League 2: Macclesfield Town vs Torquay United

[Plymouth Gull]

Moss Rose
Saturday 19th March 2011
KO: 3pm

So, again we're on our travels, this time to Cheshire, destination Moss Rose; home of Macclesfield Town FC. Macclesfield have had a devastating last 18 months off the field, with deaths to ex-manager Keith Alexander, and then Richard Butcher, a key player in their side, back in January. They have struggled ever since, their season deteriorating from a decent start which saw them in and around the playoffs. Now they sit 18th in the table, looking over their shoulders. I'd imagine they'll be safe for another season, but you can never quite be sure of what can happen in football.

GULLS NEWS.

I'd expect to see Bevan keep his spot, and I'd expect the same 11. Lathrope apparently did well last night, so could break into the team, but I don't believe there are any injury concerns, except Billy Kee.

LAST 5 SEASONS.

2005/06 - League 2 - 17th place - 54 points
2006/07 - League 2 - 22nd place - 48 points
2007/08 - League 2 - 19th place - 50 points
2008/09 - League 2 - 20th place - 47 points
2009/10 - League 2 - 19th place - 54 points

As you can see, they could be expected to struggle this year, as they have done for the past 5 seasons. You could say that on two occasions, they were lucky to stay up as they failed to reach the (normally safe) 50-point mark, but on those occasions, there were obviously poorer sides in the division (us in 2006/07 for example!)

HEAD TO HEAD.

Torquay wins - 8
Macclesfield wins - 6
Draws - 5

We have an okay record against Macclesfield, as shown above, but we seem to struggle at Moss Rose. We have won 3 times there, winning 5 against them at Plainmoor. There have been some memorable fixtures between the two, including a 4-1 victory to us in 2003/04 which saw Kevin Hill score a goal that I have never seen bettered in my time. Also, a 2-0 victory to us at Moss Rose in 2005/06 at Easter started our revival as we stayed up under Ian Atkins. Macclesfield did come to Plainmoor in September, and two goals from Hamza Bencherif saw them run out 3-1 winners.

FORM (LAST 6 GAMES).

WLLWWD

3 wins out of 6 games is a bit better than I expected. Four of these 6 games have been at Moss Rose, where wins have come against Morecambe and Crewe. Their two consecutive defeats came at Vale Park, then home to Wycombe, that game which had the mass brawl in the final minute, seeing 3 players sent off. Last night, they equalised late on to draw 1-1 with Lincoln.

PROBABLE LINE UP.

This is the side that drew 1-1 with Lincoln:

Veiga

Brown
Morgan
Diagne
Bencherif

Draper
Daniel
Bolland
Wedgbury

Gray
Barnett

Subs: Cudworth, Tremarco, Lane, Reid, Hamshaw, Sappleton, Sinclair

REF WATCH.

G SALISBURY
R Fletcher and R J West
Fourth Official R Merchant

Graham Salisbury is in charge for this one. He has refereed 27 games so far this season, ranging from Championship down to League Two. He refereed our 3-0 victory at Grimsby in April last year, so anyone who was there and can remember what he was like would be good.

PREDICTION.

Hmm, have we raised expectations too much after the last two results?

I don't even know what to predict, but I feel we need at least 4 points from the next two games.

[AlexGulls]

I'm slightly concerned for this one. It would be typical Torquay to get two excellent results against Bury and Shrewsbury then go to Macclesfield and get turned over, Hope I'm wrong but from memory our recent record against them is quite poor...Still live in hope!

[ferrarilover]

Blimey, a new thread starter =D

I'd like to see us win this, but I fear we may not, simply because that's how football goes.

Matt.

[Plymouth Gull]

Oi.

On the same token, I'm thinking I don't deserve the 'official' recognition for making these threads at the moment - Matt has been doing it more regularly than I have right now.. and (hopefully) will continue to do so until the end of the season..

:/

[andygull]

Looking forward to this one as it is one of the nearest away games for me living in Chesterfield. A pleasurable drive through the peaks and i,m there in under an hour. The only time i have been to Macc and come away with a win is when we played Stockport in the rearranged FA Cup game last season when we hammered them. I think we drew 1-1 with Kevin Hill scoring a few years back and last season when we lost 2-1 in a shit game. As far as the ref goes, if it is the same lad who reffed the Grimsby away game last season then we should be ok. He had a good game, despite being under pressure from a vile home crowd and he gave us a penno which i think Wroe despatched clinically. Macc are an unpredictable team. They do very well for such a small club and it will be tough but i believe we have turned a corner and i really fancy us to go there and win by 2 or 3.

[Stoke_Gull]

I went to the debacle at Moss Rose last season and we can't possibly be much worse than we were then. We should be going there for a win and believe we'll score at some point all though the last Torquay game I went to which they won was against Port Vale way back in August so I'd love to see a "Yellow" victory as the OS seems so fond of mentioning.

I can't see Macclesfield being much of a threat if we play well but if we play like we did against Aldershot then I can see us gifting Macclesfield a goal or two. In spite of my nagging doubt however I am going to go for a 0 - 2 Torquay win with Robinson and Zebroski getting the goals.

[andygull]

Sorry it might have been Hockers that scored in the 1-1 draw a few years ago. Can anyone confirm this? Its not a dealbreaker but i would like to know! Cheers.

[Wisconsin_gull]

Down to earth with a rare 0-0...
Bevs to save a pen in last 10 minutes...
A point earned on the road top the playoffs.
Hope I'm wrong and we have the saturday team turn up to hand out a 4-1 beasting :whip:
COYY

[ferrarilover]

Hmmm, our performance could possibly have something to do with the result of the Friday night match. If Chesterfield win, we are still in with a shout of being 4th come 1700 Saturday. Now, I could be totally wrong, but it may well be that that will be sufficient incentive to motivate the players. Professionalism or not, they are still human (well, maybe not Pickles) and still react to events around them. A bit like the clean sheet run earlier in the year. It almost seemed a matter of consideration in the way they kept shutting out the opposition. No team wants to concede a goal, but it did appear that, without playing defensively, they were determined not to let one in to the point where Bevs may just have stretched that extra inch to tip one round the post, or Ellis may have jumped just a little higher to win a crucial header. Perhaps the sight of 4th place could inspire a similar reaction for Saturday.

Matt.

[Trojan 67]

This thread has slipped right down the pecker order, so it is only right that is it erected to pole position

Um? I haven't given too much thought to Saturday's game yet as it's only Thursday. :Oops:

I'll be back :devil: (sometime between now and kick off Saturday).

[bixieupnorth]

a big big away win coming up, 0-4 or 0-5, into them from the start, i think buckle will have learnt a lot from tuesday nights first half, he'll start with the same line up as began last two games, we'll go two up very early on and then get more towards end of 2nd half

[Jeff]

Exactly the sort of game where we have dropped points all season long. Didn't someone post a table saying we are on of the best clubs against the top half, and one of the worst against the bottom?

Looking at the names in the Macc squad, there are very few I know anything about. But year on year they survive, and this will be no different.

Teams will have seen our form this week and see us as a scalp. If the side that played the first half at Bury show up we'll get trounced. I can see this being a disappointing 2-0 defeat for us, because we never perform in the "easy" games.

[bixieupnorth]

tomorrow is the day that we banish that unfortunate statistic to the dustbin, and i'm going too!

[Fletch]

tomorrow is the day that we banish that unfortunate statistic to the dustbin, and i'm going too!

Hang on. If you're going, and you've put a bet on for us to win as well?

We're doomed I tell ya.... :na: :na:

[Fletch]

a big big away win coming up, 0-4 or 0-5, into them from the start, i think buckle will have learnt a lot from tuesday nights first half, he'll start with the same line up as began last two games, we'll go two up very early on and then get more towards end of 2nd half

I think we need a little bit more bite in midfield as per the Bury match. Lathrope or Oastler to start alongside Stanley. Probably means Murray out of the squad to keep to the 5 loanees rule...