PSF: Torquay United vs Bristol City

[Fonda]

A few brief thoughts...As always in a pre-season friendly, the result is of little relevance. But the performance, first half especially (as you'd expect with the line-up) was positive. Not sure how storng that City side was, but if i was a fan of theirs i'd be concerned with the ease with which we were creating chances.

To talk specifically about the new boys...Atieno impressed me. I have no idea how people can suggest he's quicker than Macklin, i didn't see any signs of that, but he lead the line very well. Showed for the ball, held it up well and brought others into play by playing the simple ball. I fully expect he'll be signing a deal before the next game. Would prefer another look at him myself, but in that 45 minutes he looked useful. Mcphee did an effective job on the right wing. I'm not sure it's his favoured position, but he worked hard and put in a couple of dangerous crosses. Olejnik had virtually nothing to do, but he took a couple of crosses with little problem, and the one save he had to make he held onto well.

In the scond half, there were more 'fringe' players on the pitch, but of the new boys that played Saah looked composed and commanding. I'm very comfortable already knowing that he'll be present in our defence this season. Leadbitter looks an athlete, but shows clear inexperience. He's got time to develop, but i'm pretty convinced Oastler will be starting the season on the right of defence. Ricey made one decent save, but it was one of those 'for the camera' efforts. They've all got to be made, but any keeper worth his salt would have made it. On a couple of other occasions we almost suffered from some poor decsions from him, but i think nervousness would naturally have played a part in his performance. No dramas. And then there's Howe. He's a big old unit! Clearly has some ability in his boots. A good touch, quick feet and a definite 'brightness' about him. He showed some good skill to make the space for his goal, but the finish was bourne of brute force! It went through David James through sheer power. There is a definite player there, but his fitness will need to be worked on.

As for the rest, it was a strong all-round performance. Nobody stood out, but by the same token nobody played too poorly. We do clearly lack real quality in the wide positions. Stevens worked hard and showed some nice touches to be fair to him. Macklin displayed his outstanding pace, but little end product.

All in all, it bodes well. You can only see so much from a friendly against opposition that may or may not 'want it', but it's restored a little faith. The gameplan looks simple but effective, a proper left-winger and maybe another striker, and it looks like a competetive set-up.

[tommygull]

Nice summary! My favorite sentence is: "A lot of our attacks started from Bobby playing the ball short to Oastler."
Not going to miss the Bevan-Buckle theory that to get every player standign on the left hand touch line whilst the keeper blasts it off the pitch!!!

[luketufc]

Anyone else notice that bobby seemed to be as comfortable kicking with his left as he was with his right?
Nice to have, seeing we are used to a keeper who can't kick with either!

[bc-gull]

Anyone else notice that bobby seemed to be as comfortable kicking with his left as he was with his right?

Yeh I did, erm... he is right footed isn't he though? He is very confident on the ball... unlike Mr.Bevan

[luketufc]

Yeh I did, erm... he is right footed isn't he though? He is very confident on the ball... unlike Mr.Bevan

yeah i think he is right footed, he took his goal kicks with this foot
though a couple times, after a pass back, he wouldnt bother switching onto his right when he had plenty of time to do so

[Kernowgull]

Sounds like a good performance, very encouraging and sounds like the youngsters can step up a bit this season, which adds strength. I cannot fathom the disgruntled opinions of some. I understand Rice isn't an exciting signing, but I'm fairly sure it wasn't supposed to be an exciting signing. Even my father, who is the ultimate pessimist, is happy with the signings so far. I only saw Mcphee play for us once as was (thank the lord) overseas that terrible season, and he was brilliant away at Macc in one of our annual 3-3 draws there!!

I think players with ability and points to prove will leave us with a hungry side.

I also thought 1500 was a decent enough crowd for a PSF.

[Father Jack]

You may not be able to infer too much from an early PSF but I thought it was quite encouraging. Bobbby O probably distributed the ball better in 45 minutes than Bevs did in any half a dozen matches last season. He's a big unit who reminds me of Kev D for some reason Ricey played well enough and looks a lot more confident than before. He will do fine for us.
Like the look of Saah who positions and reads the game well. Oastler looked good at right back and I would say the only question in the back 5 is who plays at centre back alongside Saah. Difficult to pick the centre midfield as well, as Mansell, Lathrope and O'Kane all played well. Kudi looks as though he has what it takes for centre midfield as well but probably needs a bit more seasoning. The wings are a bit more of a concern though I would be happy with Macklin on the right, he got a couple of good crosses in having run and beaten his man and tracked back well to help Leadbitter when he was under pressure. Stevens started brightly as did McPhee but I thought Yeoman looked a bit off the pace. Up front Billy looked a bit sharper than last pre season and was very impressed with Atieno(?) Plays (and looks!) similar to Zebs and looks like he will win a lot of freekicks being brought down outside the area as he looks a bugger to get the ball off. Howe looks like he needs to drop a few pounds but is also a big unit and will be hard to bump off the ball. Spear however needs a bit more weight to challenge for balls in the area.

All told, good enough for a pre season match with Exeter and Burnley to come.

[Colorado Gull]

So after the first Home pre season friendly I think we can all come away from that feeling pretty pleased. It was nice to see the lads play together. The first half was much better than the second but then again the 2nd wasn't a shocker. I think that we played well throughout the majority of the game and looked pretty strong in all parts of the game. I still think that we need a few more players (Striker, 1 or 2 Wingers.) A good attendance I thought (Home and Away) for a friendly. And not to mention a great result even though it was only a friendly.

GK: I thought Bobby was solid throughout his half, kicking was overall good and made a couple of good saves also a good decision to come out to retrieve the ball at a corner. Rice played well as well. At first I thought he would be rubbish but he sprung to life a made a good few saves. His kicking wasn't great but for he had a good performance.

RB: Oastler I thought looked really good. You could see he is a RB and you can only wonder why he wasn't played there last year. However he played well and looked promising. Leadbitter was ok didn't see any spark, just that run he had which was promising but other than that nothing amazing.

CB: Robbo looked like he did last year solid and a good player! Ellis At first looked all over the place but at times he found his ground and played pretty solid. Saah Looked good. Was in control the whole half and a great save of the line. Palmer Nothing great but you wouldn't expect anything amazing from a guy who has never played a first team match.

LB: Nico One of the best players on the field for me in the 1st half. Looked great throughout and a great corner once again for the goal. LRT wasn't really in the game but no mistakes were made so that was good.

RM: Mcphee pleasantly surprised! I thought he played great. A solid performance a completely different Mcphee and I said I would give him a chance to change my mind about him and he is going the right way after that performance. Macklin saw the same kind of player at times did some good things but again nothing special.

CM: Manse much better in midfield always preferred him in midfield and played well once again! Lathrope played ok didn't do anything bad that stood out so it was nice to see him play, I think he could do well if he gets playing time. Eunan played pretty poor nothing like last year but I am not moaning, no need to he hasn't had a great deal of playing time and when he does I'm sure he'll play like he can. Kudi Who? Never heard of him. I presume he's in the reserves or something but then again he didn't play awful!

LM: Stevens pleased with his performance looked good, hopefully he'll get better and can perform high on a weekly basis. Yeoman didn't play well but like Palmer he's a player in the reserves and not played in a first team league game so wouldn't expect anything amazing.

ST: Atieno sign him up! Played really well to score the first goal has to please Ling and not to mention the fans! Kee disappointed really looked slow and still I think to overweight. Not sure Kee should be a player that’s in the starting line up. But hopefully he has a better performance in the next few PSF. Howe reminds me a lot of Bayo. Very big but looks skilful when he gets the ball down to his feet also he got a goal so that is promising as well! Spear first time I have seen him play and I thought he done well. Looked comfortable and solid.

All in all very pleased with how we played looks good at the moment. Bring on scum on Wednesday!

Yellow Army!

(edit: I’ll leave it to Jeff and tommyg in future just thought I should put my views on here )

[Scott Brehaut]

A good result if a meaningless one. However it looks to me that we will sign Atieno who looked the pick of the players at Tiverton. He is a better player than the likes of Mcphee,Stevens and Macklin. Also good to see Howe get off the mark.

So why was this result meaningless, yet when we lost 1-0 in the second half against Tiverton it was suddenly the end of the world and we were doomed to relegation??

[RussianGull]

Glad to see the boys played well today, excited to see us play against Exeter on Wednesday but I've a quick question - is the grandstand still open for these PSFs?

[SteveDeckchair]

Good pre-season performance today.

I feel a lot better about the coming season after seeing how we knocked the ball around so well in the first half. I had to double check myself when I realised that O'Kane wasn't even on the pitch!

No concerns with any of the signings so far as they all played well enough today. Good to see some of the youth players in the flesh too. I actually thought Ed Palmer did quite well and he's certainly didn't look as out of place (ie young) as some of the others.

To top it all off, it was my three year old daughter's first ever game. She loved it!

[SteveDeckchair]

is the grandstand still open for these PSFs?

Closed to all but the press i'm afraid. The family stand had quite a few flasks of tea and cushions today!

[Tq2Yellow]

Just a friendly I know, but a good performance, some nice close passing and small triangles to play round Brizzle. Was nice to see some of the youngsters coming on. McPhee looked out on his feet at the end as did new striker. Good finish by Tiente and was good to see Ricey make a couple of saves which will do his confidence the power of good. Bobby looked a class act and was great to see the ball being passed out from the back and he didn't even look flustered following a risky backpass from Oastler. We look solid at the back but lack pace up front, if Morris is signed will be a good aquisition.

Was nice to hear no knocking of the players from the crowd and good reception to all the players making them welcome.

Perhaps the display will stop the Ling knockers - why there are any who knows!

[Fonda]

RB: Oastler I thought looked really good. You could see he is a RB and you can only wonder why he wasn't played there last year. However he played well and looked promising.

CM: Manse much better in midfield always preferred him in midfield and played well once again!

Agreed. Does make you wonder what Buckle was doing last season...

[RussianGull]

Closed to all but the press i'm afraid. The family stand had quite a few flasks of tea and cushions today!

Cheers Steve, my granddad won't sit at football so it looks like we'll be standing on the Pop (for the first time!)