Torquay United Fans Forum

lucy6lucy wrote: ↑12 Aug 2018, 20:15 Seriously, can anyone clarify this, where is Merse when you need him.

Does it matter? Can't we beat them regardless... zero relevance

CP Gull wrote: ↑01 Aug 2018, 09:25 No, wont be him ... if it was going to be him, he would have been appointed by now. Taylor has a job with the Academy and is probably more suited to that, in my opinion.

Owers did mention to me that he has someone in mind, but these things take time, and will almost certainly mean someone having to uproot from another part of the country. Highly unlikely to be a player/coach though .... he did say that if it had happened (Kuhl moving on) at the end of last season, then that would probably have been the route he would have gone down, but feels its too late now.

=D

6667GULL wrote: ↑12 Aug 2018, 13:25 Take the captaincy away from Williams as he certainly isn't a captain.
On the showings so far give it to Cameron.

Substance? Don't get this post at all.... Why take it from Brett? Because he hasn't scored 3 every game? Because he is 'lazy' - apparently!

Yep, give it to Cameron, how old is he?

forevertufc wrote: ↑12 Aug 2018, 13:17 Just to pick up on a few points. Personally have no problems with McDonald the goalkeeper, other than his first half distribution, was far to slow, the wing back system we play in my opinion is built around counter attacking, so the ball has to come out from the keeper quickly to allow the team to play out from the back, anyone who saw Bass in pre-season would have seen a world of difference in the speed of distribution between the two keepers.

First half he held onto the ball despite both wing backs available, and the thing more than a few of our players need to learn and quickly is, players at this will not give you time or space to play with the ball, so time and time again McDonald was forced to kick it long rendering our own system pretty much ineffective, thankfully as pointed out he was getting the ball out a lot quicker after the break, and difference in our teams performance was night and day.

Don't see the point in comparing any two players to be honest, Hall is Hall, Hargreaves is Hargreaves, but often with all of us fans it's easy to miss what a player does do for the team, I don't think Hall was poor, seems to tad slow however, but it did strike me yesterday, as soon as Hall was dropped back into defence, how the pendulum swung back into East Thurrock's favour, and they almost straight away got more joy in the middle of the park, spoke volumes to me, as to Hall's contribution in the middle.


Brett Williams, this discussion will come up all through out the season, and again for me it's about what type of player he is, and what type of player the manager wants, if your main priority is to have players that run and run, then Williams isn't your man, we know he can score goals for fun, but also needs a certain type of service, like Sill's for instance, did Williams get that service yesterday, not so sure, but if opposition managers are identifying him as the main goal threat, then maybe his presence on the park will be the very thing that creates opportunities for Keating and others.

This post makes total sense, Hall is great for this team - try reading between the lines

MacDonald, poor bloke, wouldn't matter if he went all season without conceding, people would still moan.

Brett is Brett, marmite... I am a big fan!

Great post - forever....

gullintwoplaces wrote: ↑08 Aug 2018, 13:23 I agree that Williams was poor in the first half, as were most of the Gulls players (their confidence looked shot to bits, thankfully returning after the first ten minutes of the second half). However, Wiliams’s performance & effort improved dramatically in the second half when Keating came on to partner him, they seem to have an understanding which is completely absent from the Williams/Reid partnership. I thought Williams played well during the last half hour, full of running and effort, a different player from the first half. Reid made a couple of decent moves, one to set up Williams early in the game and one good flick on to Davis, other than that I’m afraid he was poor and looked lost. I feel he has ability, but shows it far too rarely.

The other change, Nabi for Regis, brought the best out of Davis in the second half. Davis just couldn’t get past the Bath right wing back (an excellent player) in the first half, but in the second, with Nabi’s support, Davis improved immensely.

Overall, the two substitutions worked very well. I can’t see how Owers can keep starting with Reid though, this has failed too many times. It was lovely to win after being second best for the majority of the game. Well done to the players for not giving up, the relief on their faces when Davis scored was a joy to see.

brucie wrote: ↑08 Aug 2018, 13:23 Keating was very good when he came on last night.

Not sure about VERY but he definitely linked better with Williams at times... hopefully Wright will be the answer!

Are you going next Saturday?

brucie wrote: ↑08 Aug 2018, 11:35 Good report - apart from the slagging off of Reid. Giving Williams double the mark that Reid got is just plain daft because Williams was actually worse if anything in the first half.

Missed the chance (which incidentally was set up by Reid) and at once stage threw himself on the floor trying to buy a free kick.

Fair point brucie,

For - Williams - 6/10 - Maybe a 6 is a little generous because I thought Brett was utter crap... I like Brett and he should get goals,needs a strike partner, he got better with Keating on the pitch.

For - Reid - 3/10 - May aswell have had 10 players on the pitch

- He was utter crap, at least I got this bit right! I think my higher rating is because deep in my mind I remember Brett doing great things, whereas Reid I predominantly have terrible memories. I confess, in hindsight perhaps Brett should be more of a 4/5.

I also don't think Brett is the right man to captain the team, but I doubt Owers will listen to me

I have had some time to recover from witnessing a win at Plainmoor and another clean sheet.

It has been a while since TUFC have kept 2 clean sheets in a row!

There are already lots of great reports and reviews on the match, also some varying views (as you would expect).

Match Overview

The game started on even terms with both teams making errors and Bath certainly looking a little uneasy in defense. It was clear from an early stage that the combination of Williams and Reid 'up top' just doesn't work and I will stick by my views that Reid just isn't good enough nor has the right attitude to keep his place in the team.

A few early errors from Bath went unpunished by a lackluster Brett and his boys, then it was the turn of Bath to test Macdonald (who had another steady night in goal), Macdonald stood firm and made a nice save leading to a Bath corner. I think it is fair to say the first half ended with lots of moans and groans, neither side happy, although both teams still had their goal in tact.

The second half was completely different. Gary Owers made two much needed substitutions. replacing an ineffective Regis with Nabi and a totally useless Reid with Keating. It took 10 minutes before Torquay started to click, in that time Dickson had to make a superb last ditch two footed challenge to prevent a shot on goal and Bath were a little unlucky not to go one up after a devilish cross beat MacDonald and struck the crossbar. It took yet another HUGE last ditch tackle, this time from Wynter, to prevent another one-on-one on goal... Torquay were certainly riding their luck but were also finding a foothold in the attacking third of the pitch.

A series of corners to Torquay finally led to the first real opportunity, I cant be sure who, it looked like Keating who helped Bath out by blocking a powerful header from Niate that would have given the goals a one nil lead. Then two corners later Sokolik looked like he was being tugged at the back post and his outstretched leg just guided the ball wide - No PENALTY.

Finally the Gulls got the breakthrough, Williams controlled the ball and had the chance to play in Wynter down the right channel, typical Brett held the ball and the opportunity looked to have passed but he found Wynter whilst it seemed that had stood still. Wynter unleashed a superb cross which with the helping 'HAND' (literally) of the Bath left back went through all the players in the box BUT found an onrushing Liam Davis who unleashed a left foot bullet shot and Clarke in the bath goal motionless as the ball went into the bottom right of the Bath net.

Torquay held firm and got the result. 3 points in the bag.

Ratings

GK - MacDonald - 8/10 - Second clean sheet and did what he needed, a stray kick every now and then but fair play to the guy and giving Owers plenty to think about when Bass returns.


Def - Niate - 7/10 - Totally solid and personally I like his no nonsense booting the ball out when under pressure. I have nightmares thinking about the number of goals we have conceed because previous defenders have messed about with the ball at the back.

Def - Sokolik - 6/10 - Can't head the ball...liability IMO

Def - Cameron - 7/10 - Good game and has good A-B pace for a defender.

LWB - Davis - 8/10 - Played well, showed again that he has NO right foot but what a finish with his left!

RWB - Wynter - 7/10 - Getting better down the right, gives 100%, made a few crazy slide tackles that missed the Bath player (thankfully)


Mid - Hall - 7/10 - Experience is obvious.

Mid - Dickson - 8/10 - Might not be the fastest but seems to have a bit of an engine, played well, box to box, holds ball well.

Mid - Regis - 6/10 - Opposite to Saturday against Chelmsford, looked tired or lazy...


For - Williams - 6/10 - Maybe a 6 is a little generous because I thought Brett was utter crap... I like Brett and he should get goals,needs a strike partner, he got better with Keating on the pitch.

For - Reid - 3/10 - May aswell have had 10 players on the pitch


Subs:

Mid - Nabi on, Regis off

Nabi is a bit like Marmite, I love his style, he does vanish for periods in games but he gives the midfield some weight (again, literally) but I think we need that at this level. Good vision and makes some lovely passes.

For - Keating on, Reid off

Keating and Brett work better than Reid and Brett, he runs lots and does make the opposition rush, he can win a header which is another bonus.


Reflection

3 points is 3 points, not going to Win games in this league playing pretty. Concord nearly pulled off a win against Billericay, Truro drew with Western and Chelmsford lost. Far too early to be saying Bath are a good side, Billericay will win the league or that Chelmsford will be in the playoffs.

I don't think being full time should mean we destroy teams in the final 20, most of the teams in our league don't train every day but instead have daily fitness targets or regimes that players work on in their own time. What it does mean is that we should have more training pitch time to work on set-plays and tactics.

Finally, this is long....

If we win Saturday that is 7 from 9 points, something I still would be very pleased with.

An amazing support and over 2000 in the ground, lets keep this up and make Plainmoor a nightmare place for away teams to come.

Bring on Saturday!

TUST_Member_Rob wrote: ↑07 Aug 2018, 13:14 hopefully will be a good game, i presume we can pick ST up before the game?

yes from ticket office

SBP wrote: ↑07 Aug 2018, 10:10 Anything other than 3 points tonight will be disappointing for me. I have high expectations with this squad in this league.

I concur, a win at home is a must... I expect 7 points from 9 after 3 games...

COYY

budegull1954 wrote: ↑06 Aug 2018, 11:54 I see a Cllr Dave Thomas is mentioned in the article - has he changed jobs?!

Plainmoor78 wrote: ↑05 Aug 2018, 21:38 You put Regis in your top five (possibly rated him second best player) so he must of have had a good game. Why knock him down a point simply because he didn't want to come off?

How does that answer - did you go to the game?

a very good article....

Plainmoor78 wrote: ↑05 Aug 2018, 17:19 A lot of players look pissed off when they're subbed. Surely all that matters is their time on the pitch not their facial expressions.

Did you go to the game?

ccfc1010 wrote: ↑05 Aug 2018, 00:27 I expected to lose this game. Not just because your wage bill is twice as high, but because you train every day, at this early stage of the season I'd expect you to be much sharper and fitter than us. But really, with the exception of the goal line clearance in injury time, you didn't really have a chance of note. The fair analysis above sum the game up fairly well, I'm not sure how many you had missing but we had our player of the year from last year missing, not making excuses either. A draw was probably just about fair because we didn't create enough clear cut opportunities. For those of you who moaned about our ground, we hate it too! But, it's probably about the 7th or 8th best ground in this league. Not your best away day, that will be Bath or Dartford I'd guess, but certainly not your worst. Wait for East Thurrock, you won't all fit behind the goal.

Good luck for the season. Decent following from you guys and quite loud first half. We say 250 is poor considering we had been told 350 from a few but in reality that's probably the highest we'll see with the exception of Billericay over Christmas. See you at Plainmoor.

You expected to lose? Funny how you guys are rated higher than TUFC by the money men (bookmakers) and the national league pundits.

We have one player injured and another guy who started only signed in the week. Oh.. did I mention that we have a pretty much new team.... need a few games before they gel.

Same game played again in 10 weeks and the result would be different.

... and your pitch is pretty crap

Worth mentioning that our 250 away fans made a lot more noise than the whole of your home crowd... second half was just too hot.

Enjoy your season!