Torquay United v FC Halifax Town Sat 20 Feb KO 17.20

[kevgull]

Early season our ‘never say die attitude’ enabled us to score very late goals, putting us top of the league. Due to week on week injuries and subsequent current form, puts us in a possible play off place.

[dawlishmatt]

So when did Gary Johnson leave the club and when was Gary Owers re-appointed ? I'm guessing it was after the boxing day massacre of Yeovil. Since then we struggled to beat a poor Weymouth side 4-3, lost away at bottom 6 side Yeovil, drew 0-0 against Notts County and Sutton United, beaten a very poor Barnet side, lost at home to Altrincham, drew 1-1 with a poor Wealdstone team, and lost today against a freefalling side in FC Halifax. That's just 11 goals scored in the last 8 league games and 11 goals conceded. In my opinion we need to go for the s*** or bust option. We desperately need 2 quality strikers now. So come on Peter Johnson, start earning your salary and use your contacts and get us the players we need as time is fast running out.

[dawlishmatt]

SBP. Last season i was very critical of Gary Johnson because we went from play off candidates to almost being sucked into a relegation battle. I said that the players that Johnson brought in as replacements for our horrendous injury crisis was poor. Southampton Gull brought up a very important point at the time, he said that perhaps Uncle Clarke would not provide the finance to allow the manager to bring in better players to sustain our play off push. Again this season we have another injury crisis and perhaps Mr Osbourne is not prepared to provide the funds needed to keep our promotion dreams alive.

[Dazza]

Or perhaps nobody is prepared to move any distance away from the 'bubble' of their family and live in one room for weeks on end in a pandemic. I think both Johnson and the club are completely screwed at the moment.

[SouthHams]

We are having a bad trot but the criticism here is a bit over the top.
Frustrating yes, but every team goes through these form slumps. Hopefully we will come out of it soon.
Maintain the faith!!

[Gloomy Gull]

Perhaps it’s time to give Street a proper run of games, maybe with Waters ?

[Bert]

Certainly time to offload Umerah,what a poor signing

[SBP]

There are so many aspects of our game that are way off at present. Defensively we are poor. Of course this is not helped with the amount of injuries we ve had. It was a gamble signing Gary Warren and Dean Moxey. There is no question that Moxey is quality however suspensions and injuries will prevent Warren and Moxey starting the majority of games. The goalkeeper situation is well documented with both keepers for different reasons not being good enough. Mind you i have some sympathy for them as especially last seasons roatation that GJ did certainly didnt give them much confidence. That is not the best approach to get the best out of any player let alone a GK who relies on confidence.
Ou midfield has lost its fluency, we cant put passes together or build through the pitch. So we appear to be going long and aimless.
Like another poster mentioned Danny Wright will make zero difference playing like this. I feel for Umerah, he s lacking in confidence, he s still young and its a tough role being asked of him wether hes up to the task or not. From what i have seen of Street what is he going to do?? Score a goal a game?? I cant see it.
I question the treatment of our younger players by Johnson as well. Maybe instead of getting the players in today for extra training he can spend the day looking at some of his decisions.

[Willowgull]

It would be fantastic if our regular set oiece takers CLE Andrews Whitfield could actually put a decent ball in and beat the first man they have been extremely poor over the last few games and it's not acceptable for a full time club

I agree that our set pieces are shocking. CLE was chipping the ball into the box. There was nothing to attack. Surely we have someone that can do better.

[SuperNickyWroe]

I agree that our set pieces are shocking. CLE was chipping the ball into the box. There was nothing to attack. Surely we have someone that can do better.

I think anyone could have re those yesterday.
They didn't learn after they gave the first goal away from that shocking ball in.

[PL21gull]

I agree with the above comment about set-pieces, however, it is also our general play letting us down - even when we got into good positions for whipping a ball into the danger area all we did was float hopeful high balls - on that surface, in that wind, with no great header of a ball. That is just tactically poor. After all, none of the 5 goals was scored in the air.
We were run ragged in midfield, and as posted earlier, CLE was wasted out on the right (just as he was at centre forward v. Altrincham) - that is a selection matter. I can understand wanting to have AH on the pitch for as long as possible as the most experienced player available, but when his legs had gone and we needed to tighten up in midfield and so have a grip on the game, we failed to substitute him for younger legs and to move CLE into midfield. BW was also understandably looking tired so, again, we should have made smarter use of our remaining substitute.

[Gloomy Gull]

From what i have seen of Street what is he going to do?? Score a goal a game?? I cant see it.

Difficult to properly judge really, he hasn't had the opportunity to "bed in" with the first team since his arrival at the end of Jan. With the exception of Barnet where he started the game (subbed after 73 mins) he has only been used as a sub with an average 35 minutes on the pitch over those 5 other games to date.

Crystal Palace must think he has potential ? Maybe GJ doesn't see it in his style of training?

[SBP]

I agree Gloomy however we have Olaf a home grown player aleady here. Does GJ not think Olaf can make a positive impact?? I dont think we have the time to bed a new young player in at this crucial time of the season. So i agree its difficult judge Street. I just dont understand why we have got him and he is played above Olaf.
Why isnt Louie Slough given an opportunity?? We have had issues at left back when Moxey is injured or suspended. Now Cameron looks like he has an issue give the lad a chance he cant do no worse than Jake Andrews was yesterday.

[desperado]

Can't say I feel any better today , the most gutting result of the season.
Confidence and belief so massive in any sport and ours seems to have gone down the plug hole. There's got to be something going on with all these hamstring injuries.Training too intensively on artificial pitches then playing on grass , I don't know there's just too many for there not to be a reason.
Thought Koszela was our best player second half on the right v Wealdstone and may have been given a chance and left CLE in his favoured position .

[brucie]

To be honest I would have put Koszela on in preference to Street, who unfortunately is nowhere near this level.

Presumably the person suggesting that we give Street a run of games has taken leave of his senses. A one way ticket back to Palace would be more productive.