Torquay United v Northampton Town - 15/12/12

[Plymouth Gull]

To be fair Jarvis did go off holding his arm so I don't know the extent of that. I would say though, that had he brought on Yeoman, and they scored, some would moan..

[LukeGull]

Calmed down a bit now... Happy with them team performance, thought everyone did very well. Just have to say that It would be impossible for me to support Northampton, they play the worst football I have seen in a long time. I don't care whether it works or not... shoving your centre-back up for every throw-in inside the opposition half is pathetic. Yes they may have put us under pressure, but its hard to say that even there supporters enjoy watching the ball just been hoofed long at every single opportunity.

It wasn't even just this... the pop side lino was awful, 2 possibly even three times Rene was called offside when he wasn't and he would've been through.

Oh well... bring on City.

[ferrarilover]

Disagree that we deserved only to draw today, we have got all round them all afternoon and all Pokey has done is punch a couple and field a couple comfortably. Their keeper MOTM again, how many times is that now this season?

My learned friend Brucie is, as usual, (deliberately) completely wrong. Jarvo injured, hence his removal. Ling pushed for the second by taking off the excellent but tiring and increasingly ineffective Stevens and replacing him with Tommo.

We played well today. The back 4 did really well against two really big strikers, neither of whom got anything like the possession they would have expected.

Special mention for Nathan Craig who was unbelievably good at times today. His tenacity and the pass out to Danny for the goal were worthy of some horrific Frankenstein cross between Manse and Eunan.

Matt.

[Trojan 67]

My first game since Accrington home. On the balance of play, a draw was probably right (It didn't feel that way at the time when they equalised late).

Highlights for me today, besides watching a match, was meeting Andy and Ben [Austrian Andy and Bengull] and not forgetting o'favourites forevertufc Dave, Lexus guy, Diamond girl and Matt.

No in depth match comment from me, I was just pleased to be there.

[Dave]

Decent enough performance, Pokey and the back four deserve a lot of credit they came under a great deal of pressure second half even before our goal and defended well as a unit and when called opon Pokey was equal to everything, he couldn't do anything about there goal from a goal mouth scramble .

I have criticised against both Oastler and Nicho thought they both had a slow start to the season today both were first class, both seem to be right back at last seasons performance levels, Ryan Jarvis deserves a great deal of praise, he has had more than enough doubt him Ryan looks a lot more comfortable in the position he is playing in hopefully not to badly injured.

All in all not to much to complain about 1.1 was a fair result they had as much of the ball and as many chances. The only downside to me was when Ryan Jarvis went off injured why not bring on Ashley Yoeman, for me keep doing what got you the 1.0 lead in the first place, bringing on Lathrope did make a tad to defensive and for the last 5 mins or so just couldn't get out from the back and when we did nothing up there to hold the play up.

Yes of course that may not have changed the end result and some would still moan, for me its about the percentages if the team set up is working and your winning stick to it.

Finaly was nice to meet AustrianAndygull a true gent and a pleasure to meet Bengull and cant go with out a mention for Troj great to see you back on your feet and back at the footy shame your recent illness has done nothing for the old bladder though mate..

[gullintwoplaces]

Inevitable late equaliser by the sound of it - take off a forward, go defensive, sit back and wait for the equaliser. Yet again Lings tactics come unstuck - when will he learn?

Wrong yet again. Clearly, you weren't at the game, I was. Jarvis was injured and had to come off. I couldn't fault Ling's tactics today, we were more than a bit unlucky.

[Plymouth Gull]

Disagree that we deserved only to draw today, we have got all round them all afternoon and all Pokey has done is punch a couple and field a couple comfortably. Their keeper MOTM again, how many times is that now this season?

My learned friend Brucie is, as usual, (deliberately) completely wrong. Jarvo injured, hence his removal. Ling pushed for the second by taking off the excellent but tiring and increasingly ineffective Stevens and replacing him with Tommo.

Matt.

Have you taken your yellow-tinted glasses yet Matt?

[bengull]

A fair result I would say, you kind of had the feeling the inevitable equaliser would come but I don't think us sitting back was the cause. For once I would turn it round and say that Northampton threw everything at us and no matter what system or line up we adopted would make us any left able to hold on. It was a furious penalty area scramble following a succession of corners, think we did very well to defend the aerial barrage up until that point. Special praise for Macdonald who looked at ease.I think it was unavoidable, just one of those things.

Our biggest downfall was not converting one of the numerous chances we created after our similarly well crafted goal. We were on top for 20 minutes and created some excellent opportunities but found a keeper in good form, or we made the wrong choice of final ball, or as a team forgot the offside rule. Can't level criticism at the manager when we don't convert the chances his tactics are encouraging us to create.

Some excellent performances today, Jarvis worked tirelessly and lasted the pace, Craig filled in on be right with ease, Manse looked far more effective after his enforced lay off, Downes played sensibly without caution, and Easton, my man of the match, was excellent in all thirds of the pitch.

Plenty to be positive about leading up to a crucial couple of weeks, today's last minute equaliser has turned a potentially excellent performance into a good one. We may not be top 7 fodder, we have no right to be. Fingers crossed mr Howe rediscovers his golden touch.

Pleasure to share a home match with everyone's favourite Austrian, and a pleasure to meet 2 of the forum's best; Trojan and Forevertufc.

[Dutchgull]

Jarvis was taken to hospital suffering from a bad rib injury.

[kingsgull]

Gullintwoplaces ..think brucie implied that a striker for striker may have proved a better tactic as dave also mentioned suggesting yeoman on for Jarvis...not suggesting lingy got tactics wrong but felt at 5 minutes to go best not to go all out and do something silly and hold the defence but it did not work today..just invite pressure...just hope next Saturday tactics work as it means more to win next week

[OllieGull]

Yeoman should've been brought on not Lathrope, just invites pressure on the team.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Made my first home game of the season today after setting off at 7.30am and getting into Torquay a little earlier than planned, i first decided to pay a visit to Sainsburys at The Willows i believe it is. BIG MISTAKE. It was carnage in there and getting parked was a nightmare, i only popped in for some bits and bobs to take back to my hotel so i can eat lots of sh*te, drink lots of beer, watch match of the day, get diarrhoea and then go to bed but not necessarily in that order. A bit of an anti-climax after all that with the injury time leveller. The last game i saw at Plainmoor saw Crewe get an injury time leveller too! B*STARDS!!!

Anyway today, in the first half i was considering going back to the car to have a kip until after half time. It was moribund, for want of a better word. Dour, drab, uneventful, uninspiring, boring, poo, tepid, turgid, repellant and Mark Lawrenson. All words to describe the quality and entertainment on offer first half. Danny Stevens had a perfect opportunity to set Rene free clear through from inside his own half but he dwelt, took one touch, two touches, dwelt again, went for a fortnight in Halkidiki then came back and released Rene who by that time had run into an offside position IN NEWCASTLE. All it needed was a help along it's way or at worst a quick control then bang! Away you go big man. Rene was understandably upset about his team mates lack of intuition and gave him some verbals. Not much else to report first half although i did notice that often there was acres of space on my side of the pitch (popside) for Danny to exploit and dart forward into that empty space whenever we got forwrd. For some reason he seemed reluctant to do that and hung back a hell of a lot instead of pressing higher up the pitch and making full use of the vast open spaces he had to run into.

Half time was spent contemplating how much cash i'd actually spent on this weekend 10 days before Christmas and secretly dying inside and also trying to guess the combined weight of Cobblers strike duo Akinfenwa and Platt.

The second half began end to end and a much more enjoyable encounter to watch, dangerous balls in at either end and a few goalmouth scrambles from us and we took the lead with a fine move orchestrated by Nathan Craig who switched a fine ball over to the far touchline to Stevens who did equally as well to run at his marker and manage to pull the ball back across the face of goal where an onrushing Jarvis was on hand to steer the ball home. After that we had a 15 or so minutes spell where we were in the ascendancy and we really should have pushed harder for the second. If i have any complaints today it is not down to Ling's tactics or our defending or bad luck, it was down to the fact that we needed to kill the game off when we had the purple patch and we didn't and the equaliser at the death was not only gutting because of the timing of it but also because we should have put the game to bed by then. I don't think we backed off after taking the lead or began sitting deep, Northampton caused all sorts of problems in the area and we must have hacked away 4 or 5 goalmouth scrambles when on another day the ball would have fell to the feet of an opposition player and we'd concede.This DID happen in the end and we did concede from the last scramble of the game and we can't say we weren't warned. We we just unable to deal with it.

POKE: 7 Standard handling, made a couple of decent saves too.

NICO: 7 The usual but his distribution has improved on what i have seen him offer us on many away trips this season.

DOWNES: 7 Commanding and gave everything once again, dominant in the air and didn't get booked!

McDONALD: 8 Has come in to the side in very difficult circumstances and has performed admirably. Built on his immense display at Valley Parade with another assured showing.

OASTLER: 7 Good distribution and industry

EASTON: 9 I'm liking this lad more and more, each time i see him he impresses and he is only a slight lad so doesn't necessarily stand out in games. Very industrious and keeps things ticking over.

CRAIG: 8 Another good performance today and has great passing and vision highlighted by the ball he gave to Danny to set up the goal.

STEVENS: 6 Great run at the defender to lay the ball across to Jarvo to score but did nothing else. No threat whatsoever and chose the wrong options on a number of occasions, poor reading of the game and failed to take advantage of vast amounts of space afforded him by the Cobblers.

MANSELL: 7 Manse did ok first game back, perhaps trying too hard but put in another shift if not offering anything from an attacking sense apart from the odd shot from distance.

HOWE: 6 Not one of his better games for me. Held the ball up well in difficult conditions but never allowed any opportunities at goal.

JARVIS: 8 I'm going to rub a few people up the wrong way here when i say Jarvis only gets an 8 because of his assured finish. I like Jarvis as a goalscorer and if we get service to him like Danny did today then he WILL score goals, he is a natural poacher. That is not in doubt for me. Today though i thought he was poor. I watched him a lot in the first half and he was always slow to get into the box, opting to hang back instead of anticipating crosses whipped into the box. He is best when he is running onto crosses and not hanging back trying to look for a cut back. I also thought he tired quickly and his workrate suffered in the end. I don't know what sort of fitness regime he has but after about 50-60 minutes he's totally f*cked. Jarvo CAN score goals for us but when he doesn't he doesn't offer too much.


Bizarre decision from Ling to bring on Lathrope instead of Yeoman. Yeoman NEEDS to be included Martin or you might as well get rid. Use him or lose him.

NEGATIVES: The last minute equaliser obviously and the TQ1 programme - must have been rushed to print as it has some masive cock ups in it. First one is on the captain page of Lee Mansell where next to his notes is a full page picture of Nico and NOT Manse. Secondly, columnist Lee Ranson on page 34 discussing diving, on page 35 the page is duplicated so therefore you get the same pages next to each other, thirdly, the 'YELLOW CORNER' section of the programme. This has a guess the gull quiz with a picture of Rene Howe with some shades and mock up hair, i mean come on! I reckon if you are blind you could still get that one as it's so obvious as it's pointless! They also have a lookalike of Rodney Trotter from Only Fools who is Receptionist Pete, only they look f*ck all like one another! The programme is littered with spelling errors and misprints and as good as the content is, it is embarrassing.

POSITIVES: Good to meet up with Bengull and his old boy ( sorry no offence! ) again and also good to meet Dave ( forevertufc) his lad, Trojan and the other bloke who was with them ( sorry again! forgot your name! ). Hope you all have a great Christmas. I recognised a few other people who i see at away games too.

I'm getting hammered!

[AustrianAndyGull]

A fair result I would say, you kind of had the feeling the inevitable equaliser would come but I don't think us sitting back was the cause. For once I would turn it round and say that Northampton threw everything at us and no matter what system or line up we adopted would make us any left able to hold on. It was a furious penalty area scramble following a succession of corners, think we did very well to defend the aerial barrage up until that point. Special praise for Macdonald who looked at ease.I think it was unavoidable, just one of those things.

Our biggest downfall was not converting one of the numerous chances we created after our similarly well crafted goal. We were on top for 20 minutes and created some excellent opportunities but found a keeper in good form, or we made the wrong choice of final ball, or as a team forgot the offside rule. Can't level criticism at the manager when we don't convert the chances his tactics are encouraging us to create.

Some excellent performances today, Jarvis worked tirelessly and lasted the pace, Craig filled in on be right with ease, Manse looked far more effective after his enforced lay off, Downes played sensibly without caution, and Easton, my man of the match, was excellent in all thirds of the pitch.

Plenty to be positive about leading up to a crucial couple of weeks, today's last minute equaliser has turned a potentially excellent performance into a good one. We may not be top 7 fodder, we have no right to be. Fingers crossed mr Howe rediscovers his golden touch.

Pleasure to share a home match with everyone's favourite Austrian, and a pleasure to meet 2 of the forum's best; Trojan and Forevertufc.

I thought that was Bobby! My favourite Austrian is Andreas Herzog, a true talent and a true Austrian footballing hero who got us to the France 98 World Cup by scoring a wonder goal from 40 yards to beat Sweden 1-0 in the Ernst Happel. Happy Days! Oh and Salzburg won 7-0 today in the Bundesliga, i should have made THAT trip instead!

[ferrarilover]

My first game since Accrington home. On the balance of play, a draw was probably right (It didn't feel that way at the time when they equalised late).

Highlights for me today, besides watching a match, was meeting Andy and Ben [Austrian Andy and Bengull] and not forgetting o'favourites forevertufc Dave, Lexus guy, Diamond girl and Matt.

No in depth match comment from me, I was just pleased to be there.

Should also have mentioned the return of the Trojan to the fold in my last post. Big Al was back among the TQ1 faithful where he quite rightly belongs and we were all very glad to see him. All except the steward who asked to search his "bag" on the way in, not a mistake he'll be making again in a hurry, I venture.

Matt.

[ferrarilover]

Have you taken your yellow-tinted glasses yet Matt?

Do me a favour Nick, there were times today where the Northampton back line didn't know what day of the week it was. I lost count of the number of times we got to the touchline and crossed the ball, only for it to fall to a fluorescent green shirt. Port Vale, with their wealth of striking options (rather than our grotesque inability to hit the net) would have had double figures today and there was the square root of **** all that NTFC could have done about it. Sure, their tactic of signing a group of blokes rejected from the NBA for being too tall and smashing the ball as high and as long as possible at every opportunity was basically effective, but they weren't anywhere near the quality of Bradford or Gillingham.
Pokey tipped one chip and one header (which wasn't deliberate) over the bar early on, and from then he dealt with nothing but routine, speculative 30 yarders and some long throws. Their keeper was left stranded but lucky a couple of times, made a couple of really good saves (particularly from Jarvo down to his left), we had two cleared off the line, keeper was left standing and admiring a Nathan Craig drive which went wide by luck not judgement and the ball flashed across their box innumerable times.
We played the better football, we had many more and much better chances and were only under any sustained pressure for a 10 minute spell in the second half when we were gearing up for the big push which ultimately led to our goal.

They've not been hammered, I'm not saying this was a smash and grab, but we didn't deserve to come away with anything other than 3 points today and it hasn't happened. Once again against Northampton, we've been undone in time added on at the end of the match. In the last couple of matches, we've picked up just one point and, in very different but equally valid ways, we have been pretty good and certainly better than we were in the few weeks previous, when we were getting points at a greater rate. Seems to me that we aren't getting quite what we deserve at the moment.

Matt.