League 2: Bury v Torquay United 15/03/2011

[Trojan 67]

Top reports from Jeff and Tommy G as usual.

Thanks guys for your support and efforts.

[BernardB]

I'd like to add my thanks for the excellent reports. Also, as a footnote, the win reminds me of one of our most famous victories in the early 50s against Colchester (our "nearly" year, when we missed promotion to the Second Division on goal average and were unbeaten at home all seaon). We were two down after 20 minutes and seemingly had no answer to Colchester's speed and penetration. We reorganised (no substitutes in those days!) and gradually took command, going in 2-2 at half-time and eventually running out 4-2 winners. I was 12 or 13 but the memory is still fresh after more than 50 years, as I bet this one will be for the lucky few who were there.

Unfortunately the history of the club is littered by depressing lows immediately following fantastic highs. Let's hope Macclesfield doesn't follow that pattern.

[HRG]

Nice one tommyg

[MidDevon]

Well what a night. Just a few things to add.

Bury are no mugs, they will be there or there abouts at the end of the season. I do not think that any league 2 team could have survived the wave after wave of Bury attack that was thrown at us in that first half. Mansell stood out as "The Last Bastian Standing" in an otherwise poor defensive performance.

What was so plain to see from the moment the ball was first kicked was that our new players, with the exception of Craig Stanley were just not closing the players down quick enough, they were just not used to the pace in this section. Half the team barely got a touch as the ball stayed in our half for long periods and as previously reported Murray was a lost soul out there. A really lost soul.

It was as early as the 10th minute that Lathorpe started to warm up. On his own. What a clear message.

Going in at half time and bollocking the team is one thing, going in at half time with one substitution already made is quite another. A great move by Bucks (who remember took Billy Kee of recently after a similar length of time....and he is yet to return)

We gave Lowe far too much respect in the first half, man marked him, and it showed as Branston once again was constantly trying to cover too much ground.

....Anyway the Torquay manager's managers tactical moves alongside the decsion by the Bury manager to not change anything , not even pre-empting that we could change the way we took the match to Bury was in my opinion the reason we went on to win.

As things started to go wrong for Bury you could see the players looking towards the bench for inspiration, there was none and we had the bit between our teeth.

.....just to mention a few of the team

Lathorpe, seeing his chance, worked his socks off and has no doubt claimed the starting shirt next time out. His positional play was outstanding

Tomlin changed his play to one almost entirely of running into space, and slowly he turned the game, becoming as effective as Zebs is by always being available to take the ball.

Stanley, well when the first goal went in, he was like a man possessed! he loved it that much as he ran towards the fans....and that just re-emphasises how much this club means to him already.

Bringing on O'Kane was almost cruel to Bury, it was like the final knife being turned as his running off the ball created so many more chances and ensured the ball stayed where it needed to.

Well done Bucks, 2 great games this season by two footballing teams, not a nasty foul in the entire match, no negative singing from either sets of supporters and we were well treated after the game.

Happy Days

[whitearmy]

View from a bury fan

First half, we turned up, passed the ball well and to be honest we missed a few chances, Lowe having chances that he would normally put away, but your keeper made 2 good saves! then another one Lowe looked like he rounded the keeper and then fell over . Your defence looked resilient but we seemed to be able to cut through it nice and easy. We had a large part of the possession in the first half and we pressed you very well for 45 minutes!

Second half, WOW what happened? We stopped pressing the ball, and we must have made 10 successful passes in the second half, our goalkeeper looked shaky, we seemed to play an awful defensive line about 30 yards further than usual. However I am not saying second half we lost as we were down to us playing bad, yes we didn't play well, but the football played by Torquay tore us apart. Yes at Gigg Lane we are quite used to out passing teams for 90 minutes, but 2nd half was pay back, your the only team that I've seen this season that play football like us, and second half better than us! I don't feel you have one stand out player, as all worked very hard and all were top end league two players to be honest.

We dropped a massive chance to go 8 points clear of 4th , but we have to put it down to a poor first half. Time will tell on Saturday when we play against Cheltenham.

A team that passes deserves to go up! and I seriously hope you make the playoffs, however I dont if were infact in the playoffs with you! Would love us to get auto's and you to go up through the playoffs. Also at least it would show League two teams can pass the ball!

[HRG]

Signed up to the Bury forum as I like to sneak a peek at what the opposing fans thoughts are, and I have to say what a thoroughly decent bunch they are. Yes they say that they should have killed us off by half time, quite rightly, they hammered us and should have been more than 1-0 up, but they also give us credit for our second half performance.
Hope I'm allowed to do this, it's from their forum;

All im reading on here is how bad we were second half, how players should be rested and how we must improve.

Why dont we actually hold our hands up and admit in that second half their manager got it spot on? Torquay were fantastic they played much further up the field and closed us down tremendously. Their movement was outstanding and considering the pummelling they got first half to come out and put a performance in like that was nothing short of brilliant.

If I was a Torquay fan Id be extremely proud of my team and they should be.

Now saying all of that we are in a great position for promotion and it was a bad 45 minutes so why dont we stop being so pathetic, give Torquay the credit they deserve and move on?

[Jeff]

I think massive credit is due to the Bury supporters. If they'd come on here and given it the "we were robbed" talk they'd have had a fair point. The chances they missed first half were incredible. But both on here and outside the ground, they were very gracious in defeat - perhaps they couldn't see just quite how close they came to scoring on 2 or 3 occaisions.

It would be easy to console any Bury fan in the sense that they were comfortably the beat team I've seen all season. Way more exciting than Chesterfield and a million miles better than Shrewsbury, Wycombe, Port vale and Gillingham. I have no doubt that they will finish in the automatic promotion spots this time around.

Their downfall last night was that they started to get very sloppy at the start of the second half. Only minor things like passes being 1 or 2 yards astray and things like that, but it gave us a chance to regroup and settle into a shape. And once we got our tails up you could see the confidence drain out of them which is surprising for a team on such a good run.

Looking forward to Macc on Saturday. We need to make sure we do a job there or last night will be all for nothing.

[ferrarilover]

I would also like to echo the thoughts of Jeff and HRG (if that is your real name!) in saying that the Bury supporters are, largely, a credit to their team. It's the sign of a genuinely quality side when the team can suffer a set back such as last night (losing a match they should have won comfortably, on balance of 1st half play) and come out and have the confidence to appreciate the spectacle of two good teams and that, on the day, TUFC played very well and took their chances.
No ultra defensive losers on either our board or theirs, giving it all the mouth about lucky Torquay or whatnot.

AC Northampton, take note.

Matt.

[HRG]

I would also like to echo the thoughts of Jeff and HRG (if that is your real name!) in saying that the Bury supporters are, largely, a credit to their team. It's the sign of a genuinely quality side when the team can suffer a set back such as last night (losing a match they should have won comfortably, on balance of 1st half play) and come out and have the confidence to appreciate the spectacle of two good teams and that, on the day, TUFC played very well and took their chances.
No ultra defensive losers on either our board or theirs, giving it all the mouth about lucky Torquay or whatnot.

AC Northampton, take note.

Matt.

Well...erm...it would seem not :Oops:

[Fletch]

I would also like to echo the thoughts of Jeff and HRG (if that is your real name!) in saying that the Bury supporters are, largely, a credit to their team. It's the sign of a genuinely quality side when the team can suffer a set back such as last night (losing a match they should have won comfortably, on balance of 1st half play) and come out and have the confidence to appreciate the spectacle of two good teams and that, on the day, TUFC played very well and took their chances.
No ultra defensive losers on either our board or theirs, giving it all the mouth about lucky Torquay or whatnot.

AC Northampton, take note.

Matt.

Unlike some of the bitching on here when we lost the home match 4-3 :na:

[Jeff]

Just reading the report in the herald, and there are a couple of things I'm not sure I agree with.

Firstly, it makes us sound a lot better than we actually were in the first half. We were terrible and didnt even get close to Bury

And secondly, Robinsons shot for Zebs disallowed "goal" was a mistake by the keeper. I certainly don't remember the shot hitting the post. Making me doubt my own vision now though!

[AlexGulls]

Agreed there Jeff there keeper spilt Robinsons shot then Zebroski just beat him to it to put in on the line. And as for the first half Bury were streets ahead of us we were never in it untill the second half.

[Scott Brehaut]

Mansell stood out as "The Last Bastian Standing" in an otherwise poor defensive performance.

Mid,

Not wanting to be picky here - I only picked up on this as there was very little said about Manse in the other reports. I have quoted what you say on this thread above, however when I went to the "top 5" thread I saw this:

Tomlin - his constant running into space created no end of problems in the Bury defence, superb fitness and stamina shown all match
Nicholson - the star of the first half, without him it could have been all over
Stanley
Zebroski
Lathrope

.....and therefore wondered what made you pick Nico over Manse.

This is not a dig, just a genuine query from a curious guy!!

[ferrarilover]

Mid,

Not wanting to be picky here - I only picked up on this as there was very little said about Manse in the other reports. I have quoted what you say on this thread above, however when I went to the "top 5" thread I saw this: .....and therefore wondered what made you pick Nico over Manse.

This is not a dig, just a genuine query from a curious guy!!

I'm sorry about this Scotty, you'll have to excuse these posts. Occasionally, Mark's lizard Charlie sneaks onto the laptop at night and posts his own thoughts using Mark's login details.

Matt.

[MidDevon]

Well spotted and how embarrassing!

I did mean Manse and not Nico....can my vote be changed? I did only get back at 2am so I was a bit knackered this morning!!!!

P.s Charlie is a bearded dragon, my lizard is called Waffle and I will change my piccy if I can to you can see how beautiful he is!!!

Mini Mid Devon always feels he comes 3rd behind the reptiles....and Mrs Mid Devon....feels she comes behind the lizards, the kids and TUFC !!!!