Shrews fans on Branno

[Victor Kasule]

it does not really matter at all who is the best team.

Whoever wins the play offs gets prommoted, end of.

Arsenal have been congratulated time after time of being the best footballing team, who cares, they have won nothing recently, and its about winning at the right times, that counts

So the arguement is senseless. How many times do you watch a game and it looks as if the best team, actually loses, as a Torquay fan its usually in the last few minutes.

You can argue till the cows come home who is the "best" team but nothing changes.

Whoever wins out of Shrewsbury and Torquay still have to play one more game at old Trafford, and thats where it counts, under pressure and if it means playing crap for 89mins and winning 1-0, thats it. Thats football!

I said that if you win the Play-Offs then fair enough. And no-one was arguing about who was best, we both agreed that the table shows we finished 11 points ahead and therefore if "the table does not lie" we were better over the course of the season. But we equally agreed that it is all irrelevant as the Play-Offs are a simple knock-out.

As for your comment about Arsenal, that has no relevance. We were talking about points on the table, not being praised for quality of football. So far from being "senesless" you actually agree with us - it is the points on the table that matter.

But the simple fact is that finishing fourth is not an automatic promotion spot and so we go in to the Play-Offs and "whoever wins out of Shrewsbury and Torquay still have to play one more game at Old Trafford" and then hopefully promotion for one of us. So that's it - hear's to a cracking game Friday and if you win then I'll accept it gratiously and wish you all the best.

[Richinns]

Matt, if this was a reference to the fact that Shrewsbury is the birthplace of Charles Darwin, then your comment is absolute genius.

But I expect it was just a coincidence

Charles Darwin was an absolute genius, Matt is an absolute.......well we all know the rest!

[Southampton Gull]

Charles Darwin was an absolute genius, Matt is an absolute.......well we all know the rest!

I always thought Matt was a Total.................

Bless him, he's a lovely fella really.

[MattSTFC]

Out of genuine interest, how many times did you hit the woodwork this season?

20, with Torquay on 30 I believe?

[MattSTFC]

Shrewsbury were the 4th best team in the League. I've always thought the notion of the Play-Offs a farce. The top 4 teams should take their place in the League above. I've never understood how they can justify the team finishing 7th - perhaps 15 points below the team that finished in 4th, can get promoted. And we've been on both sides of that coin in the past. But those are the rules. And if we do proceed, and who knows get promotion i'll certainly not be complaining about the injustice of it all! But if that transpires, we would have been the best team in a seperate 'mini tournament' at the end of the season proper. The League table orders teams on merit, based on points accumulated. The team at the top are best, the team at the bottom are worst - and over the course of the season, the team finishing 4th have proved a stronger outfit than the team finishing 7th.

The playoffs are a compromise, and it''s difficult to suggest a perfect alternative. The pre-playoff seasons tended to be very dull for the majority of teams as they had nothing to play for over the last couple of months of the season. This way more teams are involved and in contention for something until nearer the end of the season, so I think they do have their merit.

We've also seen both sides of the coin, finishing 7th in 2006/7 and 2008/9, each time beating the 4th placed side in the semi-finals. In 2008/9 the Franchise finished 4th with a whopping 84 points, now I have no time for that club but not being promoted in those circumstances must have been particularly hard to take. The other time we beat Bury in the semi-finals who had missed out on 3rd place on goal difference by just 1 goal. In our Conference playoff final winning season we finished 3rd, 17 points behind 2nd placed Hereford.

One idea I think which has some merit is to give the team which finishes one place outside automatic promotion a bit more of an advantage. Perhaps the playoffs could be reduced from 4 teams to 3 with the top placed side automatically making the final for example? In the BSN and BSS playoffs they give the higher placed side home advantage in a one-legged playoff final rather than using a neutral ground, that's another possibility.

[shrewsfan2]

"It's only torquay FFS"

"4,100 is a pathetic crowd"

"They'll only bring 300 on friday"

The list goes on. Head over to the Blue & Amber to see more classic quotes like these. To be fair, a few Shrews fans are giving us (deserved) credit but there are quite a few others coming up with the tripe as shown above.

Seems odd to dwell only on the negatives when there are lots of posts on B&A praising your gaffer, commenting that we hope you go up if we don't, providing taxi numbers so your fans can make then last train home etc etc. It's a shame when people look for points to disagree on or take personally when , with the exception of the odd idiot, we're both a decent set of fans who have spent most of our lives supporting pretty crap football teams!

Enjoy your trip to the Meadow and all the best after the weekend. I've got some fond memories of visits to Torquay including being mobbed by the national press in your car park (turned out Bet from Coronation Street was getting out of a car behind me) and playing headers and volleys in that odd bit of ground behind the away end.

[Plymouth Gull]

Behind the away end? You mean, the road?

Or do you mean behind the Family Stand, where theres a small pitch with some goals?

[Dave]

Totaly agree Shrewsfan2,i have read a lot of posts all season long on clubs own message boards and the league 2 forum,Torquay as a club being mocked is nothing new,yes we are a small club and for the most part our fans are very proud of what our club has achieved.

Back to the point i have read a lot of posts around the net,and have to say that probaly 99% of shrews fans have been fantastic,very complimentry about Torquay as a club and its fans,and whilst saying the tie is not over also your fans have been gracious in defeat.

For the most part gulls have reconized that,and should your club overturn the 2.0 result,you will find most of us being the first to wish your club well.

[shrewsfan2]

Behind the away end? You mean, the road?

Or do you mean behind the Family Stand, where theres a small pitch with some goals?

No, the concretey bit behind (or is it to the left?)...this was a while back when Justin Fashanu was playing for you. Going even further back I remember seeing a bloke called Loram (Mark?) play for you in a random non Shrewsbury match I went to - great skill, brilliant mullet and and a fair gut on him.

All the best, great club you've got down there and play terrific football, just hope you bottle it at our place. Torquay definately haven't seen the best of us yet, but got a nasty feeling we'll win by one goal.

[GlosShrew]

Totaly agree Shrewsfan2,i have read a lot of posts all season long on clubs own message boards and the league 2 forum,Torquay as a club being mocked is nothing new,yes we are a small club and for the most part our fans are very proud of what our club has achieved.

Back to the point i have read a lot of posts around the net,and have to say that probaly 99% of shrews fans have been fantastic,very complimentry about Torquay as a club and its fans,and whilst saying the tie is not over also your fans have been gracious in defeat.

For the most part gulls have reconized that,and should your club overturn the 2.0 result,you will find most of us being the first to wish your club well.

You will get the usual biased banter on Blue & Amber however most Town supporters have got a lot of good things to say about you guys. Have to say that I was dreading getting your lot - you are a definate bogey team for us (only one victory in the last 17 encounters?). You made us look very poor last Saturday and to be honest I am not expecting much this Friday - particularly if Sharp doesn't play. Most Town supporters I reckon would have preferred either Stevenage or Stanley (particularly Stevenage). However Town have surprised me a lot this season - when expecting them to lose they have turned things round.

Heart: Town 4 Torquay 0 (Early goal and three more in the last 10 minutes)

Head: Town 1 Torquay 1 (Early goal from you guys and an equaliser from us halfway through the second half to give us a glimmer of hope).

[TUFCforever]

I am really looking forward to going to the new stadium and hope that the game lives up to the billing that we have all been giving it. I thought that we were worthy winners of the 1st leg and to be honest if we had scored more than no Shrewsbury fans could really have any complaints.
But this was no fluke we beat them 5-0 in March and again completely out played them and again could have won by more. But granted over the season Shrewsbury were the more consistent side as can be seen by the amount of points they got compared to us. But the playloffs are over 2 legs so the teams have an equal opportunity to get to the final and then promoted and it is the best team over 2 legs that wins. What ever the result friday I think that it will be us or Shrewsbury that will get promoted because we are the better footballing sides. Good luck to Shrewsbury but I think we will win 2-1.

[ferrarilover]

I'll have you know, Happy, that I was based in Shrewsbury for a little while, so I have a surprising plethora of local knowledge.

Matt.

As for the Woodwork answer, it depends who you believe. The lowest reliable count I have seen (which ties in with my own count) is 34, although I have seen one estimate as high as 39. I know if my aunty had balls, she'd be my uncle, but add in those goals, and we won the league title in February.

[Plymouth Gull]

No, the concretey bit behind (or is it to the left?)...this was a while back when Justin Fashanu was playing for you. Going even further back I remember seeing a bloke called Loram (Mark?) play for you in a random non Shrewsbury match I went to - great skill, brilliant mullet and and a fair gut on him.

All the best, great club you've got down there and play terrific football, just hope you bottle it at our place. Torquay definately haven't seen the best of us yet, but got a nasty feeling we'll win by one goal.

Ah right, I think I know where you mean. I wasn't around when Fashanu and co were playing, though.

Got to say, you Shrews fans have sure been gracious in defeat, and it's been a pleasure having you all on here. Whatever happens on Friday, good luck for next season! (I'm sure I'll say it again after Friday aswell!)

[ferrarilover]

Regards the Shrews next season, IF you are in L2 next season, I would definitely fancy you to go up automatically next year.
You clearly have a top side (it took a phantom goal to keep you out this year) and, in fairness, the three auto sides this year are the best three sides by some distance. Bury play sublime football, Chesterfield too and Wycombe can get wins from anywhere.

The teams coming down from above this year are weak. Swindon are utterly hopeless, Plymouth are in absolute disarray, Rovers (even with PB) won't be much cop and and the other relegated side is nothing to shout about. Of the promoted sides, Wimbledon are well supported, but almost certainly not anything like a threat to the auto places in L2, Luton are obviously a massive club, but it's a big step up for them and Crawley are A. The worst football team I have ever seen and B. a totally unknown quantity, they might win by Christmas, they might be bankrupt by Easter, who knows.

In short, the Shrews are certainly going to be, on paper at least, one of the three most accomplished sides in that division.

If it's us, who knows, we all know that, really, we have absolutely no business being as high as we are, and it might all go spectacularly Pete Tong next season. I, for one, am rather hopign that question is academic.

Matt.

[Fletch]

I'll have you know, Happy, that I was based in Shrewsbury for a little while, so I have a surprising plethora of local knowledge. Matt.

Shawbury I presume? Didnt realise they still trained tragics there