crawley town v torquay united - 3/3/12

[bengull]

Torquay United have managed some very personal footballing conquests this season, exacting sweet revenge on a number of rivals so far. In August we beat Buckle's 'Bristol Allstars' on their own patch and during the winter we overcame fierce Devon rivals Plymouth Argyle twice in a season for the first time in god knows how long. More recently we beat then top of the table Westcountry rivals Cheltenham at their place, not forgetting Martin Ling getting one over his former employers Swindon Town on Boxing Day. However, a win at Crawley today might just be the greatest grudge settled this term.

For those uninitiated, Torquay United and Crawley Town don't like each other, more specifically Torquay United does not like Crawley management duo Steve Evans and Paul Raynor, who, at various times in the past twenty years have always managed to get one over Torquay time and time again and revel in the enjoyment of doing so, most recently in the FA Cup last season. On that day Crawley beat Torquay 1-0 on an occasion that left a bitter taste in the mouth's of every Torquay fan. time wasting, intimidation and play acting were the order of that day when Crawley earned their victory through bullying tactics and playing dirty. That the controversial management team have a very infamous past {wikipedia it) just adds to the hatred that 'the Gulls' have for the club that three seasons ago were little more than a semi-professional non league non-entity.

Having finally received a suspension for the crime he most definitely did commit against Gillingham, Brian Saah will have to sit this game out. This means a debut for on loan Reading defender Angus Macdonald, not only making his Torquay debut, but his league debut too, a tough test indeed. In the week Martin Ling strengthend his fire power by adding Ryan Jarvis to his squad on loan from Walsall. Jarvis worked with Ling at Leyton Orient so the manager may know how to get the best out of the player who has a Premiership goal under his belt : for Norwich against Liverpool, but has falled by the way side since.

And so to my first visit to a very underwhelming Broadfield Road stadium in West Sussex. 471 Torquay fans turned up to see this one, and it was disappointing to see that they were herded into a corner which was not appropriate to hold them all. With Yellow boxes occupied, and the walkways lined with away fans it took the gormless stewards until 2 minutes after kick off to decide to open another section of the away allocation. Cue a lot of restless Torquay fans waiting to move whilst the game was going on. Whether this was a deliberate ploy to get under the skin of Torquay fans is debatable but it certainly signified a very amateur approach to hosting a Football league fixture: and a big game at that between two playoff/promotion rivals.

Whilst this insubordination was going on, Crawley had their best chance of the game, Akinde punished some early slack Torquay defending by flicking onto the unmarked Clark whose shot was somewhat luckily turned behind by Olejnik, it was a real warning for the men in Black who thankfully learnt from this mistake and defended as a solid unit throughout the game. Angus Macdonald on league debut looked an assured presence at the back, slotting in nicely along side Mark Ellis who dominated the aerial threat. Chances were few and far between in a cagey first half where Torquay stifled and fustrated their opponents and looked to hit 'The Red Devils' on the break. Crawley looked clueless in the final third, simply lumping it into the grateful arms of Bobby Olejnik on many occasions, they look like a team devoid of serious firepower since the departures of Tubbs and Barnett.

Torquay looked good in possession without really creating anything clearcut, Rene Howe again getting very little protection from a referee who on the whole was very poor for both teams. The only sour point for Torquay though was the Ankle Injury picked up by Danny Stevens, the exciting winger fell awkwardly on a pitch which was barely fit for purpose, he was replaced by debutant Ryan Jarvis who was deployed on the right wing, Ian Morris switching to the left: Torquay keen to continue with their tried and tested 4-5-1 formation. At half time, talk on the terraces echoed of a job well done so far, and with a lingering hope we had it within us to nick a winner. The condition of the pitch was a serious concern however, cutting up so badly that it resembled a farmer's field with a mole problem more than a league football pitch.

Into the second half and Torquay played with a bit more purpose. The trio of Lathrope, O'Kane and the inspirational Lee Mansell were slowly winning the midfield battle, and O'Kane in particular was starting to dictate the play. A lot of Torquay's good attacking work was coming down the left wing, and it was a shame to see a couple of dangerous Ian Morris crosses go in uncontested. At the other end Crawley too weren't creating much of note: guilty of overplaying and making the wrong choice in the final third on a number of instances, in fact it was Joe Oastler who came closest to breaking the deadlock, but at the wrong end. From a dangerous cross from the right,the combative right-back saw the ball bounce off his leg and travel towards goal, Bobby Olejnik could only look on as it was hooked off the line in the nick of time by the covering defender, it was as close as either team came to breaking the deadlock in what was becoming a tense, hard- fought affair.

However, it was the away team who found the breakthrough, and what a beautiful moment it was too. Some excellent forward play in the corner from Rene Howe led to the ball fortuitously finding its way to O'Kane on the edge of the box, the young Irishman's half volley was sweetly struck, first time, on the run and nestled past the keeper at the near post. It was the defining moment of quality in a game crying out for a moment of divine intervention, a moment which ignited euphoric scenes from the continually loud and supportive Yellow Army. Timed at 79 minutes, it meant that Torquay had 15 minutes to hold on. On so many times this season, and against so many good teams, Torquay have showed they have the reserves to hold out, and today was a classic example.

Without being a rearguard action in the mould of Cheltenham, Torquay looked calm in possession going forward, playing patiently before trying to find a way to hold it in the corner. Ironically one such move found Rowe Turner with a chance to lob the on-rushing keeper, unfortunately his cleverly lofted shot didn't have the sufficient direction to take it into the net. Crawley threw everything, including the goalkeeper, at Torquay in the four minutes of injury time, but the back four, like so many times this season, held firm to protect our lead, and praise must go to Shaun Taylor for this. After four agonising minutes of injury time the referee blew his whistle to signal the beginning of some pretty boisterous celebrations from the Torquay contingent.

The Gulls have waited patiently to put one over their most hated of enemies, and to do it as play-off rivals at their own ground made it all the sweeter. The joy was clear to see, Lee Mansell showed his now customary war face as the Jubilant Yellow broke into one triumphant song after another. It says a lot about this group of players, and their management staff that they bounced back from two very lacklustre defeats against Bradford and Gillingham with a performance which demanded such concentration, discipline and ability to block out all the external factors that concern a match against Crawley. We have now beaten Swindon, Cheltenham, Crawley and Shrewsbury in recent weeks, anyone who does not think we are automatic promotion candidates is a fool. We have every chance.

Angus Macdonald and Ryan Jarvis looked to have both settled into the squad nicely, and with Nathan Craig gaining his first appearance on the bench there looks to be a bit more depth to the squad than we had prior realised, Martin Ling has bided his time to assemble the men he can trust to give the top 3 a really good go. With so many games coming up in a short space of time it is impossible to predict what will happen, however it is unlikely we will fail due to lack of effort. Torquay United fans can be proud to support a brave team of passionate, skillful players with the belief that they can win a fixture by adapting to any situation football can throw at them.

With 13 games to go there is still a lot of points to play for, a lot of tough games to play, a lot of permutations that could occur. This result should given the entire club the belief that we can compete for the top three if we play at our maximum. Wouldn't it be all the more sweeter if we achieved it at the expense of moneybags Crawley Town, whose manager, for the record, was his usual animated, moaning, remonstrating self on the touchline throughout the match. To answer my hypothetical question at the start though, this was the sweetest victory of the season: that in itself a tough conclusion to reach.

[usagullmichigan]

Well done Gulls. Today was a bad day. I was looking forward to listening to the game. woke up at 4.30 this morning to no power and discovered we got about 3 foot of snow in 12 hours, also as a bonus no heat. Just got power back to see we beat those L2 mafia barstewards. Thank you Torquay.

[Dutchgull]

Brillant BenGull.Superbly written.

[Heritage gull]

Congratulations to the lads. BRILLIANT result! But poor l'll Danny. hope his injury is not as serious as it sounds. Just when he was hitting his straps, he seems to be cut down. BIG hug for him, If someone at TQ1 could substitute for me?...maybe best to come from one of the lady-TUFC supporters. (£)
PS I am a lady-TUFC supporter, just so that we have that clear. =D

[bixieupnorth]

? ? ?

Explain.

i kepy my 100% record in thread starting!!

[hector]

Congratulations. Excellent result and to beat that odious managerial pairing is sweet. I don't really have anything against Crawley as a club or their fans, more that I cannot abide Evans and raynor. They are scum

[AustrianAndyGull]

A delightful report Jeff, but a shame to read that you weren't impressed with Jarvis. He sounded as though he got involved well all time he was on, his name was mentioned lots.
As for the performances of the others, based purely on the radio commo (which I'm aware counts for feck all, but I'll say it anyway), it sounds as though Ellis and McDonald were unbeatable at the back. I lost count of the number of times I heard "Headed away well by Mark Ellis" come out of the wireless, it must have been 30 at least.

The disappointment was Rene Howe. I shall leave Morris out of it because 'performance' is subjective. However, what is not subjective is shots on:shots off target ratio and I'm afraid, Mr Howe, yours today of 0:300 is not good enough. Did he hit the target at all today?

Anyway, that aside, we have won a game which we all had down as a home banker and that is a bonus. Now on to a series of easier looking games before we have to play Swindon at their place. Have a look at our remaining fixtures and tell me we can't win auto promotion from this division this year.

Matt.

Not me mate! Sounds like we even managed to keep possession and hit them on the break Matt?

[AlexGulls]

http://www.crawleytownfc.com/page/Lates ... 09,00.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Southampton Gull]

Alex, did you have to? I despise that bloke.

[AlexGulls]

Alex, did you have to? I despise that bloke.

As do I. Just sharing his view on the game as it didnt appear to be anywhere else.

[AustrianAndyGull]

The good thing about yesterdays win other than the three points is that twice now we have broken a bad result/s quickly and not gone on a prolonged bad run. We had the bad run first time around when not even mystic meg could see us bagging a win and we ended that with a 4-0 win over Wombles to go on our first amazing run. Forgetting about the defeat at Sheff Utd in which we expected and in which we played well anyway, the amazing run ended with defeat at Accy just before Christmas. Given our poor record there many of us expected that too, but we got back on another cracking run through the festive period and well into february where unexpeceted defeat at home to Bradford was followed by a poor display at Gillingham. I was seriously getting concerned that a loss at Crawley would herald another 'official' poor run of form just when we didn't need it.

You have to give Martin and the lads tremendous credit for keeping on knocking out results like the one yesterday especially on the back of a few poor displays. It shows immense character in the squad and it shows the other top 5 that we can beat anybody on our day. Martin has got in some reinforcements and things are looking so good at the moment.

So proud of them this weekend, including the new boys, they all were amazing and put one over on fatty Tinky Winky for us!! COYY!!

[Jeff]

I was thinking along the same sort of lines Andy. In the back of my mind was this reasoning that we were "just" a team in good form, riding the crest of a wave and delivering the results. The Gillingham game gave me the impression that having come off that run we were in reality nothing more than an average side who had hit a purple patch, and were reverting to type.

Yesterday has laid some of those thoughts to rest, and showed that we are a competitive, strong and well organised side with not insignificant skill. We were out of form and missing 2 key players after 20mins, but it didn't show. We really are one of the top sides and are in place on merit.

And in line with my promise, I guess I'll be seeing you at the Don Valley then Andy?

[cambgull]

http://www.crawleytownfc.com/page/Lates ... 09,00.html

I hate to say it, but isn't it nice to look at a website which isn't covered in advertising? It actually looks quite decent.

[usagullmichigan]

I hate to say it, but isn't it nice to look at a website which isn't covered in advertising? It actually looks quite decent.

Are you blind? Don't you see the big pork pie advert?

[cambgull]

Are you blind? Don't you see the big pork pie advert?

My vote for quote of the month!

Fortunately, I've managed to subconciously block out any recognition of fatty Evans, I didn't even notice his portly figure there!