Totnes & Dartington Friendly 9th July

Markh84 · Post by **Markh84** » 09 Jul 2014, 20:03

A 4-2 Win in our opening Pre-season fixture.

http://www.torquayunited.com/news/artic ... 33116.aspx

lucy6lucy · Post by **lucy6lucy** » 09 Jul 2014, 20:04

arcadia wrote:
It's ok Matthew will keep you informed

UNITED WIN OPENING FRIENDLY
Wed 09 Jul 2014 20:46

Good Workout at T & D
Totnes and Dartington 2
Chalcraft 32
Heath 55

United 4
Bowman 15
Sullivan 60, 73
Ajala 78

THE Gulls began their pre-season campaign with a 4-2 victory at local outfit Totnes and Dartington on Wednesday night.

New signing Ryan Bowman opened the scoring for United but the hosts hit back with a Miles Chalcraft strike slipping through the fingers of Yellow goalkeeper Martin Rice.

Wholesale changes at the interval saw a very youthful United side take to the field and Totnes and Dartington took advantage with a rasping drive from Sam Heath on 55 minutes.

Yellow quality then assumed control against a battling home side, with victory secured by a brace from Daniel Sullivan and a well-taken finish from trialist Toby Ajala.

A very useful workout for the Gulls and many thanks to our hosts for a good game, and an excellent welcome.

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CP Gull · Post by **CP Gull** » 10 Jul 2014, 13:20

Very pleasant evening spent in bright sunshine (well at least one side of the ground was!) at a lovely location and on a decent pitch. This was my first visit to the Foxhole Ground and I hope we might make this a regular fixture in the pre season diary from now on, not least because it's nice and close for me too! The opposition were certainly up for it and at one stage when they went into a 2-1 lead it did look as though they might just turn us over.

To be fair, I cannot remember our keepers having much to do, other than pick the ball out of the net twice. The first should have been a routine save for Ricey from a free kick 25 yards out, but he contrived to push the ball up and the ball spun over him and in the back of the net! Shocker from him but I suppose it's better to get that howler out of the way when there is nothing in the match than when the real action begins.

We took the lead with a nicely worked goal and decent finish from Bowman but then despite dominating the game we failed to add to our tally in the first half. Bowman had the best of the chances but dragged a couple just wide and the T&D defence were throwing themselves resolutely in the way of anything else that was in danger of hitting the target. So, with T&D drawing level through the Ricey howler we went in at 1-1.

I thought Thompson did very well in his new role at Right Back and Young was spraying the ball nicely around the park, while Bowman looked threatening up front and probably should have had one or two more. The trialist showed one or two nice touches but was generally quite quiet.

The first half XI was (4-4-2) ... Rice; Thompson, MacDonald, Hutchings, Ives; Briscoe, Richards (trialist), Young, Cameron; Yeoman, Bowman.

The second half was barely 10 minutes old when T&D took an unlikely lead. The ball fell to their guy on the edge of the box and he struck it well leaving our keeper (Seabright) with no chance.

The lead didn't last too long, although our equaliser was rather fortuitous when young Danny Sullivan swung in a cross from wide out on the left and the ball sailed over their keeper and straight into the back of the net. There was nothing lucky about his next goal though as he applied a decent finish to a good move.

A lovely bit of skill from Ajala added a bit more respectability to the score and we did have one or two more decent chances late on to add a bit more gloss to the score but T&D battled right to the end with one or two tasty challenges along the way!

I thought Cregg strolled through the game, but the quality was obviously there, cannot recall him ever giving the ball away while hardly breaking sweat. Chappell looked quality on the ball and seemed interested ... would really like to see him stay. I also thought Ajala showed some very nice touches and of course Sullivan did well for his two goals.

Second half XI was .... Seabright; Purcell, MacDonald (Odofin 80ish), Hutchings, Alexandrou; Chapell, Cregg, Chaney, Ajala; Sullivan, A Trialist.

No sign of Poku or O'Achie, so they may have already moved on or of course been injured. Likewise no sign of Tom Cruise either. No game time for the likes of Pearce, Downes, Harding, Hawley and Benyon either but that may just be down to saving them for the bigger challenges ahead.

Not sure who the second half striker was, I thought initially it must have been O'Achie but looking at his pic on his twitter page I'm pretty certain it wasn't him. The mystery striker had one or two decent efforts on goal but nothing special and from what I saw the ones I would like to see again were Cregg, Ajala and MacDonald.

All in all a decent game .... and the cheeseburger and a bottle of Bays for a fiver went down pretty well too!

Richinns · Post by **Richinns** » 10 Jul 2014, 14:16

Thanks CP

Strange that (apart from Chapell) none of the listed players were involved. I heard Downes and Pearce were at the game - did you see any of the others spectating?

CP Gull · Post by **CP Gull** » 10 Jul 2014, 15:13

The only two I know of that were there were Pearce and Downes but that doesn't mean to say that the others weren't there either. I don't think the fact that most of the "absentees" are the ones on the transfer list to be honest. The fact is that those that are on the list just happen to be our most senior (and consequently most expensive) players and to be honest this game, against this level of opposition, is more a chance to the youngsters and the trialists to show what they can do. Not only that but this early in the season there may well be some carrying injuries/tweaks or simply being rested. For example, I noticed that Benyon had his knee strapped up on the "Meet the Players" day on the Saturday and when I asked him why it was he explained that he had had surgery on it during the close season.

ethantufcbaker · Post by **ethantufcbaker** » 10 Jul 2014, 15:18

The mystery striker The HE says he is a player called baker-Richardson
http://www.torquayheraldexpress.co.uk/F ... story.html
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtney ... Richardson

ferrarilover · Post by **ferrarilover** » 10 Jul 2014, 15:55

I spoke to Chris after the game and he is very excited about Richardson and wants to sign him.

No problem with any of those who did not play, they're just not needed in this match. At this stage, I would be disappointed and a little surprised if any of our better players did depart during this window. The same, sadly, applies to the listed chaps.

Cruise was there, just not involved.

Spoke to Old McDonald, who is keen to sign here.

Lots of other stuff that I wrote last night, but was never posted because the forum is buggered.

Matt.

brooker · Post by **brooker** » 10 Jul 2014, 16:04

Harding and Benyon were also there.

supergulls · Post by **supergulls** » 10 Jul 2014, 16:41

ferrarilover wrote:I spoke to Chris after the game and he is very excited about Richardson and wants to sign him.

No problem with any of those who did not play, they're just not needed in this match. At this stage, I would be disappointed and a little surprised if any of our better players did depart during this window. The same, sadly, applies to the listed chaps.

Cruise was there, just not involved.

Spoke to Old McDonald, who is keen to sign here.

Lots of other stuff that I wrote last night, but was never posted because the forum is buggered.

Matt.

What else did you see Matt it would be great for more information for those that couldn't make it.

ferrarilover · Post by **ferrarilover** » 10 Jul 2014, 16:44

Levi Ives good. Bowman wasteful (but created plenty to waste). Richards (triallist) good touch. Cameron ineffective but involved. Thompson great delivery. Briscoe impressive, skilful, pacy. Yeoman looks fit. Old McDonald keen to sign.

Based mainly on the first half. I stood talking to Crookie (proudly sponsored by The Candy Box, Brixham's premier sweetie shop) and Adele second half and the sun was in my eyes. Wearing the shit black kit didn't help and nor did the fact that I couldn't see who's who.

We had about 273% possession so it was a bit disappointing to be, at one stage, 2-1 down. Still, the goals in these early games against these sorts of opponents.

Dorchester will probably be similar, but after that, the XI will start to reveal itself and we'll start to get a better idea of what's what.

Matt.

ferrarilover · Post by **ferrarilover** » 10 Jul 2014, 16:53

The whole squad was there, no one was missing. Ryan Bowman is a really nice bloke. I spoke to him for about 10 minutes after the match and he was upset at missing the chances he missed. Delighted with the comparison with Sillsy. He left York because the manager and he had "different ideas" about things, predominantly that RB was going to be about 973rd choice and he wanted to play more regularly, so expect him to start virtually every week.

Looking forward to Dorchester now.

Matt.

supergulls · Post by **supergulls** » 10 Jul 2014, 17:07

Cheers Matt
How did macdonald and Hutchings look at the back were they ever troubled ?

goodluckgull · Post by **goodluckgull** » 10 Jul 2014, 17:21

There has been no sign of our physio, Damien Davy. Has he left the club ? Gareth Law appears to be doing the job now. Does anyone know if Damien has a new job ? He is a big asset to Torquay United.

ferrarilover · Post by **ferrarilover** » 10 Jul 2014, 18:58

DD does a lot besides his work with us, he could just be away.

To be honest, Super, T&D only had the ball for about 25 seconds all evening, so it was hard to say too much about them.

Matt.

Richinns · Post by **Richinns** » 10 Jul 2014, 19:09

ferrarilover wrote:I spoke to Chris after the game and he is very excited about Richardson and wants to sign him.

No problem with any of those who did not play, they're just not needed in this match. At this stage, I would be disappointed and a little surprised if any of our better players did depart during this window. The same, sadly, applies to the listed chaps.

Cruise was there, just not involved.

Spoke to Old McDonald, who is keen to sign here.

Lots of other stuff that I wrote last night, but was never posted because the forum is buggered.

Matt.

Interesting!

Did he say anything about the midfielders on trial (especially Cregg) and the players listed?

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