Accrington Stanley vs Torquay United

[Colorado Gull]

I hate it when we play Accrington!!!!

3-0!!



edit: Well Done.........Mcphee?? 3-1!

[Plymgull]

Darren Purse sent off for the slime.

[Dutchgull]

How many is that they have had sent off this season ? 7 or 8 ?

[Colorado Gull]

3-1 FT! We never get a result at Accy!

[bixieupnorth]

on the plus side i got a quad up, burton, yeovil let me down in two others but a nice big profit to make up for torquay and leeds both losing

[kittiwake]

If he lets you down make him sleep on the sofa

The sofa it is then!

[Dutchgull]

Nine slime have been sent off !! Surely a Football League fine will follow ??

[tktufc91]

Oh well, never win at Accy so not too surprised that we left empty handed. Gutted Howe was sent off. Anyone at the match see if it was a definite red. Is it worth appealing?

[stefano]

Nine slime have been sent off !! Surely a Football League fine will follow ??

...and they have two more games before they play us so there should be another couple suspended by then! =D

[Jeff]

Every year it's the same. No matter what form, or quality of player we take up to Accrington we without put in a tepid, dismal performance in freezing temperatures that sends our fans home miserable. And today was absolutely no exception. That was, to be frank, awful.

Normally I start these reports with "we started well...." or something like that. Well not today! We didn't at all. You could see how the pattern of the game was going to go, with Stanley playing quicker, more decisive football whilst we got bogged down in midfield or wasted possession with sloppy passing. We could easily have been 2 down early on, twice crosses from Stanley left were either headed wide from a great position, or evaded everyone and drifted beyond the far post. We struggled to break out of our half, and this was barely 10mins in!

It wasn't long before we paid for our poor start. Again Stanley worked the left hand side, the initial ball in was poor but was recovered by one of their forwards. Ellis had a nibble at his heels, but he didn't go down and chose to roll the ball back out to the left. The second attempt with the cross was much better, and the ageing-yet-quality Bryan Hughes was able to fire the ball in on the half volley, off Bobbys right hand post and in. 0-1

At least that did serve to wake us up. Bodin used his tricks to run at the defence, beating a couple and unleashing a fierce low drive which the home keeper Dunbavin tipped away at full stretch. Danny showed some tenacity to keep a ball in and win a corner, from which Ellis' downward header was smothered by Dunbavin with Stevens lurking.

As the half wore on, our football improved but there were still too many wasted passes, and too often did Ellis try and go long. Neither our pretty football nor direct approach was getting us anywhere. To be fair neither were Stanley, with only a few wild long shots from Proctor and Hughes being their only threat. On one of the numerous long balls forward, the Stanley centre half misjudged a back header. Rene was in, but rather than full-bloodedly go for the ball and taken everyone with it, he tentatively stabbed at it which allowed Dunbavin to make the save.

And that was pretty much Howe done for the half. As a Stanley attack broke down, Howe and Winnard were in a foot race down the Torquay left. They both slid in and ball went for a Torquay throw, but Winnard rolled around on the floor in agony. Before Rene could get to his feet, the ref was standing over him brandishing a red card. I really need to see it again as at first look I couldn't see what Rene did wrong, but the ref must have seen something to be so prompt with the card. The Stanley players seemed to be indicating a stamp or a kick out, but it was really hard to work out why Rene was sent off.

So now things were doubly hard for us. We almost grabbed a reward before half time. O'kane was flattened competing for a high ball, and from the resultant free kick Morris, Robbo and Stevens all had shots blocked - with strong appeals for hands on the latter effort. But we were lucky to survive just one down, as right at the end of the half Stanley hit the left hand post with a bobbling effort, and the scuffed rebound was cleared off the line by Nico.

Second half, and in an attempt to get back into it Bodin was withdrawn for Atieno. During the opening exchanges, the switch looked to give us more impetous. Tai was mobile and linked up well, Danny looked more lively and we gave the stanley defence something to think about. Nico tossed a couple of long throws in, which were flicked on by Ellis but nobody was able to capitalise on the second ball. Maybe we were back in this?

We then had another moment of controversy. Atieno latches onto a through-ball, but is given narrowly offside. The whistle has barely gone, perhaps Tai hasn't heard it but he kind of plays on, and goes to go past Dunbavin. Tai is then wiped out with a two-footed, totally off the ground lunge from the portly keeper. Now if that's not violent conduct i don't know what is, and it's irrelevant that the ball was "dead", but Dunbavin gets off with a yellow.

Our increased attacking intent, coupled with the man disadvantage was leaving us prone to the counter attack. Bobby had already pulled out a couple of top drawer saves, when we went two down. Stockley took advantage of the increasing gaps at the back to step inside, and unleash a shot from fully 25yards. It took a slight nick off one of our players, but make no mistake it was a great hit and sailed into the top corner with Bobby rooted to the spot. 2-0, game over.

The game then petered into a real dull period, misplaced passes all over the shop from both sides. We created barely nothing, aside from one wild shot wide from O'kane which to date represented our only shot of the second half.

Things then livened up when a Stanley attack broke down and we went to break away. Inexplicably, their midfielder Joyce (I think) swings a punch at Eunan right in front of the ref, miles from the ball! Off you go son! Could this be a lifeline back into it?

Erm, no. If anything, Stanley looked the more likely to score. They threatened a couple of half chances before they seemingly started to run time down in the corner. From the second corner in succession, Hughes nutmegged Nico, ran into the box and squared for the centre half Long to ghost in and scramble home from close range.

Within a couple of minutes, we did have something to cheer. Late sub McPhee peeled away from his marker, and was spotted by Lathrope who perfectly weighted a long ball over the top. McPhew was on to it, and drilled a low shot across Dunbavin and into the far corner! 3-1!

However, aside from one storm into the box from LRT, and a blocked long ranger from Lathrope that was it, and the action petered out to the usual miserable Accrington defeat.

It was a pretty limp performance, not helped by the sending off although up until the Rene had been fairly anonymous. We lacked any cutting edge going forward, and were incredibly sloppy. Accrington wernt world beaters, but they were comfortably better than us, had far more control in possession and were very tough to break down. Quite how we will fare over Christmas without big Rene I don't know. Atieno was actually quite positive when he came on, linked up well and was very mobile, but we have some tough games and I'm not sure it'll be enough. Regardless, he is all we've got so I hope we all get behind him and give him some support. I really need to see the sending off again to understand why Rene went.

Player ratings:

Olejnik - 7 - a couple of solid saves, couldn't really do anything about the goals
Oastler - 5 - given a real torrid time first half
Nico - 5.5 - largely anonymous
Ellis - 5.5 - culprit of defaulting to smashing it long too often. Guilty of letting ball bounce too much
Robbo - 6.5 - generally solid, some good last ditch tackles
Lathrope - 7.5 - my MOTM. less wasteful than others and got stuck in
Morris - 7 - no Manse, but also got in amongst it and won a bit in the air
O'Kane - 5.5 - never really got into the game, never had space to find killer pass
Bodin - 5.5 - flashes of quality, but largely lost in the first half
Stevens - 6 - looked bright, but isolated and got nowhere
Howe - 5 - poor movement, wasteful. Generally poor

Atieno - 6 - an improvement on Howe, mobile and strong but no goal threat
McPhee - 6 - a couple of poor passes, but great finish
LRT - 5.5 - looked a little lost playing wide left, one strong run aside

Time for me to wack the heating on in the car and direct it to my frozen toes!

[Scott Brehaut]

Thanks for the report Jeff - will await the usual tosh from Terry now we have lost

[ferrarilover]

I think this game can be summed up from the line in Jeff's excellent report which says that Atieno was better than Howe. What with McFree scoring too, I'm surprised a hole hasn't opened up in the fabric of spacetime!

Matt.

[dazgull]

Renes sending off just capped it all, id heard we had had a player sent off and just hoped it wasnt him. I was looking forward to Swindon, Oxford and Argyle games but now he has done that you can kiss goodbye to many points from those. Certain defeat to Swindon as Bodin missing that too. Taiwoeful and Mcphee, Swindon must be well worried about them. Oxford will probably be a draw but there is very little chance of victory at Argyle now as needed Howe there. They will be pissing themselves knowing he isnt playing, with them having 10k plus there the best we can hope for is a draw there.

Thanks Rene ruined our xmas games.........

[TUFC92]

Renes sending off just capped it all, id heard we had had a player sent off and just hoped it wasnt him. I was looking forward to Swindon, Oxford and Argyle games but now he has done that you can kiss goodbye to many points from those. Certain defeat to Swindon as Bodin missing that too. Taiwoeful and Mcphee, Swindon must be well worried about them. Oxford will probably be a draw but there is very little chance of victory at Argyle now as needed Howe there. They will be pissing themselves knowing he isnt playing, with them having 10k plus there the best we can hope for is a draw there.

Thanks Rene ruined our xmas games.........

Is that not a huge, huge over reaction? Are we really a one man team? Atieno and Mcphee aren't the best but come on, one player doesn't make the team, and just because we have lost Howe for 3 games (unless we appeal of course) does not mean that we have automatically dropped points already!

[Dave]

Many thanks for the report Jeff, slept this afternoon after along nightshift, that gave me a good view as to what happened in the match, pretty much same old same, for us up at Accy.