Torquay United Fans Forum

bengull wrote:Yesterday for me was shrouded in extenuating circumstances. At no point for the rest of the season will we start with 3 youngsters with one professional appearance between them, not to mention the least experienced 7 man bench in the history of TUFC. To that extent yesterday's point should be celebrated and not sniffed at. In normal circumstances you could replace the pedestian Bodin and Thompson with Macklin and Stevens and their fresh legs and fresh minds would be far more fruitful than Leadbitter or Cruise who were the only viable options open to the manager at the time.

A series of unfortunate events have left us with Lathrope and Macklin crocked only 10 days ago, Easton pull out on the day of the match and Downes foolishly ruled himself out of yesterday's game too. This would test the limits of any lower league squad. Lingy (as he did for all last season) remained loyal to those he had 'in the building' and we came away with a very creditable point in the face of a complete onslaught for the entire second half. That experience will be vital to the youngsters we were forced to put our trust in.

There is no way we should expect Vale to roll over and die for us just because our manager reckons we will be near the top of the league all year. They were completely ordinary in the first half and Adams obviously read them the riot act at half time and they came out to give their fans something to shout about.They were excellent in the second half at everything but their finishing. I defy many teams to withstand the bombardment that they threw at us, it was a performance full of character.

2 points from 2 very loseable away games represents good value to me. Infact the game i am most fustrated about is Cheltenham where we played expansively, very expansively infact, but squandered too many chances to finish the game off. I don't think we would be having this conversation if we had beat CTFC 4-1 like we should have done, and had 8 points to our credit instead of 6. As our car loving friend said, 'win your home games, don't lose your away games', well we haven't lost an away game yet. Also we are unbeaten.

There is a very fine balance between playing expansively and trying to win the match, and making sure you do not lose that same match . Indeed the blueprint for away games should be making sure you aren't losing after 70 minutes, and then see if you can go on and win in the last 20. With the options available to us on the day it was always going to be a tough ask against Vale, but put back into the squad the 5 we are currently missing and we may have had a better chance.

I have no problem with the cautious approach away from home, I would much prefer to travel home with a well earned point than going home with nothing because we tried to outscore the opponents. A team who is well drilled, disciplined and organised will gain more points over the season than a team that plays with reckless abandon. We are extremely close to being a very good League two side, the players who came in yesterday showed me they are more than handy replacements for the first team players we are missing. But not all 5 in the team at the same time.

Once we get all our missing bodies back and get into our stride it will all come together like it did late October last year. I am adamant Lingy's comments referenced in the OP will ring true. We are looking a lot better and stronger than we did at this stage last season.

numpte wrote:Criticism for the sake of it I say to some of the posts on here. Who cares what if our formation isn't expansive away from home. We've just had two tricky away games and come away unbeaten, the latter with 3 kids playing.
Our formation is set up for Howe to be up front on his own. Jarvis isn't that type of player, he works better from what Ive seen in a 4-4-2 as we saw at Oxford and Hereford last season and i think some comments are unwarranted. I agree with above, we're lucky to have Howe and some commenting on his temperament are too young , dont remember or didnt support then. Davie Caldwell was the best Centre Forward I've ever seen in a Gulls shirt and you were worrying everytime he stepped on the pitch if he was going to nut someone but boy was he exciting to watch. Howe is an angel.

More of the same at the away days I'm planning at Rotheram, Wycombe and Brissol please.

brucie wrote:But really strength in depth - there isn't any. Yes its fantastic to see the youngsters doing well but really we are a striker and a centre half short . If Howe gets injured or sent off (which seems imminent the way he is going) then we basically have nothing up front. Jarvis is looking less of an option than Atieno at the moment. He looks less likely to find the net as well.
Its a similar situation at centre half. Our first choice replacement is Cruise and basically he looks worse than useless.
Ling needs to shore this up with a loanee or two and quick.