League 2: Burton Albion vs Torquay United

[Jeff]

I'm sure for any neutral that was a pretty exciting game, but for me and I'm sure most other gulls fans it was torture, and in my opinion things look quite bleak for us.

A perfect pitch and a perfectly still, sunny day looked like optimum conditions to play our attacking, fluid game. If only we'd tried it. We lucked into a 2-0 lead, but from that point we should be hanging on whether we were in control or not. We failed to deal with the ample (can't quite understand go Burton are so low down) threat Burton possessed, and paid the price.

The first 10mins or so were a good indication of how the play was to balance out. Nothing was sticking up front, and Burton were frequently attacking and causing problems. Their left winger (Malone) twice had the beating of Mansell but was lacking any real end product.

Literally the first time we ventured up the other end, we scored. And it was purely down to a shocking defensive lapse. No threat, their centre half takes a heavy touch and goes to dribble along the 6yd line. He didn't bank on a charging Zebroski to close him down, and slide the ball into the net. Lucky for us, and against the run of play.

Moments later, having not really looked any better for the goal, we were 2-0 up. For once we did put together a few passes down our right, working the ball inside to O'kane. He twisted and turned, and looked to be trying to walk the ball in. Eventually he laid it on square to Tomlin who casually rolled it in. 2-0 and cruising.

We then actually looked in the ascendancy for a while, more solid on the ball and less panicky. But out of nothing Burton pulled one back, McGrath sublimely curling one into the top corner just out of Bevans reach. From then on there were very few clear cut chances, aside from one effort over the top from Tomlin. But then we got hit on the break - Maghoma got away down the right and laid a low cross into the path of Zola. Zola missed it, but none of our defence or Bevan reacted quickly enough and Pearson slid it home at the far post. From a 2-0 lead in a close game where we were never massively in control we were now 2-2 and in for a struggle second half.

And it wasn't long before we were exploited. Nothing remarkable in the build up, ball out to Maghoma on the right who had time to look up and deliver a ball plum onto the head of Zola, unmarked and dead centre. Routine header and 3-2 down. We toiled away, created some half chances but never really threatened - the best coming when Robinson cut in on to his right foot and curled just wide. Kee was brought on for Oastler and went out wide right. Generally he got little service, but he equalised with a stunning finish. Tomlin ran cleverly into the channel (something he didn't do often enough) and laid the ball back to kee who, from the right side of the area, hit the ball sweetly with his instep and curled it the wrong way into the top corner. Watch the football league show tonight, youll see what I mean.

About 20mins to go then, and we were in with a shot. And from then on it all got a bit breathless. We came so close to going 4-3 up, a corner from the right was headed hard down into the floor by Zebroski, when it was easier to get it on target. And in the ensuing melee under the high bouncing ball, Branston struggled to come through the traffic and the keeper saved his weak effort.

The days controversy was supplied by panto villain Branston. Some sloppy passing at the back led to a Burton counter. We had 3 players tracking back, but Branno scythed their guy down. Home fans and players were baying for a red card, but fortunately it was just yellow. Bevan pulled off a smashing save from the resulting free kick.

Much of the rest of the game was played out scrappily in the midfield, but as it ticked into stoppage time both sides came close to a win. First it was Burton - a left wing corner found Aaron Webster unmarked about 6yds out, but he lashed his volley wide when it was easier to score.

And then, the most depressing moment. Slow build up from us on the left, Stevens (or O'kane) floats a ball in which Tomlin flicks on......and Stanley volleys in! But no, the ref had blown somewhere between the Tomlin flick and Stanleys finish. Fair enough, if time is time (and Stanley may well have been offside anyway, he was in a lot of space) but at least wait until the play is over. And at this point, we find out the final scores and a point gained isn't anything gained at all.

To be fair, I was impressed by Burton. Great movement up front from Zola and Pearson which caused no end of problems first half. Maghoma was a constant threat, Malone petered out a touch but they had a solid central partnership who could both pass as well. And Darren Moore had a solid game - slighty cynical with all the holding and tugging, but those were his strengths. He snuffed out most things in the air, and we never turned him and got in behind, which is what it was crying out for. We were out battled over most of the pitch and never tried to use our passing and pace strengths to attack them. You'd probably say Buckle was out-thought today.

Some ratings:
Bevan - 7 - could have done better with second? But great save for free kick and distribution better
Mansell - 6.5 - worked hard, but given a pretty torrid time by Malone
Robbo - 7 - tough opponents, didn't stand out as making any real errors ( that I can remember, anyway)
Branno - 5.5 - thought he was poor today. Seemed to be too up for the occasion, slashed wildly at the ball too often when could have been more composed. I've seen him play much better, didn't have that aura of invincibility about him
Nico - 6 - roasted by Maghoma, would have kept him on personally as wasn't too any worse than how LRT did
Oastler - 6.5 - I really rate this guy, and he didn't disappoint but was sacrificed for tactical purposes
Stanley - 6.5 - great drive and energy but not his best performance
Robinson - 6 - mostly on the outside looking in. Didn't seem to want to use his pace to beat a painfully slow full back, and clearly is afraid of using his left foot
O'kane - 5.5 - unrecognisable to the player we had at the start of the season. No magic anymore
Tomlin - 7 - some great touches and movement, but not enough of if. Didn't stand much of a chance being used as a target
Zebroski - 7 - my MOTM I suppose, worked as hard as ever as was typlified by his goal. Won a bit in the air but not his day

Kee - 6.5 - wasted out wide, great goal
LRT - 5.5 - nonsense sub and made some bad positional errors and sloppy passes, this was the LRT of last season, not the one who had a trial at derby
Stevens - 5 - 10 minutes, 5 touches. Could have done a lot more

I fear the worst for us now. I know we were always saying we needed to win 2 of the last 3 and that is still applicable, but we must do better than today. Hopefully Chesterfield have the jitters, and Rotherham have gone to pieces but the fact is we don't have it in our hands anymore. Today was meant to be the day we gained ground on everyone, in the end we lost our playoff place and it's going to take a step change in performance and some luck from elsewhere to get it back.

I look forward to hearing the views of everyone else who was at the game.

[Scott Brehaut]

Jeff - that match report was simply superb.

Thanks.

[SuperNickyWroe]

cheers for that Jeff.

top drawer report as always

[miltonkeynesgull]

Just got back, not much to add thanks to another great report from Jeff.

Well, we somehow managed to make Burton look like a class side. They were anything but in reality.

We started off shakily, and their left winger Malone (?), on loan from Wolves, was skinning Manse every time, but couldn't put in a decent enough cross. But then, out of nowhere, we took the lead. I couldn't quite figure out what happened, but from what I saw it seemed like their centre back lost control of the ball in his box and Zebs nipped in and poked it home. The Gulls fans were in raptures. And then a few minutes later a decent move down the right involving Manse, O'Kane, Zebs and Oastler saw the ball laid off to Tomlin who finished impressively. It was against the run of play to be 2-0 up inside 15 minutes but no-one was complaining.

Burton kept piling on the pressure and eventually, after a move where we backed off and backed off their players, the ball came to McGrath on the edge of the area, who curled one into Bevan's right hand corner. The big man did well to get a touch to it but it was pretty unstoppable, even for Bevs. An equaliser seemed pretty inevitable the way we were playing and sure enough, about 5 minutes before half-time, another move down their right ended up in the ball getting squared across our box and, after an agonizing wait watching him chase the ball, Pearson finished from a pretty tight angle.

Half-time was a blessing in all honesty, and it looked like Buckle was going to have to give the players a proverbial rocket at half-time for us to get anything. Sure enough we came back out and looked bright, we made several good chances and looked much more up for it. But then the Burton winger ran down the right, three of our players kept backing off him (not sure which ones), he crossed and Zola had an easy header to make it 3-2. Bucks made the sub pretty soon after that and Kee had an immediate impact. I can't quite remember the move in my mind (I am rubbish at this aren't I!) but I do remember our Billy curling in a very similar effort to McGrath's in the first half. 3-3.

And that's how it remained. We never really looked like winning it. We had a few Branston headers, and a couple of shots from Robinson but that was about it. Burton finished in a pretty similar fashion, with a couple of close efforts but nothing really looking like a winner. In the five minutes added on, Stanley had the ball in the net just as the ref blew for full-time. Everyone was quite angry, but in reality the Burton keeper had heard the whistle and didn't move for it, and we'd wasted 30 seconds before his shot faffing around with the ball on the edge of the area anyway!

So a draw was pretty fair. Annoying, and a poor performance by our standards, but at least we showed enough guts to get a point. We were worryingly one-dimensional at times, didn't use our strengths out wide, and looked very shaky at the back all the way through, so I do worry about how we'd do if we did get promoted, but I'm gonna just put this one down as a blip and move on to Chesterfield!

Few ratings for what its worth:

Bevs: 6 - couldn't do a massive amount about any of the goals but his kicking was all over the place.
Nicho: 6 - didn't do much and was inexplicably subbed for LRT. Hope he's not injured.
Robbo: 7 - Won pretty much everything that came his way.
Branno: 7 - Ditto the above. Dealt with the idiotic Burton crowd well. Had their strikers pretty much in his pocket.
Manse: 5 - Poorest game I've seen from him. Constantly skinned and didn't offer a massive amount going forward either.
Robinson: 6 - Quiet. Had a few nice moments and looked assured on the ball, but never really got any service.
Oastler: 7 - Very good. Put in a great shift, lots of tackles, lots of headers. Passing wasn't always great but not really many options for him to go to. Sign him up Bucks!
Stanley: 6 - Pretty quiet. Put in a few nice passes and was as determined as ever, but nothing ever really came off for him.
Eunan: 5 - Was he even playing? Apart from having a small hand in our second goal I honestly can't remember him doing a single thing.
Zebs: 7 - Great. Fantastic work ethic, didn't stop chasing and linked with Tomlin very well.
Tomlin: 8 - Thought he was our best player. Constant menace for them. Held the ball up well, created chances and scored his own one too.

Subs - Kee: 6 - Scored his goal brilliantly but did little else. Rowe-Turner and Stevens not really worth mentioning.

Up the Gulls,

John

[tufcbrett]

Im hoping this will give the team a kick in the right direction. We seem to play better against the bigger sides. We now know we have to win both games realisticly and the team may play better on friday knowing we slipped out the play offs.

Trying to be postitive, didnt go to the game so i couldnt comment on that. Fingers crossed we win on friday, and hope someone does us a favour on saturday going into last game. If we dont win friday the season over i feel.

Bad day for us i know but i have got a little smile on my face now. Seeing exeters playoff chances vanish, 6 points behined with two to play and a goal difference which is like 20 odd behined. And Mr Benyon and his "bigger" team that he joined to get further in his carear will be joining us back in league 2 if we dont go up. I had to chuckle about this, even though i love the guy as he was class for us this season. Maybe he will get his chance as we all know hes a quality league 2 forward.

[Scott Brehaut]

Hi John,

Another good match report. We are fortunate that we get such good match summaries on this site.

[EmetEdadsBeard]

Classic from ZippyGulls 10 year old son Alex The 'Zoid' on his first away trip today. "Darren Moore runs like he's touching cloth"
Out of the mouths of babes......................

[bixieupnorth]

bak home too, mystified how we managed to be two up after doing absolutely nothing, hilarious when their lad dribbled along six yard line and zebs leapt at the ball and we were ahead

i was stood right in line with their first goal, and bevs seemed to get both hands to it but couldnt stop it carrying on into the top corner, and i'd def place the blame on him for the 2nd, he seemd to want to watch it past the post when he surely couldve leapt on it, their lad got a foot on and it was 2-2.

full value for £13, a pocket sized programme and a point we barely deserved, but everyone left feeling deflated because tufc have done what they have done so many times this season and have managed to turn not just the game and a 0-2 lead into a point, but have thrown away the chance of getting into the playoffs by our own efforts! really really gutted

chesterfield will surely want to clinch their title on friday, the polices decsison to move the game will probably add incentive to the teams that play on the saturday knowing how we have got on.

i think we'll miss out for def, draw on friday and maybe all over before rotherham, that defeat by gills was the worst possible result

[HRG]

Come on, as disappointing as it is, before the start of the season who would've been happy with mid table obscurity?
I know I would. We've done brilliantly this season, surpassing all expectations. There is still hope, still a chance so lets drop the negativity. I'm still not convinced we could survive a season in League One just yet and as much as I'd like us to give it a good go another season in League Two wouldn't be a bad thing. If we can build which I believe we will and if we can keep Buckle which may proove harder I think we can make a charge for next season.
But lets be positive. Our season is not over yet.

[bixieupnorth]

no consolation HRG, we've blown a golden chance to boost the clubs coffers twice now, first crawley and now by ballsing up our playoff opportunity, how many points have we dropped from a winning position, the only consolation today was that we at least did it early!!

[bixieupnorth]

back on the prediction machine again, really not looking good, however if we do somehow manage to grind out a result on friday??

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... efault.stm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[portugull]

I remain positive. 10 games unbeaten and with 2 games left there are still so many permutations.
Chesterfield are beatable.They have scored 56 at home but only 26 away.
Stevenage have Northampton away and Bury at home.They have the best defence conceding only 40 butcould lose both games against two clubs desperate
for the points for different reasons
Accy Stanley have Barnet at home and Burton away.
When we go to Rotherham they may well be out the running unless they win at Aldershot next saturday
If we beat Chesterfield then i believe we will win at ROTHERHAM. Still too close to call!!

[gullsflyinghigh]

How many gulls fans were there today?

[Enzo]

Really not sure what to make of that match. Played in perfect conditions at times in silence, the match basically summed up our weaknesses this season and sums up why, in my opinion, we will not go up........or even get into the Play Offs. For the first 10 minutes Burton were all over us - the omens looked bad as their winger had the beating of Mansell and Zola was causing problems in the centre. I'd have settled for a draw at that point. Then they gifted us a goal - I mean really gifted - think Dobson's equaliser in 1987 against Crewe and thne times it by a hundred for a defensive blunder. That goal is just reward for the amount of similar situations that Zebs had chased down over the season and come away with nothing. Within 5 minutes Tomlin finished well after a slick move - 2 up after one and half shots on goal! For the next few minutes I thought it was a question of how many we'd win by as Burton looked dead.

Then Bevs lets them back in it - he could and should have pushed this wide. It was a decent strike, but he got both hands to it and should have done better. From then on it was a question of getting to half time still leading. Unfortunately, we couldn't and another poor reaction from Bevan to an angled ball acros our box led to their equaliser. All very frustrating, but oh so predictable. Not a good day for the big fella to have an off day.

Burton were far quicker out of the traps for the second half and went ahead with a decent header - another one which stemmed from us giving the ball away though. At that point I thought we would be on the end of a stuffing, but strangely taking the lead semed to be about the worst thing that Burton have done - they stopped attacking us. Billy came on and scored with a sweet strike and the game was very much in the balance. Burton missed a couple of real sitters and Bevs actually woke up to make a decent save or two. Equally, we looked like we could sneak it late on - their defence was very suspect and this must be Darren Moore's last season in the football league. Both their centre backs were dodgy, but we did not have enough quality to creat the goal.

There is little point in looking at this as another 2-0 lead lost. That situation came about very much against the run of play and we were never, ever going to hold on. They gave us the runaround up front and both our full backs struggled. On the positive side, Tomlin continues to develop as a player and showed very good close control and an ability to turn a player. He is certainly not the lazy player I thought he was. I have been very impressed with him in the two games over easter.

The other results went against us today and to be honest I cant see us getting back into the play offs. In a comparatively poor league we are just falling short. I just don't think we have displayed the quality and consistency to expect anything more. I'd love to be proven wrong mind and it will be no disgrace for us to miss out. We are light years ahrad of where I thought we would be and to keep the season alive going into the last two games has been a real bonus. If we can keep, Branston, sign Stanley, Oastler and maybe Tomlin with one or two others.......sort out Billy's weight and continue the development of Zebs, O'kane and Ellis then there is plenty to look forward to next year whatever league we are in.

[Regiment]

Finally sat down, after journey home, some grub and a BIG very needed drink !!

haven't read through everyone's comments yet, will do shortly, so apologies if i repeat anything already posted.

anyway, this is how my day went :-

left london at about 11, nice easy drive up the M1, arrived about 1pm, lovely sunshine, parked across road from ground, all in all, a good start.

the boy didn't fancy walking down to McD's, so we waited for gates to open, both of us in for less than a score (20 quid ) and right in front of us, a bar selling magners on draught. happy days. couple of cold ones for me, burger for the lad, and a decent little programme for £2-50. The staff/stewards/programme seller/girlie on the food bar, all welcoming, and i'm now starting to feel even better about the day.

a quick chat/catch up with a couple of you guys outside, and then in we go, game time.

Didn't think we started particularly well, kicked off, hoofed straight out of play, nothing new there. Burton looked busy, created an opening down their left far too easily, but in the blink of an eye, we're gifted one goal, then a few slick passes later, 2-0 up, the day is just going TOO well now, and so it proved.

Our 2-0 lead just seemed to kick start Burton, and i felt we sat back expecting them to gift us further chances, and once Burton skipper McGrath got going in the middle of the park (and everywhere else to be fair), it wasn't long before we were being dragged all over the place at the back, and the score is 2-1, with a decent finish by the aforementioned McGrath. Surely THIS would get us going ?? Nah, just before half time, we were cut open out wide yet again (mansell from RB, was chasing down the ball in left midfield, no cover by Eunan at RB), and somehow what looked like a poor cross/shot from their right, bumbled across the goal, and was tucked in at the far post (our RB position). HT 2-2. Balls, day suddenly turning distinctly sour.

But, it's half time, we've blown a 2 goal lead, but haven't started playing. surely a halt time "talk" would get us going in the second half. nope, instead the day turned to shite, 3-2 down, and still we've not got going. Enter Billy Kee. Suddenly, we've got a bit of life, Zebba is running at their defenders (trying to avoid Moore who seemed to be kicking the shit out of him and Tomlin in the first half), Jake is finding space on the left, optimism returning. Billy then finds the back of the net with a decent finish, 3-3. They missed chances, we created some good positions, but didn't really test their keeper enough, and to me, he didn't look like much of a keeper. Strange substitutions taking off Nico for LRT, and Jake for Danny, didn't improve us, and so all that was left, was 5mins of added time.

before i conclude, i have to say a draw was probably a fair result, but back to the added 5mins. now, i wasn't counting the 5mins, but i'm guessing it didn't go a second over the 5mins, because what happened at the end was just a farce. the ball is in flight, heading into the Burton penalty area, i hear the ref blow the whistle, stanley meets the ball on the volley, net bulges, i'm gutted - i know the goal won't stand. another day as a torquay supporter twists like a knife in the last few seconds. for once we didn't conceed, but it felt like that. i have never seen a ref do that before. i've seen on TV years ago a ref get SLATED, for allowing a corner to be taken, blowing for time while the ball was in flight, a second before the ball was headed in the net - goal didn't count.

yes, it would've been harsh on Burton, but i don't care about that. today was a must win for me, and we've blown it.

individually, we had some good performances, Zeb (once he'd stopped sulking and complaining about being battered by Bruno), Tomlin, Robertson worked hard at the back, but the balance and teamwork was poor. there was no consistency, the usually dependable skipper was totally exposed at right back, mainly in first half when Eunan was in front of him, passing in midfield wasn't good, but we were always in the game, we just made hard work of it like we traditionally do.

i just hope this hasn't killed off our hopes of a playoff spot we've worked so hard for. 2 games to go, we need 6 points, simple as that.

finally - despite another ban on the drum, i thought the support was good today, well done everyone.

now, i'll wait up for the highlights tonight, on the off chance they actually show/discuss the final seconds of the game.