New Bristol Rovers Match thread

[royalgull]

As stated by me mate. Howe only has to get 8 more to beat HarroLOLd judging by history. They actually paid money for that donkey. Hilarious. Howe will notch 15 in this league easy.

Rated Atieno on Tuesday glad he started and scored, think he'll be a little gem.

[Enzo]

If Carlsberg made football matches eh....................A cracking performance against a side who looked decent going forward, but poor at the back - maybe I should just credit our front two for that. For long periods of this game I'd have taken a 2-2 draw. Had Rovers grabbed a second I think they would have gone on to win. I've seen us let these situations slip on so many occasions, but today we held on - certainly rode our luck at times, but we also created some fabulous chances for ourselves in a very entertaining match. I certainly thought we would come to regret the second half header and the Atieno shot.

There were parts of our performance that I was very impressed with. The front two looked excellent, prior to tiring towards the end. Rovers struggled to cope with both, but I was particularly impressed with Atieno. He won everything in the air and held onto the ball and chased lost causes to give our defence crucial second half time to catch their breath in the midst of Rovers attacks. I thought Lee Mansell was very good and made a couple of perfectly timed runs into the box. If he can build upon this, Mansell has been wasted at right back. O'Kane continues to develop as a player and just gets better. Watching him develop is one of the most exciting things about this season. I just think he has the potential to grow into one of the best players that I have seen in a Torquay shirt. On the other hand, we'll probably sell him to Rovers for £25,000 by January!! Danny Stevens played his part too and should his link up play come off he will create goals this season.

I do have concerns about Saah. I think he is a little suspect at the moment. I am probably being a little harsh, as he came up with one or two saving challenges. However, at the moment he looks a bit like how I remember Chris Todd. A very decent non-league defender who was not quite up to league standard. That said I though our centre backs looked far more solid than the Rovers pair - I can see why PB would have been sniffing around Robbo or Branston. Oastler had a difficult task of marking Muzzy, but generally hing on in there well. Muzzy looked dangerous though - I was pleased when he went off for Zebs - who I forgot was on the pitch once he had skied a sitter which looked to be from about 8 yards out. Nicho was Nicho - got stronger and stronger after being targeted for a lack of pace in the first half. First time I have seen Bobby - A couple of decent saves, but not quite a commanding as I had hoped.

Plenty of banter and ridicule, but I don't think the reception given to PB and the ex players was over the top at all. Not from what I heard anyway. A few ironic" Sort it out Buckle" cries and a tune of " Your getting sacked in the morning" . I have a lot of respect for what PB, Zebs, Bevs and Stanley did whilst at TUFC and do not blame them for moving on at all, although it could have been handled better all ways round - However, they play for the opposition now and if I can give a bit of stick to throw them off their game whilst playing Torquay then I probably will. Not that it ever would throw them off their game, but that is what football crowds have done for years. I thought it was particularly nice that Jo Kuffour and Zebs were warming up in front of the traveling fans as we went two up. Zebs copped some flack, but it was pantomime baddie type stuff. This happened during ten minutes or so of the first half during which Bevan gave away a penalty, Stanley and Carayol were booked and Buckle was lectured by the ref for gobbing off. Like I said - If carlsberg made football matches.............. that ten minutes or so were pretty good. I was just sure that it could not possibly last - Thankfully it did.

Due to the horrendous traffic getting away from Bristol, I had the pleasure of listening to BBC Radio Bristol - certainly no lynch mob out for PB, but it was equally clear that the pressure on him on come up with the goods is a lot higher than it ever was at TUFC. Plenty of adverse comments about the long ball game. I saw enough in Rovers today to suggest that they will be there or thereabouts. And I saw enough in our performance to suggest that we can stay clear of relegation this year.

Well done to ML and the boys. A good day to be a TUFC fan after quite a difficult summer.

[Southampton Gull]

Quality post there Enzo, summed up far more eloquently than I could have done. I think I posted somewhere on Facebook that "If Carlsberg did away days" ............

I was also happy to see Martin Ling come down towards us and take some very well-deserved applause from us and it was nice to see a beaming smile on his face when interviewed after Buckle on the Football League Show.

[Enzo]

Quality post there Enzo, summed up far more eloquently than I could have done. I think I posted somewhere on Facebook that "If Carlsberg did away days" ............

I was also happy to see Martin Ling come down towards us and take some very well-deserved applause from us and it was nice to see a beaming smile on his face when interviewed after Buckle on the Football League Show.

Sorry - I don't do facebook. I wasn't trying to steal the line!

[Southampton Gull]

Haha, wasn't my intention to accuse, just that the quotes we both came up with seemed very apt for the occasion

[Regiment]

i'd typed up this entry yesterday, but we were having site issues of course, but i think it's still pretty relevant :-

Well, I am naturally very grateful to Kerry and co. for making alternative arrangements for us, following my missing tickets saga, so I could see the game with my lad today. Naturally he enjoyed it as much as me.

Unfortunately, it did mean being surrounded by rovers fans and, although we were in the "club officials/directors guest box" area of the west stand, the surrounding rovers fans definitely didn’t like me being there !! every time i opened my mouth, someone or other told me to f**k off and it wasn't as if i was being in any way disrespectful, just the occasional shout, and cheering the goals, along with the TUFC staff who were there too. Maybe i was just a little more animated, but i am a fan, i can't just switch it off. you'd think those gas fans over that side, would know there would be "away fans/staff" there every week, but there you go. Some bearded weirdo rovers fan said after the game he would “f**kin’ whack me”, but as it took him four attempts for me to understand him, and when I did finally hear him and laughed at him, he just turned around and walked out. A rather bizarre end to the game, and all I was doing at that point was applauding our players off the pitch.

Would have loved to have been in the tent as planned, and despite the excellent support and noise coming from the blackthorn stand to my left, I could hear and see the yellow army doing us proud at the other end. Well done to all of you. Good to see some of you in the Wellington pre-match. Cracking cider on tap by the way ! Loved the t-shirts too Thomas. Thanks Dave/forevertufc, for the TQ1 programe from last week, much appreciated.

Anyway, the football. Rovers will play worse than that and win games, they have a lot of quality, but in my opinion, resorted to the long high ball far too much, probably more in desperation, but Saah and Robbo handled it well.

Nico was excellent, and Robbo had Harrold in his pocket, again. only my opinion, as i noticed elsewhere it was mentioned that Harrold was in charge, but i was fairly close to that action 2nd half, and although harrold did get the ball down or knock it on a few times, his only successful contribution was his flick off the chest for the goal. other than that, he was just as guilty of shirt pulling and holding on as Robbo, and Robbo definitely won the overall battle. in the end, harrold resorted to falling to the ground, and no ref is going to give them every time.

from a rovers point of view, on ex-tufc players, Bevan played as well as i've ever seen him play - was there any banter with him 2nd half, it sounded as if there was a little ?? I thought Stanley was poor, one very late deliberate challenge on Eunan which he should've been booked, but didn't contribute much more. Muzzy was really bad 1st half, but once oastler got booked he looked dangerous until he got subbed. and Zebba, pfft, one chance, totally ballsed it up, nuff said.

i thought our boys looked very solid, havnig heard a few horror stories about the ball over the top, and bad communication, i thought we looked pretty tight yesterday. Bobby did well, and communication was reasonably good, but could be more vocal, but i'm sure that will come as he gets more confident and settles in more. defence in general were all good. i thought Oastler was good, but i was a bit concerned when he got booked, but buckle sorted out that problem for us. the other 3 were immense. midfield, we didn't offer much out wide, although credit to Danny, he worked hard, and looked pretty good at times. Morris showed promise, and also worked pretty hard. Manse was fantastic, the central midfield player that buckle wasted, did everything. O'Kane i don't think was at his best, but even so, looked so comfortable in a busy midfield, but did get caught on the ball a few times, but seems to have a new found confidence and is always looking to influence the game. and the strikers worked very hard, and deserved their goals. Subs, each contributed to the cause without any fireworks. all in all, a good solid performance, created a lot, against a good side and a very noisy home atmosphere.

I've already touched on this, but clearly Bucks still hasn’t learnt yet, as in 2nd half Carayol looked very dangerous (dreadful in first half mind), especially when Oastler got booked – and then he took Muzzy off !! I don’t miss that particular brand of tactical genius !!

I think some rovers fans have been a bit unfair, yes they might feel they did enough to get something from the game, but the save that bevan pulled off early in the second half when it was still 2-0, looked a fantastic save from where I was sat. Had that gone in, it would’ve been game over, and we still had other chances after that, so it certainly wasn’t as one sided as some gas fans would have you believe.

Anyway, well done again to everyone there yesterday, the yellow army were awesome. I’ve seen many highs and lows over the years, but today will go down as one of the most satisfying results in recent times. Nothing against rovers, their staff and supporters were great (apart from the aforementioned beardie weirdie). some would today was all about TUFC v Buckle, some would say it was just a game of football between 2 good sides, either way, TUFC won, and that'll do for me

[brucie]

Well you sound a bit like your manager mate - stonewall penalty. Carayol was tearing us to threads - obviously thats why he got hauled off.
Chuckle was whining louder than a jet engine at the end of the game. He managed to make himself look a bigger prick than he actually is on the Football league Show and thats a feat in itself. thats football - thats football he screamed louder and louder into the microphone at the end of the game. Absolutely fecking hilarious to watch the little turd having to take it right up the jackse.
And as for bit in the coffee shop - knobhead..
Anyway as usual in big games he got it all wrong. He had better players in Kuffour and Zebroski sat with their arses warming the bench . Leaving Zebroski out was the normal sort of howler he makes when the pressure is on. Did he do us a massive favour there or what?
As for Beavon - another player who when the pressure is on will capitulate time and time and time again.
Hate to say I told you so - he is a bottler and if results don't start going your way you will see how clueless the little twerp really is

[Southampton Gull]

Some good exchanges between us and Bevan, Brady. We sang "Torquay and you know you are" at him and he acknowledged that positively, and when asked what the score was he did his customary signal behind his back showing 2 raised fingers on one hand and a zero with the other, quality bloke and a real fans favourite, I'm sure he'll always be well-received by us Gulls wherever he plays his football.

[friendlygas]

"I saw enough in Rovers today to suggest that they will be there or thereabouts. And I saw enough in our performance to suggest that we can stay clear of relegation this year. "
Thanks for that Enzo though i think you are very harsh on your team. I saw enough yesterday to say that provided it was not just a performance against us that you can be up there challenging for the top 3. i felt the big difference was that you looked like a team that had played together a lot and just had a few new faces who fitted in well with what you already had.We looked like a team with 10 new faces trying to get used to each other.
both teams without doubt have the talent to be at the right end of the table.Be interesting to see results Tuesday night to see a) Can you keep your form and performance up in a "normal" game. b) Can we recover from a defeat playing against one of the better sides in the division with a similar "lump" up front (Akinfenwa). Its gonna be an interesting season.

[royalgull]

I thought you 'told us' we were crap at Southampton and would get thrashed yesterday brucie?

Otherwise your post would get a thumbs up.

[Southampton Gull]

I think that's the difference between the sets of fans mate. We always err on the side of caution and look to maintain our League status before thinking of anything bigger and better, whereas your expectations are much higher but will ultimately lead to disappointment most of the time.

Interesting to see your Chairman on the FLS, although he falls into the trap that most do in that he thinks size of club/fanbase means anything on the pitch.

[AlexGulls]

Judging by the amount of people who told me we were shite/lucky and being spat on whilst heading back to the car alot of your fans are very bitter horrible people. And these werent kids they were grown men. Embarrasing. I'm not going to tarr you all with the same brush because there was a couple that were decent people.

Thought we deserved the win Howe and Atieno looked good up front O'Kane and Mansell done well in midfield. Stevens was average but I still dont see him as a starter he works alot better as an impact sup to run at tired legs towards the end of the game. Rovers were very wasteful infront of goal they had long periods of the ball but there finishing was woeful and thats the main thing that cost them.

Also a note for the FLS bit they did with Buckle when Clem asked if he would of stayed if he got us promoted and he said he "didnt know" is a lie. He would of stayed with us because dropping down a division would go against his ambition.

[Jeff]

Is nobody else going to mention the highly amusing bit on the FLS last night where buckle was not only late in getting to the ground, but got completely lost on the way there!

And his "that's football" rant immediately after the whistle - gritted teeth or what?!

[AlexGulls]

Is nobody else going to mention the highly amusing bit on the FLS last night where buckle was not only late in getting to the ground, but got completely lost on the way there!

And his "that's football" rant immediately after the whistle - gritted teeth or what?!

Not forgetting him saying in his post match interview "We didnt see that coming" Shows abit of over confidence going into the game?...

[taunton_gull]

Alex - I know what you mean about the unsavoury element of the Rovers 'support'. After the final whistle I was discussing the game on the way back to the car and I'm pretty sure I was referred to as a C by a rather large bloke not wearing colours walking behind me. That's what makes me proud to be a Torquay fan, we're a small club, we know where we are but win or lose would never resort to those sort of antics.