FA Cup 4th Round - Torquay United vs Crawley Town

[cambgull]

4-5-1 has never really worked for us at home. Manse was ok in the middle but why not try Oastler and O'Kane in the centre and then have 2 up front? It would give us more attacking options and allow Oastler to cover the gaps infront of defence. 4-4-2 is the way forward at home, we don't have the target man to play 4-5-1 and it seems clubs have now realised that Benyon is a threat but if you bump him about for a bit, he has no real effect in the game.

[Sneapy]

that was crap, that was there chance to gain more supporters, and they messed that up royally, could of done with that money, i dont think we will get an easier fourth round draw like that in a while! plus imagine if crawley get a team like leyton orient in the next round, if they do they are gonna go throught easy

[yellowmonkey]

Just got back and all I have to say is that Buckle cost us the game with his crap formation and playing Benyon up front. Benyon wasnt up to going in on challenges as he was too scared about his nose, so should have been subbed for Kee the ref must have been on the Crawley payroll as his decision making was awful barely giving us anything. Their goalie was blatantly wasting time and was only yellow carded and should have been sent off but another oversight by the awful official in the blue top.
Anyway onwards looking forward to Tuesday night and see if Mr Buckle continues his stupid formations.

P.S Long live Bevan what a man!!!!!

[SuperNickyWroe]

watched it online - sorry couldnt post the (illegal) link....

very disappointing.

i knew we'd lose when i saw the line up.

i mean in all honesty, its the 4th round we are playing a non league team at home with the chance to get to the 5th round of the cup for the first time.

what happens? 4-5-1. for gods sake! :evil:

we had to play 4-4-2.

there was only three players that came out with any credit. bevs, nicho and billy bunter.

there was no cut and thrust, and if anyone says that danny isnt too lightweight for this then they are wrong on this viewing.

we gave them too much respect. they should have been up in the air like they did to benners early on.

a real poor peformance and to be honest if that screamer from nicho had gone in we didnt deserve it, but if it had i do think wed have scored another. cant believe zebs - totally stupid.

watch them get the biggest bl**dy draw now - although manure are 1 down at southampton!

[royalgull]

Stevens >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> zebroski today. And that's not even taking account the red card, if anything it did us a favour. Because it got us into the no care/underdog attitude we needed from the start.

Zebroski was absolutely APPALLING today.

[cambgull]

watch them get the biggest bl**dy draw now - although manure are 1 down at southampton!

I wouldn't expect it to stay like that though, can you just imagine the Utd dressing room now? It'll be like Gordon Ramsey releasing an album then purposely putting scratches in the records!

[devington]

The opportunity of a lifetime wasted. The manager's insistence on 4-5-1 defies belief and his arrogance has cost us today. We conceded possession all over the pitch and allowed them to dictate. It is clear that Evans has Buckle beaten all ends up in the mind games stakes. Those two and their players behaviour is a disgrace and they will NOT be welcome additions to the Football League. The referee was an inept prick as were the linesmen. Clearly they fell for the behaviour of the Crawley players and should be disgusted with their performance.

However despite my anger over what happened during the game the behaviour of the four morons who got onto the pitch at the end and the proceeded to have a go at the officials took the biscuit. You can be sure that their behaviour will be included in the referee's report and could land the club in serious trouble. Hopefully the four of you will be banned from ever setting foot in Plainmoor again. The club may be struggling for decent gates but people who behave in that fashion are not needed or wanted at this club surely.

Overall a CRAP DAY

[oldcodger]

Managed to watch on an illegal stream, thought we shaded it in the first half, with you dominating the second, no goal keepers were really troubled except for the two well saved penaltys.
Good to see a well attended match dissapointed I was not there to witness one of the best results for us in a all the years I remember.
Hope you get some better results for the rest of the season, if not not look forward to meeting you next season (hopefully).

[andygull]

Cheers oldcodger for your comments. Anyway, just about calmed down now and convincing myself that i would rather have a play off spot than a possible drubbing away at Anfield / Old Trafford in a one off cup game. Would have been nice but priority is play offs and we are still in a healthy position if Bucks doesn't cost us too many more points with bizarre tactics and an often negative attitude. Don't let us down Bucks for Christs sake, lets start taking the game to teams like Stockport and Barnet and burying them and not playing a one up top all the time. Benners and Kee can play together and should both be starting.

[Yellow4life]

although our performance was terrible i have to say the referee had a shocker at best! how much had crawley agree to pay this guy! He's meant to be a championship/league 1 referee- how i will never know! he did get the red cards correct but mills should of gone- and although it would NEVER happen why give their keeper only 1 yellow? he must of wasted a minimum of 5 minutes in the whole game- and that was when it was 0-0! finally he got a yellow but that didn't do anything. Every major decision went against us. Once again they were not even that good 'a team but we panicked all game. Oh and if crawley get up next season they wont last playing like that- the worst was when tubbs went down after he saw his number go up!

bevan and mansell were the only 2 to stand out at all today, o'kane, stevens and benyon might as well of been replaced by spear, taylor and kudi !

The surprise of the day though had to be halpins arrival! what was going on their! the biggest game of the season and he sends an 18 year old debut'ant on for his first EVER competitive game in the first team. wasn't hemmings on the bench!?

well that's our best chance of making history in the cup realistically gone. play offs anyone...

[HRG]

Disappointing, sounds like Bucks and the lads really let themselves down.
Lets move on, focus on the league and hope that our elusive big tie comes next year.

[Fonda]

We were just too cautious from the outset, and it's very difficult to wrestle control of a game after conceding the early initiative. 1 up-front again? In the cup, at home to a team in the division below? How much respect did Crawley really deserve, because i'm afraid we gave them way too much. We were so concerned with trying to nullify their threat, we completely forgot to try and pose any of our own. I'm afraid only one team looked non-league in that first half, and it wasn't the visitors.

So frustrating to lose yet again to that odious pair. Unfortunately, they got the better of Bucks again. It was there for us today, and we've missed a massive opportunity. Fortune favours the brave, and we weren't brave today. We were cautious and nervous and pressured. Such a shame we didn't at least do ourselves justice. If we'd had a proper go, given a performance of which we could be proud and were still beaten, it'd be painful but bearable. But we've let a real opportunity slip through our fingers. Even an average draw will see Crawley benefitting from the TV riches now. As if they need it.

It's a good job we don't get big crowds every week, because everytime there is one, the pressure seems to affect all concerned.

[Lloyder5]

We were just too cautious from the outset, and it's very difficult to wrestle control of a game after conceding the early initiative. 1 up-front again? In the cup, at home to a team in the division below? How much respect did Crawley really deserve, because i'm afraid we gave them way too much. We were so concerned with trying to nullify their threat, we completely forgot to try and pose any of our own. I'm afraid only one team looked non-league in that first half, and it wasn't the visitors.

So frustrating to lose yet again to that odious pair. Unfortunately, they got the better of Bucks again. It was there for us today, and we've missed a massive opportunity. Fortune favours the brave, and we weren't brave today. We were cautious and nervous and pressured. Such a shame we didn't at least do ourselves justice. If we'd had a proper go, given a performance of which we could be proud and were still beaten, it'd be painful but bearable. But we've let a real opportunity slip through our fingers. Even an average draw will see Crawley benefitting from the TV riches now. As if they need it.

It's a good job we don't get big crowds every week, because everytime there is one, the pressure seems to affect all concerned.

I agree, we didn't press the ball or play at any sort of tempo. Tellingly for the first freekick and throw-in in the Crawley half none of Branston, Ellis or Robertson went forward. Better in the second half. The really annoying thing is that Crawley will get the plaudits but we know the victory was handed to them.

[CP Gull]

To go out is bad enough (particularly when its Crawley) but to go out the way we did is hugely disappointing.

Quite simply, I didn't think we were brave enough today. That's not to say that the players weren't all giving 100%, they were, but I thought we got it wrong tactically. The had the courage to play 3 out and out strikers in Cook and McAllister supporting Tubbs while we reverted to 4-5-1 .... it didn't work, we weren't able to create anything and Benners was dominated (in every sense of the word by their two (excellent) centre halves.

Bucks said after they beat Derby that we wouldn't be "bullied by them" but sadly that is exactly what happened.

It was a game of very few real chances, I cannot recall Kuipers having a single save to make all game? In fairness they didn't create much either but in Tubbs they had quite simply the best finisher on the pitch - the type of striker who only needs one chance in a game and he buried it.

Too many of our better players just didn't perform today - the likes of Zebs, O'Kane and Wroe just didn't play to their ususal high standards and as a consequence we allowed them to boss the game.

In a one off cup game like this, I would have expected us as the League team and being at home, to have taken the game to them and really pushed them back, but quite simply that never really happened. Indeed it needed Bevs to produce two miraculous saves from the penalty kicks and us to go down to 10 men before we even looked like applying some real pressure on their goal, but defensively they were just too strong with Pablo Mills putting in an excellent MOM performance for them.

As always with an Evans team, it was horrible to see all the time wasting, the feigning of injuries, trying to get opponents sent off - the type of stuff that is really ruining the game - but that's what you get with him. Unfortunately the referee wasn't the best either - a recipe for disaster for us. I knew Tubbs was being replaced in injury time (and Smith before him) when they both suddenly started heading towards the popside as they "got the word from the bench" when all the play was concentrated on the Grandstand side of the pitch ... and for Tubbs to then drop to the floor (to waste more time) was quite frankly pathetic and fully derserving of his yellow card. The last time I can remember such an incident at Plainmoor was when Drewe Broughton did the same thing and quite rightly got a second yellow, followed by a red card - that was of course for Boston United many years ago and, of copurse, we all know who their Manager was at the time.

I was pleased that Billy Kee at least got a reasonable amount of game time and that, briefly at least, we tried to go 4-4-2 ... that is until Zebs got himself (stupidly) sent off ... but maybe, just maybe, we should have been bold enough to start him. A club like ours only get opportunities like the one we had today once in a blue moon and I just wonder whether a few of the United players and management won't be waking up tomorrow with that "if only" feeling.... which is exactly the feeling you don't want to have when you have had such a wonderful opportunity to make history and a chance of real glory.

Finally the club really needs to get its act together a bit more in so far as dealing with crowds. I believe the crowd was just over 5000 - the sort of crowd that is fairly typical for our neighbours up the road these days - was it really necessary to delay KO by nearly 20 minutes for a crowd of this size? Surely opening the gates earlier (why not 1pm?) and opening all the turnstiles (why isn't the Babbacome end turnstile on the popside used any more?) would have solved the problem?

All in all a great shame, and a real opportunity missed by the club.

PS they may not have always played their part this season - even when the club has being doing the business on the pitch - but on a day when the club clearly didn't do the business on the pitch , I though the crowd were excellent in their support today and rather like Bevs, they certainly didn't deserve to be on the losing side today.

GUTTED!

[numpte]

I kind of thought 4-5-1 might have worked prior to the game with O' Kane pushing on but it so plainly wasn't after 5 -10 mins that a change should have happened then instead of 55 mins or so.

To come off the pitch without 'having a go' was shameful and Bucks should shoulder alot of the blame for setting the stall out in the manner he did and not changing it.

Bar the penalties, I can only recall 1 real chance for both sides and Crawley scored from that.

With such an opportunity that may not come again for yonks against an efficient but by no means brilliant opposition i'm very, very disillusioned tonight.