is a worry. However, even with Rene, we've now gone three games without scoring.

At least if we were consistently awful, we could pinpoint what was wrong, but the fact that we're so inconsistent, and our performance varies so much from game to game, makes it very tricky to work out what is wrong. What is certain today, though, is that we were very happy to play for a point, and offer nothing going forward. The style of play was just horrendous. It was so obvious before the game that 4-5-1 with Jarvis up top wouldn't work, but unbelievably we did it, and we almost got what we deserved. But we got away with it - thank god the league is so mediocre this year.

Few ratings:

Ricey: 8 - First half was solid, and you could see him growing in confidence the more he went on. Pulled off some good saves second half, too. Nothing Pokey couldn't have done, but an assured performance.
Oastler: 9 - My MOTM. Very little got past him. Tackling was excellent, won the ball, got his head up, and found a man. One of very few to do so.
Downes: 8 - Imperious. Fantastic in the air. Very impressive again.
Saah: 7 - Decent. A little shaky at times, but still good.
Nicho: 5 - Not sure what's happened to him this season. Just hasn't been himself when I've seen him. Continually beaten by their winger, and his passing was way off today.
Craig: 5 - Very quiet. Nice free kick which was saved well, but apart from that, not really in the game. Left mid is not his position at all for me, not helped by the fact we didn't utilise the flanks at all.
Lathrope: 4 - Really poor. Passing was woeful. Tackling not bad but continually wasteful.
Easton: 5 - Did something well but then balanced it out with a mistake. Yet to really impress me.
Manse: 6 - Not at his best, but surrounded by tripe. Was really up for it, and got stuck in with some good tackling. No complaints.
Bodin: 7 - Got some very unfair abuse from a section of our 'support', but was working with no service. Ran himself into the ground and was creating stuff from nothing.
Jarvis: 4 - Oh dear oh dear. One up front just doesn't work with him. Tried really hard but nothing happened. Again, not helped by a lack of service.

SUBS:
Not worth mentioning.

Officials:
Ref got a lot of stick, but brought it upon himself. If you're going to punish a very slight push in the first 30 seconds of the match, then you've got to keep that up for 90 minutes. Wildly inconsistent and seemed to just pick and choose his fouls.

Support:
Decent, but had the misfortune to sit next to three know-it-all old buggers who made the most ridiculous comments all game. "Robin Stubbs would've scored that", "play it on the deck they're bigger than us", "sort it out", "bleddy rubbish". I despair sometimes. All in all though, good numbers, and a good noise considering we had nothing to shout about.

Oh and one final thing. Oxford United FC - £21.50 to watch a League 2 football game in your dump of a ground in a retail park is an absolute disgrace.

miltonkeynesgull wrote:A mistake, I think, by Oastler seemed to give the ball away to Kamdjo, who played a one-two on the edge of the box before shooting across Rice and into the far corner. Would like to see it again, but think Martin could've done a little better.

The highlights are up on GullsPlayer, and thought i'd just correct what I said about Ricey - don't think he had a chance with the goal. Does show how your eyes can play tricks on you when at a game! Pretty sure if it was Buckle, we'd be bringing in an emergency loanee keeper for Saturday. Be good for Ricey to get another run out, as he deserves it.

Unbelievably, they don't show the penalty shout. Few posts on their forum saying it was a dive, but being right in front of it, it was anything but.

Agree with Nick, can't see us deviating from 4-5-1. We went 4-4-2 at Wycombe and we know how that turned out - and we had Howe on that day!

Will surely be a straight swap, with Jarvis in for Howe. Really like Steve's 4-3-3 idea, but again just can't see Lingy doing that.

Also, can't see any reason to drop Manse. Not had his greatest season, but was back to his best last night in my opinion.