Torquay United v Hemel Hempstead

[UnitedinDevon]

Game about to start

3-1 win to Torquay

[Southampton Gull]

One nil up with a Cooke penalty on 74mins.

[Hereford Gull66]

Good to see Ryan Hanson contributed today,

[Dave_Pougher]

Two points clear at the top, (would have been three if Truro handnt scored a 94th min winner! )
Couldn’t have wished for more really at the start of the season.
Most of us were just hoping to have a club.

[Taelee73]

Tuff watch in tuff conditions.

Hemel played the conditions better than us and will be disappointed not to have gotten a point at least. New signing looked promising, very direct and attack minded, couple of great saves by Hamon and one soft dropping the ball.

Great crowd of 3700, which for the Saturday before Christmas is fantastic.

[culmstockgull]

Three points when we were not really at it today, WJD and mussa both out of sorts, boreham were well organised and annoying to play against, nearly as annoying as the drunken **** in row F of bristows who thought it was hilarious to have his mobile phone ring on louder than the ground tannoy going off every two minutes.
Really difficult conditions to play in but hemel mastered it better than we did, can we please stop playing the sideways/ backwards passing game, we are not that good at it and it makes for nervous watching, it is obviously a training ground practice because we play it regularly, surely as a back four player, you have the ball at your feet, look up and run preferably forward you never know what will open up for you.
Hamon was the best player on the park today and kept us in the game.

[drummergull90]

Tough game in tough conditions. We won the midfield battle, ultimately why we won.

Didn't play well but got 3 points, the old cliché about champions winning whilst playing badly comes to mind.

Fantastic crowd, particularly when you consider they only brought 25!

Great feeling about the club too, a huge change from this time last year.

[UnitedinDevon]

Tough game in tough conditions. We won the midfield battle, ultimately why we won.

Didn't play well but got 3 points, the old cliché about champions winning whilst playing badly comes to mind.

Fantastic crowd, particularly when you consider they only brought 25!

Great feeling about the club too, a huge change from this time last year.

Interesting how people see it, I thought our midfield was an issue today

Hemel one the physical game all over the pitch and generated their chances from that

Threlkeld and Young hooked at half time with the later lucky to not be sent off

The ref certainly went to his pocket and then seemed to back track from it

Thought although he wasn't have a good game we missed threlkeld getting on the ball, too much long ball today which with the wind and the big CBs that Hemel had was never going to work

[desperado]

Yes I thought Threlkeld was doing ok in the first half
Hamon and Wotton were saying how difficult it was out there in the wind - why not keep it on the ground more then when we always look our best.

[TUFC67]

A great game to walk away with 3 points from. The wind prevented any liklihood of the good football we've enjoyed recently, but our team fought hard to get us this result. We should be proud of their application in these conditions.

[Modgull]

Ahead of the game I did wonder which game plan would be deployed in the conditions - the 'keep it on the deck and play football' version which we deployed to great effect against WSM or the hoofball which has characterised much of the rest of the season. The answer, of course, was the latter and thus our midfield was ignored totally until half time and Threlkeld, Young and Mussa were sacrificed with early substitutions. Only the woodwork and a great save from Hamon prevented Hemel from inflicting an embarrassing defeat. Yes, it is the sign of a promotion team to win that ugly (not for the first time) but the luck will eventually run out.

[PL21gull]

Indeed, far from winning the midfield battle we totally ceded it and reverted to long ball tactics against a team which didn't have much difficulty playing to feet or outmuscling us. It would be interesting to see a scientific survey into how effective our long ball and long throw-in tactics were - Cooke as ever tried hard in the air, but I wonder : i. how many times he won the aerial battle, ii. how many times a win gave us possession, iii. how many scoring opportunities were created by a headed flick. Realistic answer to ii. and iii., very few.
And when we actually tried to get into the HH penalty area on the ground we earned the winning penalty..
But well done the defence for keeping a clean sheet again.
COYY, you can be a lot more professional and show a lot more intent for controlling a game, especially in front of a big crowd at home - do we really need a deep holding midfielder at home who spent as much of the first half playing behind the back 3 as just in front of it?

[Dave]

Yesterday I was delighted to join the Stacey family as match sponsors in memory of Dave Stacey a mini stander before taking up a place on the popside, Travelled home and away with Dave taken far too young, and of course his uncle Dave both lost Alzheimer's within a few weeks of each other.

Cove done up up nicely and the food standard much improved on before, bit disappointed as match sponsors to be put on table 12 of 12 at the back of the room but a minor detail, half time tea/coffee and biscuits and an after match pasty, would recommend a visit if you haven't as yet.

Been lucky enough to have been part of the match sponsor party many times before, this was the first time we really struggled to pick MOTM, not one player really stood out yesterday, we were reluctant to give it to Hamon as he only had 2 saves to make, however, both were top class, and ultimately made the difference between 3 or 1 point, so that swung it his way.

As for the game, a real drab affair but with the weather perhaps no surprise, what really brought it home to me was, after the game in the cove, both Hamon and Warnock were interviewed.

It's very easy for us fans to form opinions on team and player performances, But Hamon straight away said, don't know whether you fans noticed it in the stands, but the wind pitch side was very strong making it really difficult to play as they wanted to.

Warnock said, in all his experience sides going away to the top team in the league just love a heavy pitch and windy conditions because it is a leveller, Warnock went on to say this was probabaly the best win so far.

[desperado]

Didn't think Hemel were up to much until they realised we weren't offering much threat and then they grew in confidence.
For some reason we didn't start at the same tempo we did against Farnborough, just needed to move the ball quicker.
I know it's results that matter and 4 points from every 2 games from now on will win us the league but the lack of opportunities being created is worrying.

[Louis]