Torquay United Fans Forum

ferrarilover wrote:Well yeah, I'm sure it would have been even if he'd been with Wisbeach Rangers given the draw he got in all three rounds.

Why is it that we beat L1 side after L1 side, year after year, only to be "rewarded" in the third round with a boring Championship side, yet Bristol Useless turn over two pub teams and get the Villa?

I know it's a random draw, but it doesn't half feel like a kick in the balls at times.

Matt.

The bitterness from you guys, is absolutely laughable.

If you would of beaten a non league side last season then you would of got to have played at Old Trafford twice in one season, but you didn't did you?

Moan, moan, moan, is all you lot seem to do!!

Chin up, you are 6 points above that huge, massive club Bristol Rovers in the league, it's not all bleak you know :~D

His sense of direction was faultless today, to be fair it would of been hard not to miss that geezers stomach, it was a monster of a girth

Southampton Gull wrote:WShat did you reckon on the hospitality, Rex?

Just think, only a few years ago Totton were just a county league team, they've come a long way

They got a good little bar Dave

I have to agree with Rex, your mate Sean New is a bit of a **** aint he, Muzzy should of sparked him out.

austrianandygull wrote:Rovers got Villa. So what, we are 6 points clear of them in the table and they haven't a prayer of promotion this season which may mean Bucks gets the boot. Thats a far better scenario than playing Villas reserves ( Villa notorious for fielding reserves in games like this i think - hey , they weren't even bothered about the Europa league when they were in it so why bother putting in the big hitters against Rovers? ).

C,mon Andy, why so much bitterness?

If Torquay drew Villa at PlainMoor, you would be happy wouldn't you? A few hundred thousand more £'s in the coffers and a chance to pit your wits against a top division team.

Also it is a marathon not a sprint, and as much as I have criticised Buckle and I am not a fan at all, we have the quality at our disposal to get back up amongst the top 7.

Over the last fortnight or so, Buckle has certainly changed, you can see that in the way he has spoken to the press and the way he has come across in his interviews. He now knows that he is a man under huge pressure, and it looks like he is now keeping things simple and playing simple tactics and playing players in the right way, to simply hang onto his job.

Norwood, Dorman, Anyinsah and Carayol in a four and young Elliot Richards alongside Zebroski/Harrold is the way forward for us and Buckle has now realised that.

Last time we were in League 2 we were about 17th at Christmas, but still finished in the top 7 and managed to get promoted.

I am not saying we will go on a run like that again, but we know its not impossible, we have given ourselves a hell of a mountain to climb, but it can happen.

Even if it is Villa's reserves(I dont think it will be), It will still be a test and a full house at The Mem, Alex Mcleish is under huge pressure already, Just like Buckle, So if his team loses to a side 3 divisions below them, then no doubt he will be out the door, Just like Buckle would of been sacked if we had lost today in the same scenario.

Bring on the Villa

MidDevon wrote:Ok I am an anorak I know, but when Bristol City dropped from the 1st division to the 4th it was actually 2 different clubs as Bristol City folded in 1982 and we re-formed. If the same thing had happened today then Bristol City would have dissapeared completely under FA rules....

The first season Bristol City were in the 4th division, they very nearly finished bottom and were indeed botom of the division for some time before a late run.....I actaully saw them get walloped 7.1 at Northampton Town on the old cricket pitch ground and could not believe that just 3 years earlier they were playing Manchester United

They became Bristol City Football Club 1982 LTD when they were already in the 4th division.

So it was the same club.

yellowsmiffy wrote:Anyone taken in any non-league games recently!? A few uni mates and myself have decided to start supporting Havant and Waterlooville recently as student admission is next to nothing! Just wondering if any teams/players have caught the eye of fellow Gulls fans!??

Watched Havant play Weymouth in the FA Trophy tonight and saw a few old Torquay rejects. Paul Hinshelwood played the first half in central midfield and looked pretty poor, didn't seem to look comfortable there at all. He was moved to left back second half and looked half decent. Steven Reed came on for Weymouth towards the end and played central midfield also (not sure why these ex-fullbacks of ours change clubs and decide to change positions too!?). He played the ball around nicely and still has a good left foot on him. I think he played for Cambridge in CM against us and got MOTM maybe!!?? Also a Weymouth winger looked decent and I looked him up when we got back. His name was Sam Malsom, and I realised it was the same one that came through our youth system and then got offloaded to Argyle when our youth academy was cut. Nice feet and quite pacy/tricky. Not an ex-player of ours, but Sammy Igoe was absolutely quality. So pacy and fantastic technique despite being 35!

Does anyone remember a player called Chris Holland, who played for Bristol City and also Exeter at earlier points in his career!? He reminded me of Guy Branston. Abolsolutely quality performance. Basically Guy, but with a set of hair.

Definitely going to take in some more games over next few months!

No surprise that Sammy Igoe impressed you, he has tremendous quality and could still play at a higher level than that quite easily. Technically he is very good indeed.

He became a legend in Gas folklore scoring our equaliser in the painpot trophy final at The Millenium and also scored against Lincoln in the Play Off Semi and our crucial 3rd goal against Shrewsbury in the Play Off Final.

We released him when we went up to League One, his legs had gone to play at that level but he could still play at our level now or Blue Square IMO.

Like Rex I am also off to Totten on Sunday too, and to say I am not confident would be an understatement, I was at Hitchin back in 95 which was very depressing, hopefully this wont be a repeat.

There are quite a few decent non league clubs in and around Bristol, and I pop down to have a look at some now and again, Mangotsfield is just over the road from me and I have been a couple of times this season, Bristol Manor Farm, Yate Town, Weston and Clevedon are others I have been to over the last year or so.

A player who was recommended to our former scout Paul Molesworth a few times was Dayle Grubb at Weston, a box to box midfielder who definatly has league quality.

stefano wrote: Bizarre though that as soon as the whistle blows this is the first forum you come to to see what we are saying. You have got one of your own I assume? Paranoid or what?

Nothing Bizarre about it at all Stef.

What is bizarre is that there are more threads about us on here than there are Torquay ones and almost as many as on our forums.

It is nice to know our fortunes seem far more important than your own.

Hope you're having a fine weekend Stef

austrianandygull wrote:Gas losing AGAIN! This hilarity surely can't continue can it? Its like a sitcom, aired on saturday afternoons with the occasional midweek special thrown in. It beats Father Ted and Only Fools and Horses hands down! Haha

You were saying Andy?

I think it is wise to leave rambles like that until the match has actually finished.

I think the fact that you posted this 12 minutes ago, when the scoreline was already at 1-1 has far more hilarity about it :~D

ferrarilover wrote:All these 'tinpot' clubs, keep having the nerve to actually turn up at The Memorial 'Stadium' instead of knowing their place and forfeiting pre-match. Then, most of them have the balls to actually win the game, have these teams NO respect for the mighty Bristol Rovers, who, after all, have spent almost their entire existence in the Premier League, and whose trophy room holds many, many hard earned replicas of the European Cup, the UEFA Cup, the FA Cup, the Premier League trophy and many, many others. Oh wait, that's not right, is it...? Oh no, they're a pathetic West country outfit which isn't even close to being the biggest club in a 5 mile radius, which has spent the vast majority of its time in the bottom two divisions, has never won anything of any note, and gets barely five grand through the door despite being in one of the largest cities in the country. Is this the pot calling the kettle tinpot?

Face it Rovers, you're nothing. You might think you're a big fish in a small pond, but you're not, you're almost the smallest fish in the BIGGEST pond on Earth. Overall, you count for nothing and have absolutely no ammunition to throw around. You want to play the big club card, that's fine, I'll see your Bristol Rovers and raise you Manchester United, who have more fans in Alaska than you do in England. you are a club who couldn't attract 10,000 fans if entry was free and you were giving out Playboy Bunnies to every attendee. Man Utd could fill a million seater stadium every week, even if you had to sniff Trojan's jockstrap to get a ticket. Stop keep on with the whole "look at us, aren't we great" rubbish, coz you're not, you're poo and look as if you should be!

And breathe...

Matt.

Great rant Matt. I agree with most of that.

I will pick you up on a couple of points though....We have won the Watney Cup and the majority of our history has been spent in the middle 2 divisions, not the bottom 2 :~D

Anyway lets all join in a sing song shall we...We all agree that Paul Buckle is a Wanker

stevegull wrote:Fairplay to you, gasfans. Conducting yourself well in a decent debate!

You had a beast of a front line out last night then! A physcial front line, but did you end up hoofing it a bit up to them? That's not a critisism i just want to know how this formation worked as you had already stated there appears to be little or no width to the side that you put out.

And on Stanley, i think he is one of the top central midfield players in this division and he will fit in well, clearly he just needs a bit of time for you, which is strange as he started quite brightly with us.

How has Carayol been performing for you lot as well? Did he warrant being taken out of the squad?

When the squad was announced, I was bemused(Along with thousands of other Gasheads), because it seemed such a slow team, with no width, but they all played magnificently and passed and moved the ball on the deck and there was very few long balls. It was very pleasing to see and proves what we can do when we keep the ball on the floor.

Harrold played more of a lone front man, and McGleish was absolutely brilliant, running into the channels and causing Rotherhams defence all sorts of problems. Is he realy 38? Surely not, if he is then he must be Superman.

Rendell played in the hole just behind the strikers, dropping back in midfield to pick up the ball, and looked a real threat in that position. So we played with a 4-3-1-2 formation. It worked well last night but I am not sure we can play that way every game. Anyinsah is a quality player and I think he is to good a player to leave on the bench,Although it is great to have a player like him to bring on if things are not going so well or his pace can put the fear into tiring defences.

I have been very critical of Stanley of late, but fair play to the lad, he was very good last night. I think having him and Stuart Campbell in a midfield 2 is a mistake as they are very similar and dont have the creativity going forward. We have missed Matt Gill immensly, and having him come back in the side after a while out injured was a real bonus, as we now had the creativity which allowed Campbell and Stanley to do what they do, and win the ball and give it to Gill to control the game from the middle of the park.

I like Carayol as he has that abilty to do something with a bit of pace and trickery to change a game, but he is a bit lightweight, and has been a bit hit and miss. If we do play with wingers I would certainly have him above Zebs that's for sure.

ferrarilover wrote:Hmmm, I'd not get too carried away BG, I followed the game via the BBC (ok, not the most reliable resource, but the only one I have) and they seem to suggest that their keeper has saved precisely zero shots tonight. You've had 5 on target and scored 5 goals. Kudos to you for that, but ordinarily, to my mind, 5 shots on target at home in a match where you concede two and you'd be lucky to get a point. You'll not have many days where everything you hit ends up in the net. You tell me, but from reading the commentary, it seemed second half it was all Rotherham until Branno got himself sent off. I know what happens happens, and I certainly don't seek to take away from any element of what was clearly an excellent result, but it appears from what I have seen that it was more a case of a freak game, rather than total football.

Matt.

I said it was a fantastic team performance, everybody put a shift in, and we played some good football(Perhaps I was overly pleased because we have seen such dross for over a year) but that was my view.

I didn't count how many shots we had on target, but we hit the bar, and missed some other guit edge chances.

It wasn't total football by any means, we are of course talking about a League 2 fixture here , but it was a pleasing performance from my perspective anyway.

Father Jack wrote: Hate to say it but i wasnt there. I can only go off the matches I saw myself and I always though he brough more to the team on the right wing then when he was up front.

Good result tonight though BG, im sure your forums will still be bitching though

Indeed it was a good result tonight FJ, and it was a fantastic team performance, certainly the best I can remember at home for some while.

When the team was announced you could hear despair from the terraces, Buckle was up to his old tinkering again, You could see people were wondering what the hell is he doing , we had 3 central midfielders in Stuart Campbell, Craig Stanley and Matt Gill, and we had 3 strikers Scott McGleish, Matt Harrold and Scott Rendell, and we were all thinking where is the width going to come from, and this must be the slowest Rovers side to ever represent us.

But I hold my hands up to Buckle, whether it was a stroke of luck, or tactical genius from the bloke, we totally ripped Rotherham to shreds, and passed them to death.

It was a fantastic performance, but I still stand by what I said before, I still think we are lacking in certain areas, and I am not going to get carried away, after the Morecombe game we thought the tide had turned, but we followed that with 2 embarrassing defeats.

If we continue to play like we did tonight though, it is encouraging, and hopefully we can start to string a few wins together.

Edit: Also there was a strange incident for our 5th goal scored by Anyinsah, from where I was stood, it seemed the ball went through the top of the side netting, and then the whole net collapsed, the Rotherham players seemed bemused as they thought the ball went wide aswell. It will be interesting to see the replay on the FL Show tomorrow to see what actually happened up close.

Father Jack wrote:BG- Just to take issue with one thing, Ive always thought Zebs looks far more effective playing on the right wing than he did up front. He certainly did for the last season and a half playing here and Im sure Im not the only one that would like him to still be here. He will run all match and offers pretty good cover to the right back as well as turning the opposing left back inside out regularly and being able to cut in and score himself.

I cant argue with Zebs workrate, to be fair to the lad he runs his socks off and try's his hardest bless him.

It is just that he seems to not be able to play football. He has got a non existant first touch, he cant run with the ball, when he looks like he has eventually learnt how to, he just runs out of play with the darn thing. He is clumsy and likes to make silly challenges.

I think the term "Bambi On Ice" sums Zebs up to a T.

I just think playing Zebs upfront is a far better option, at least then his awkwardness could be a handful for central defenders, rather than being awkward outwide where he just looks lost. He has got a decent shot on him, which would be better suited in a forward role.

If Buckle decides to do this, then maybe we just might see a performance from him like the one Dave described...Here's hoping

I know you are only being sarcastic Stef, but I think you well know that is the splendid UWE Stadium which will be the new home of the mighty Gas in 2013. I bet you all wish Torquay could play in a facility like that? :~D

As for the players you mentioned, I recognise most of them, there are a few who have escaped my radar. Oli Somethingorother, Amir Hashemi and Nerada Bernard have bamboozled me.

royalgull wrote:I can understand why Rovers fans would 'expect' to beat Torquay, Cheltenham etc but football is played on grass not a database of crowd size and what league you were in during the 1980's.

Whilst you might 'expect' to beat these sides and 'expect' to be in the top 3 you have pretty much got a completely new squad and management staff and when you have change of that magnitude it can take some time for it all to click into place. Again highlighting how well Buckle did in his first season here when he did exactly the same thing. Being given a budget and the opportunity to build your own squad straight away sounds easy but it doesn't always work that way. Takes time to actually form a team to play the way you want it to.

I do find the Carayol situation bizarre, you guys were raving about him yet he barely plays a minute for you when it matters. I'd pick him inf ront of Zebroski all day long. Was never a fan, a clumsy player with absolutely ZERO skill whose brute force, pace and awkwardness were his major plusses. I could never work out how he was so effective for us, like I said about Branston some players just work at certain clubs. Zebroski is one of those, there is no way his style will work at every club especially where the fanbase would be a) used to seeing hihger calibre players and b) less forgiving of his mistakes.

I still think Rovers will be there or thereabouts simply because they have enough good players for this level at their disposal, whether Buckle utilises them right is a thing for debate and whether he gets the time to do it is another. My flabber would be gasted though having spent so much time, effort and money on getting Buckle that they would bin him so early.

We dont have a devine right to just turn up and beat those sides, but the fact that we pay our players probably twice as much, we have spent more money on the likes of Harrold and Zebs than most sides in this league bar Crawley have spent on their entire squads, but what we do expect at Rovers is passion, workrate and endeavour, the fact that teams we have faced this season have evidently shown more of that than us and the fact that we have been playing atrocious, garbage football is why the fans have turned. We just expect more at Bristol Rovers than what we are getting. Is that our fault? I dont think so, I am sure West Ham fans would expect them to beat Peterbrough, I am sure when Leeds, Forest, Leicester, Southampton, Norwich and now both Sheffield clubs are in the 3rd tier, their fans expected/expect to beat Yeovil. That is just the nature of the beast.

Of course with so many new players coming in, it was always going to be a rebuilding mission and most Gasheads were expecting inconsistency, but of late that hasn't happened, we have been consistent, consistently f*cking shit In all fairness I think we have just signed bang average League 2 players and that is being proved, The likes of Harrold, Zebs, Bevan, Stanley, Carayol, McGleish are all League 2 standard players and are playing at there level, which is showing, if we do mount a push towards the right end and do unbelievably mount a promotion push, and we do end up going up then half the squd will have to be on their bikes again because they wont be good enough for the step up. I think us Gasheads got roped into thinking we were signing decent players, from certain other clubs fans, but from what we have seen they have turned out to be bang average. In our sqaud as it is now, I can only see Gill, Anyinsah, Brown and Smith having the ability to play at a higher level.

Carayol is not the only one, Buckle is chopping and changing the whole team, and while we have had a few injury's, Buckles tinkering is having an adverse effect. I do like Carayol in that he can do something with a turn of pace and he has that little bit of magic sometimes, but Buckle has this thing where he likes to play 4 strikers, which **** me off no end. I think if we had Mussy and Anyinsah on both flanks and maybe play Harrold/Mcgleish and Zebs upfront we could be a force, but Buckle likes playing Zebs outwide when he is **** useless out there.

Looking at other clubs and who they are bringing in, I would be surprised that our squad(Unless even more wholsale changes are made) will be near the top 7. Bradford have signed Andrew Davies and Craig Fagan, if they can get them both fit, then that is 2 great signings for this level and they wont be down the bottom for long, Crawley will spend if they need too, Swindon have brought in a lad from West Ham who will be the dogs bollocks in the future, So I honestly dont think we are good enough.

It pains me to say it, as I was optimistic in the summer, but from what I have seen so far our squad is a bang average League 2 outfit.