Cheltenham Reserves Game next week

[CP Gull]

Not surprised. Our youth team is absolute crap and it's only to be expected. When you don't run a youth setup for 5/6 years like we didn't then any 16-18 year old worth his salt will be at Exeter/Plymouth/Yeovil etc. The ones that we have now of that age are the ones they didn't want.

Our youth team won't be anywhere near good enough for at least another 5 years minimum.

Although having said that 4 of the back 5 are first teamers so that's obviously a concern.

In the interests of accuracy ... there were only THREE youth teamers who started today (Quinn, Kudi and Thompson) the rest are all full time "professionals" (although I use the term loosely given their level of performance today!!!!). As I mentioned earlier, the team we put out today was a "strong team" (in the words of Martin Ling) and was nothing like the young team we put out against Crawley the other week.

[royalgull]

Yeoman, Spear you can forget about, Halpin is a last resort.

But i agree in terms of the defense, they shouldn't have been collectively as terrible. People react differently to reserve football to first team football as well though. It just aint the same.

[kbgull]

CP GULL, can u tell us individually how the pros played please?

[Bloggy]

Who scored for us?

[CP Gull]

CP GULL, can u tell us individually how the pros played please?

I wasn't there, but let's face it you can drawn your own conclusion from the scoreline on this occasion!

[CP Gull]

Who scored for us?

Halpin.

[Bloggy]

Thanks CP.

[CP Gull]

Yeoman, Spear you can forget about, Halpin is a last resort.

But i agree in terms of the defense, they shouldn't have been collectively as terrible. People react differently to reserve football to first team football as well though. It just aint the same.

From "great white hope" to "last resort" ..... I think Halpin has been the biggest disappointment for me in terms of where I expected him to be at at this stage of his career. It's fairly obvious that the club has (or had?) great hopes for him otherwise why would they have given him a three year contract at just 18 years of age and clearly he has shown enough potential to interest the likes of Warnock at QPR and Clough at Derby but I really think he should be much, much closer to our first team now than he is. He is still young and maybe it will still happen but he is not that young anymore - he turns 20 in a couple of weeks time and when you think what some players have achieved in the game by that age it does make you wonder whether he will ever achieve the success to match the potential that the club saw in him at a young age?

I can remember chatting to Branstonbauer in the Gulls Nest last season and he said something along the lines of "forget the rest, it's young Halpin who will go on to make this club a lot of money in the future" and that he showed real quality in training .... but that was some time ago now and it doesn't seem to be happening as quickly for him as we all might have hoped. If we aren't to bring anyone in on loan then perhaps the absence of Ian Morris might just give him an opportunity to show what he can really do at 1st team level, although I doubt his cause (along with 10 others it must be said) will have been helped by the humping we suffered this afternoon!

EDIT: Encouragingly he seems to be the only one to have come out of today's debacle with any credit, judging by the comments made by Martin Ling on the OS. Given that Ricey appears blameless (!) you really do fear for some of the other pros and reading between the lines I would think Mark Ellis together with perhaps LRT - who perhaps had the best opportunities to stake a claim for 1st team action (or a loan away) have done themselves no favours at all today. Massive oppoprtunity missed by some today I fear.

[SBGULL]

8-2 !!! with senior pros in the side!!.......... if that isnt a wake up call to get some more players in I dont know what is....

[PhilGull]

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No changes for Saturday then! Unless someone gets dropped for a change to 4-4-2 with Halpin on the left?

[CP Gull]

8-2 !!! with senior pros in the side!!.......... if that isnt a wake up call to get some more players in I dont know what is....

No that was a couple of weeks ago (when the kids played) v Crawley ... it was 9-1 today (with 8 pros in the side) v Cheltenham.

[markw]

Manse didn't appear very impressed with the Reserves scoreline "embrassing" according to his Twitter, but he goes on to say need to stop the losing mentality , not just on the pitch is he fast becoming the real driving force of the gulls . Somepeople really grow when given the responsibility whilst others wilt ( Wroe)

[Plymouth Gull]

He isn't wrong, either, Mark.

[stratfordgull]

Arrived at the ground around 15 minutes late, and just in time to see a goal go in. Asked a local the score and thought that he was having me on when he told me that it was 4-0.

The brightest point was that we showed more mettle after the break and only lost the second half 2-0. Most of the goals conceded were lame defensively to say the least, with Rice having very little chance. The Cheltenham wingers were both effective, and they seemed to slice through the defensive midfield and the backline with ease. Ellis won plenty in the air in the second half, but in the first half the Robins won every header with ease.

Rice - 6 - Sounds idiotic to say that he had very little to do, and not much chance when he's picked the ball out 9 times, but it was genuinely difficult to fault him for much and he made a couple of decent saves. The final goal was a superb curling shot that hit both posts before dropping in.

Leadbitter - 4 - skinned more times than a bunch of bananas. Weak.

Ellis - 6 - For the second half performance when he came to life and at least offered a little effort and won plenty in the air. First half was poor.

Rowe-Turner - 5 - Anonymous really but did have a few decent touches in the second half. Lacklustre.

Quinn - 5 - Looked a bit out of his depth here which is disappointing.

Macklin - 4 - Did he play in the first half? Oh yes, sorry he did....Marginally more effort in the second half but he should have been better than this and didn't look in the slightest bit hungry.

Yeoman - 5 - Tried to be busy it didn't really come off for him. At least he seemed to be putting in some effort.

Kudi - 4 - Same as for Quinn.

Halpin - 6 - He looked the class of the team. Ran at the defence and looked like he actually cared which set him apart from most of the rest. Took the goal well and had to create whatever we had on his own.

Spear - 5 - Battled and shouted, but he had very little to work with.

Thompson - 5 - Again worked hard but couldn't create much with the ball that he saw.

The Bench - must have all been on a sponsored silence. I've seen more animated people lying down at the undertakers....

Attendance - 49 (home 47, away 2 - loyal and myself).

I'm an optimistic sort and hate to criticise, but I felt that I had put way more effort in driving to the ground than any of the yellows on the pitch (Halpin aside). Do they want a first team place? Not from that showing which is the biggest disappointment of all.

PS - Nice to meet you Loyal and hopefully see you around at some other games.

[royalgull]

With regard to Halpin I think he can be summed up by Morris playing average at best, getting injured and he's still not in the squad or even really considered for the side. Also sub for the JPT game when we played half a reserve side.

Although i don't get to as many games as i'd like I'm pretty sure I've seen all of Halpin's performances in the first team, admittedly they have been short cameo's but I don't think he's impacted one game that i've seen him in. Honestly haven't noticed him in any match against any opposition.

I seriously believe the only reason any of our current youth setup will make it here will be down to our incompetence or financial constraints more than them earning their shot.