Rotherham United v Torquay United - 15/9/12

[lucy6lucy]

A positive is that we don't have to go to the two main favourites again this year. Rotherham and Fleetwood. Two of the toughest games to have are done by mid-September. Throw in a game against last years PO Finalists, a side relegated last year, a trip to Vale which is tough, and a local derby. Wimbledon will be tough aswell but if we are harbouring ambitions of top 7 again, we should be looking at 3 points. I'm not concerned by the start as I'd rather get these games done out of the way early on.

As for todays 'performance', can't have been worse than AFCW away last April? Surely?

Agree entirely. Midson got sent off today aswell, so roll on Tuesday.

[DonnyGull]

Utterly painful to watch today, nothing more to be said!!!!!!!

[Burnhamgull]

Just got home, very poor performance not helped by a 4.5 hour drive up this morning. Got into the ground at 3pm but wish I hadn't :-(

In summary:-

Bodin - Non existant for another game
NIcholson - poor deliveries from deadball situations and open play
Defensively very shaky
Howe - Lost on his own up front at times
Thompson - No impact as a sub on a nice wide pitch, poor first couple of touches and never recovered
Morris & Oastler did ok

Nice ground in a dive of a town

[stefano]

Sorry Stef, you know I love you like a brother, but the performance today negates any possible positive spin we might wish to put on the situation. We were so bad, that I, for the first time in 8 years (in which time I've barely missed a game of any sort) refused to even stand and watch the players off the pitch at full time.

Matt.

Although Matt this is my 50th season of supporting the club and if I couldn't pick myself up, dust myself down, and start all over again then I could not possibly have remained a Torquay United supporter for that long!

[ferrarilover]

Oh Nick, how wrong you are. Today make Wimbledon away last year look like Wimbledon at home last year. We were absolutely terrible.

Matt.

[SuperNickyWroe]

Utterly painful to watch today, nothing more to be said!!!!!!!

oh dear.

sounds like i missed a good one...... 8/
roll on chesterfield! =D

[AustrianAndyGull]

i,ll write more tomorrow as i,ve got no time but today was a f*cking embarrassment and i don,t care who disagrees with me. Fleetwood away, battered out of sight, had one chance that morris missed and thats it. Somehow poxed a draw. Vale away, battered out of sight, had one chance that morris scored and poxed a point. Rotherham away, battered out of sight, had one bodin half chance missed and lost. Is there a pattern emerging here? I think there is and its called shut up shop and hope for the best. If these are lingys tactics away this season then i really need to ask myself if its worth going. We don,t even go out with the intention of winning, we create nothing, barely getting out of our own half and as for bodin. What has happened to him. Atrocious again. Today was unacceptable and so boring, sterile, predictable and inaffective and i was genuinely embarrassed and shocked today. We,re going backwards. Goodnight!

[Scott Brehaut]

Is there a pattern emerging here?

Yes!! Stop going to **** away games!! Bloody jinx!!

[bengull]

I normally try and remain as positive as possible with my reviews, trying my hardest not to slander too harshly even after the most abysmal of defeats and in the process try and glean some silver linings.

I can't do that today. We were utterly clueless, and devoid of any creativity. Only Oastler comes away from that match with a modicum of respect and Lingy has got some serious hard work to do before Tuesday where I hope I will not be wasting a whole day of my life (and hefty chunk of my hard earned) twice in 4 days.

I don't care what it takes, dropping our beloved 4-5-1, or dropping those 'undroppables' who probably take their places for granted but some players need a rocket up their rectums and we need to go to one of the poorer teams in the division on Tuesday night and get 3 points before this season really starts to look a massive concern.

It's inconceivable how a squad who looked like running up a rugby score against Rochdale 3 weeks ago could look so toothless and moribund today, sadly we did and the worst part is that Rotherham were inept too, only slightly less inept than us.

Really was just a horrible, horrible performance, and hopefully like Bradford, Shrewsbury, Southend last season, it causes the manager to make some drastic changes. If the answers are still in the building then use them, if not then get some back up in. Fans travel a long way (just spent 10 hours on the coach) and sadly on occasions like today they go home feeling shortchanged and wondering whether next week is worth it.

[bixieupnorth]

agree with all the comments today, i had the benefit of four pints of yorkshire bitter on board and it still didnt look pretty! pringle deservedly motm and oastler our best player

save for the last ten mins it was awful, they were a lot worse than i expected them to be and we just never turned up. a dssappointing crowd, given the huge queues
outside before ko, 7500, 300 gulls
sorry i need my bed!

[bc-gull]

Just seen the highlights on the football league show


that was embarrassing...

[Colorado Gull]

I don't think I can bare writing a whole report on that rubbish that took placed yesterday afternoon. We were simply, abysmal! The team was put out there yesterday, for a draw. We were so defensive, never looked like scoring when going forward (which was not many times) and don't think we had a shot on target?! The defence was terrible, Downes and Nicholson having an absolute mare! Poke didn't have a great game either. Rene Howe was constantly offside, Bodin was poor, so was Danny. The only two good players on the pitch for us, was Oastler and Morris.

That's probably the most negative post I've ever posted on here, so I apologise for that, but I'm afraid that was the reality of yesterday.

[AustrianAndyGull]

An afternoon which begun with so much promise in the blistering South Yorkshire sunshine soon turned into another predictable, pedestrian and utterly lethargic away performance by Martin Ling's side. Our first visit to the New York Stadium was an embarrassment for all connected with the club. A quick word on the stadium, i was very impressed with it. It is miles better than Chesterfield's ground and the stands were extremely steep giving a great view all round and the pies were superb ( i say pies, i only had the one, i left the rest for when Steve Evans comes back! ). I parked in a street i know near the old Millmoor ground and walked down.

There isn't really much point in doing a match report because there was only one team playing and wanting to win, we did nothing.

Poke: 7 Don't quite know what happened with the mix up for the goal but he again made some assured saves and i think he's a solid keeper.
Nico: 1 Distribution was poor all game and got into some promising positions only to deliver some shockingly bad crosses. Got skinned time and again by their winger.
Saah: 4 Solid enough but looked leggy
Downes: 2 Looked like bambi on ice for half the game swinging at clearances, mis hitting them and should have been sent off for three dubious challenges, one of which he was booked for. Shocking.
Oastler: 8 Always available, worked tirelessly, getting in blocks and challenges and was the only one who could be arsed to get forward. Made some great runs from inside his own half which generally culminated in a tepid shot. Maybe if some of his team mates offered to help him out then we might have had more joy.
Craig: 6 Worked hard and looked for opportunities to pass but nobody was available.
Mansell: 4 Can't even really say he worked hard. Nowhere near the attacking threat he was last season. He'd be lucky to hit 3 or 4 the way we play.
Bodin: 1 I though he was supposd to be good. He's like a more ineffective Danny Stevens. Got trickery but does nothing with it. Loses the ball, GOES NOWHERE. No running at defenders, no shooting on site. ZERO. ZILCH. Same at Vale. Totally bereft of any attacking threat. We may as well have had 10 men.
Stevens: 3 Started well, a few good runs but fizzled out rapidly.
Morris: 6 Worked hard, tried to encourage the others, let down by his team mates.
Howe: 1 Carthorse today. Strutted around and offered nothing.

Thompson (sub) 4: Made some good runs to the byeline but we had nobody in the box on all occasions when the cross came in. Shockingly bad at reading the bounce and direction of the ball. Hopefully that will improve with experience.

Jarvis (sub) 1: The point was? Not having a go at Jarvo as he hadn't a hope in hell of creating anything just by the way we played. More a dig at Ling for bringing him on thinking he could ever make a difference.

Ling: 2 Never usually rate the manager but today he was sat down in the dugout for the duration. No animation, no encouraging and no communication. His tactics were so predictable yet again and the only saving grace is that we haven't yet been humiliated in our scorelines this season. If we continue to play like this then it's around the corner.

Like Ben and a few others say, we are paying money to watch this and there is a time and a place for a backs to the wall, defensive approach to games but to go out EVERY BLOODY GAME and do it as a tactic is unacceptable. We have to start going out to try and win games becasue at the moment if we conced first than we're f*cked because we don't create more than 2 chances in a game in order for us to turn it around. There is no plan B and because of that we will not make it above mid table this season. We will be more than safe because we can grind out draws by playing this system and will accumulate points but we'll not get nowhere near enough wins to keep tabs with the leading pack.

Also a few comments that i heard from home fans leaving the stadium, one commented on how poor we were and that they could have had five or six, another commented on how bad we were and that we only had one chance. Sadly i had to agree with them.

I have flu and felt like sh*t yesterday but at least those beer bottles Ben brought me made the trip worthwhile! Cheers Ben! We created a good atmosphere yesterday. Hopefully we can stuff the spireites in two weeks.

[royalgull]

But our squad is still definitely better than last year?

Simple fact remains, last year if plan A didn't work we had no plan B and we didn't score enough. We are now worse going forward than we were last year and still have no plan B. Midtable season with this squad would be an excellent achievement still think that

[AustrianAndyGull]

I agree with you Royal in the sense that a mid table finish with our current squad would be an achievement; however, i strongly feel that a more adventurous approach to our football would also ensure that plus give us fans a little more in the way of entertainment for our money. For example we have 2 points from 3 away games, all dull as dishwater. If we had gone out there with an attacking mindset we might have won one and lost two but we'd be a point better off.