Torquay United v Bromley match thread Tuesday 9 August 2016

Post by **Dave** » 09 Aug 2016, 21:38

Must admit to being a tad concerned after the first 15-20 minutes, the team looked as flat as they sounded Saturday and Bromley had the better of the possession with out really threatening , thankfully our team came into the game more and more as the half wore on, half time thought the performance was decent with out being outstanding, but worth the lead.

Second half what a difference, and this was largely down to young Chaney, was saying during the first half, our team are lacking a spark, that player who can make something happen from nothing, this is genuinely (unlike some of the much heralded young players we've had before)talented young player who we're not going hold to for long.

Have to say also, and credit were it's due, as much as I wouldn't want to take away the motm from Chaney, Gerring who was on the pitch for the 90 minutes had a great game, Gerring's no footballer that's not in doubt, but sometimes at this level you want your defenders to just defend, Gerring did that throughout and scored to winner to boot.

Well done Danny on the drums, great atmosphere as normal.

timmax · Post by **timmax** » 09 Aug 2016, 21:46

What was the formation and did it change with Chaney coming on?

arcadia · Post by **arcadia** » 09 Aug 2016, 21:49

On the ball Chaney looks a standard above.

Good performance thought the substitution helped us
Gerring improving
LRT is struggling hope he can improve.
Moore a little edgy
Blissett looked class at times
Williams looked ok

Nicho needs to sort out defensive walls Moore did not have a clue give me a ring I would sort it for you.

Anyone thinking of coming back to support Torquay and thinking was it worth it. I would say a big yes.

bobby93 · Post by **bobby93** » 09 Aug 2016, 22:20

Midfield is a puzzle. I'd have Sparkes - Lathrope - Young - Chaney as a flat four, but with Richards as captain that's never going to happen. Expect Lathrope would miss out in that situation as he did tonight, which is very harsh. A tough one.

Thought when Chaney came on and he and Sparkes offered the width, we looked far more dangerous. Interesting to see how Nicho handles these five players (plus Scrivens etc) this year.

SteveDeckchair · Post by **SteveDeckchair** » 09 Aug 2016, 22:39

Nice to see our subs having an impact tonight. We look to have some interesting options from the bench. Which is nice........

tomogull · Post by **tomogull** » 09 Aug 2016, 22:50

Well, we could and should have won by more but then again, Bromley could have easily snatched an equaliser at the end. Let's not kid ourselves - there were two poor teams out there tonight. I thought it was an uninspiring first home game of the season. We played well in parts but those parts weren't often enough. We are sorely missing Angus, Nathan and Dan Butler although Sean McGinty did okay tonight. Our best hope this season is to pick up points from teams in the lower half of the table because I think we are going to struggle against the better teams. Saturday's match against Barrow will give us some indication of how we're doing.

ROADRUNNER · Post by **ROADRUNNER** » 10 Aug 2016, 05:24

chaney needs to start ahead of lathrope, poor first half from us but much better 2nd half, blisset ran his socks off, should have scored more. but a welcome 3 points!

Kit_robin · Post by **Kit_robin** » 10 Aug 2016, 06:29

ROADRUNNER wrote:chaney needs to start ahead of lathrope, poor first half from us but much better 2nd half, blisset ran his socks off, should have scored more. but a welcome 3 points!

Change Lathrope to Richards and I would agree with you. Lathrope actually passes to our own players, which is apparently a bonus for a midfielder. He was good in first half last night, sensibly recycling possession as well as two excellent long range passes. I can only presume he had a knock at half time, as he was miles better than Richards.

Gullscorer · Post by **Gullscorer** » 10 Aug 2016, 07:01

We're two points ahead of Forest Green Rovers..

Lloyder5 · Post by **Lloyder5** » 10 Aug 2016, 07:44

My thoughts on the game. A really important win, as after Saturday and with a 2279 crowd anything else would have been a setback. We played some decent football in patches, when we managed to get the ball down and pass it, just didn't do it often enough. This is because, much as I like his effort and character, as said above, Richards doesn't routinely find a team-mate with a pass. Added to that McGinty and Gerring are big units and last night they used their size to deal well with Bromley's own big unit. The negative side is that not many passes come out of defence. The same applies to LRT, who is an athlete and to be fair grew into the game. When we did get the ball down our more technical players looked good. Williams, with his pace and shot is the kind of striker we've not had in a while. I was surprised when he was taken off, as he looked good, particularly with the run and shot that led to him hitting the bar. Chaney showed his quality when he came on. He doesn't get involved in the hurly-burly, he waits for the ball to break. Probably the sensible thing to do, but will wind-up some supporters. Blissett worked hard and on another night might have scored 1 or 2. In terms of fitness, we put a lot into the game. However, some players, Richards and Gerring looked dead on their feet. It may be that the strength and power work they have been doing will pay dividends once they have played a few matches. But last night we finished looking leggy. Overall, I enjoyed the evening, great drumming and singing, the team can be in no doubt about the backing they will get if they are successful.

DJ Gull · Post by **DJ Gull** » 10 Aug 2016, 08:06

Ben Gerring was solid at the back, and I think he could grab himself a pocket of goals this season, a real threat in the box. I hope richards is going to wake up a bit, he played some short simple passes out wide which set us going forward a few times, thats what he can do, but too often he lumps it up the pitch to nobody, if your going to do that, at least aim it at one of your own players! We look dangerous when we play football on the ground, and on the counter attack, we just need to see a bit more of it. That said a win is a win and its nice to see some points on the board. As for Chaney, that lad has a bright future ahead thats for sure!

brucie · Post by **brucie** » 10 Aug 2016, 10:23

I didn't go but pleased that we scraped out a 1-0 win. Judging from the radio it did sound like a dire match with two atrocious teams taking part. We did seem to dominate the second half but predictably it was panic stations at the end.

As Tomo said quite correctly, the key to survival this year will be to pick up points against piss poor teams like us, so an important win, even at this early stage.

I still think we look pencil thin in respect of options off the bench and we are at least three players short of a proper squad. If we pick up injuries we are going to be in real trouble.

I actually wish that Phillips would shut up about a new ground. A good crowd last night - we clearly have the capacity there if someone could take this club by the horns and sort it out.

It is beyond frustration that we limp along continually trying to keep up with shit teams. For the first time I have decided not to attend this season at all.

tomogull · Post by **tomogull** » 10 Aug 2016, 10:46

A few afterthoughts from last night's game. We picked up four bookings (you couldn't argue with any of them) and that makes six already after just two matches. Williams has been booked twice.

At the end of last season, we were playing some good football on the ground with players such as Raachi and Rees in the side. Last night we resorted to hoofball for much of the game with Gerring the main culprit. Yes - he defended well and scored the all important goal and you certainly can't fault him for effort, but his distribution is awful. Was it really necessary to hoof the ball over the top of Bristow's Bench when he simply had to put it out of play? Having said all that, he has improved as a player since he joined the club.

An Aldershot supporter says that 'Lathrope is carrying a long-term injury that can be managed'. I don't know what that means but it is worrying that he was substituted early on in the second half of the Macclesfield game and at half time last night when I thought he was one of only about two or three players who were playing reasonably well. He was out injured for much of last season at Aldershot. With our wafer-thin squad, we can't afford to carry a player who is not fully fit.

Why are we playing so deep? Fans were screaming in frustration 'Come out'. We are going to miss Dan Butler's energy up and down that left flank. There was a moment when Sparkes had the ball well into the Bromley half. He looked up for support from Rowe-Turner who was still back in his own half. LRT did have a better second half, though.

It was good to see glimpses of the real Luke Young last night. He will get better match by match. Sam Chaney made a big difference when he came on in the second half and I thought Jamie Reid partnered Blissett better than Williams when he came on. The Blissett/Williams partnership didn't seem to be working very well for some reason. For me, a disappointing match as a spectacle and I think we may be found out by Barrow on Saturday.

Orange Gull · Post by **Orange Gull** » 10 Aug 2016, 11:40

tomogull wrote:Why are we playing so deep? Fans were screaming in frustration 'Come out'. We are going to miss Dan Butler's energy up and down that left flank. There was a moment when Sparkes had the ball well into the Bromley half. He looked up for support from Rowe-Turner who was still back in his own half. LRT did have a better second half, though.

This was a constant issue against Macclesfield. Attacking down the left was generally useless as whenever Sparkes managed to get hold of the ball in a threatening position, he was given no options and most of the time the attack fizzled out. LRT should surely be offering Sparkes some support but instead he just stood there in his own half watching Sparkes get muscled off the ball. From listening to the commentary last night Bromley sounded pretty poor, Barrow will be a tougher test, a test I don't feel at all confident about us passing.

MellowYellow · Post by **MellowYellow** » 10 Aug 2016, 13:19

Why are we playing so deep? I understand the concept but you defend deep when youâ€™re playing against a side packed with pace, which Bromley did not have to run into space at the back . If we are to play deep on a 4-4-2 system then our forwards need to be able to retain possession upfront and potentially slow the tempo of the game down and have wide players with pace who can travel quickly, take the ball down the pitch and be comfortable in possession. None of this was happening enough last night so we resorted to long play, not a style I like and not one I am sure Nico is accustomed too, so why is Nico deploying this formation and tactics? .

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