Torquay United v Macclesfield Town - League 2 - 03/09/11

[Burnhamgull]

A great second half performance by the lads this afternoon. Pretty average game for the first 45 minutes but after Ling's weekly half time "discussion", they came out with a much more positive approach and some excellent possession play calmed them down.

Please for Saah and also for McPhee who I thought had a cracking game today. For me, MOM was Mansell who's really buzzing in his new midfield role. He was at the heart of so much of our play and his little dribble past three players for the second goal was cute.

A great day all round with other results falling our way, keep it up lads! COYY

[Colorado Gull]

Torquay United v Macclesfield Town - Match Number 6

Saturday 3rd September 2011

Attendance: 2,307

Result: Torquay United 3 v 0 Macclesfield Town

Referee: Mr Ian Williamson

Scorers
Saah 63
Mcphee 75
O’Kane 89

Torquay United lined up as follows:

Olejnik

Oastler
Saah
Robertson
Nicholson

Macklin - (Lathrope 73)
Mansell
O’Kane
Morris - (Stevens 83)

Atieno
Mcphee - (Ellis 87)

Subs: Rowe-Turner, Ellis, Stevens, Lathrope, Rice

Macclesfield Town lined up as follows:

Viega

Bateman
Tremarco - (Daniel 74)
Kay
Brown

Chalmers - (Hamshaw 78)
Draper (Mukendi 74)
Diagne
Brisley

Wedgbury
Tomlinson

Subs: Mukendi, Daniel, Grant, Hamshaw, Roberts

After a pretty dismal 1st half we came out in the 2nd looking like a completely different side and piled on the pressure to finally win the game 3-0. This victory moves us into 4th position in the league putting us in a strong position.

Without the presence of Rene Howe and Billy Bodin we knew this was going to be a tough game. The game started with some good passing from the two teams. O’Kane had the first chance of the game, he collected the ball from Atieno shot towards goal and the keeper saved, but only parried. Mcphee jumped on the chance to score; he had the ball in the net, but unfortunately was offside.

After this, Macclesfield kept the ball for the majority of the 1st half, passing from the back but not creating much danger. They had a few good spells running up the wing causing Olejnik to save easily on several occasions. Olejnik was on top form in the 1st half, a small amount of runs were made again from the Macclesfield top men, however Olejnik did well and intercepted before any real threat occurred.

When the 1st half was about 30 minutes old, Atieno had the 2nd best chance of the half. That passage of play started with Morris beating 2 Macclesfield defenders, crossed the ball in the box that found Atieno. Taiwo swung his left foot, making connection with the ball but unfortunately scuffed his shot and an easy save was made by Viega.

We didn’t close the Macclesfield defence and goalkeeper down quickly enough and gave them too much time. As soon as we did their defence and keeper panicked and 9 times out of 10 kicked the ball out of play. Most of the times in the 1st half we were too deep and let the visitors have way to much space in every position. The 1st half was pretty unremarkable it was a boring half with not many chances being made and the Silkmen having most of the possession.

The half ended with no goals, with the fans wanting more from the players and hoping that Ling can get the players going in the 2nd half.

The 2nd half started with much more urgency Oastler had the first chance, he shot from distance but the Macclesfield keeper saved with ease. We looked so much better in the 2nd half, and were on top for the majority of the half. Morris was much sloppier this half and that showed when he recklessly took down Kay outside Torquay box. A free kick was given, a dangerous moment for United. Nevertheless Olejnik was again on top form an ended the danger.

Hereafter, Nicholson took a free kick yards out from the goal, shot with power and Veiga saved well. Moments later he was in action again when O’Kane shot at goal.

Brian Saah made some unrealistic runs in the box when corners were won. Each time he just ran into a space never reaching ball. Until the game was 63 minutes old. Nicholson took a corner; the centre back jumped up higher than anyone else and headed the ball home! 1-0.

Mcphee played well in the 2nd half he made a great run and shot that headed for goal, but was saved from Veiga.

Lathrope was the first substitute that Martin Ling used replacing Macklin. Just 2 minutes after he came on; a second goal was scored for Torquay making the score line read 2-0. Mansell ran straight through the Macclesfield defence and put it into the path of Mcphee. The pass arrived at his feet and he put the ball in the net!

Danny Stevens came on for Ian Morris with the clock reading 7 minutes to play, plus stoppage time. Ellis then became the 3rd and final substitute for Torquay replacing Mcphee. Ellis was put up front for the final stages of the game. He ran and worked his socks off and we all knew he was dying to get a goal!

But Eunan O’Kane was the one who scored the 3rd goal. The goal came about with only 1 minute left of normal time to play. O’Kane, without difficulty, strolled into the visitors box and slotted the ball home with a delicate chip to make the final score 3-0.

So after all that in the end we deserved the 3 points. It took a long time to get going but once again the 2nd half performance was much better than the 1st and that helped us to collect the 3 points. We are now up to 4th and go to face Northampton with confidence next Saturday.

Players

Olejnik - He was on top form once again. One of the best players on the field today, his kicking was a bit iffy at times however that cannot down his performance. Great again!

Oastler - Joe played quite well. One moment that I can remember, was when he completely missed the ball in mid air, ran all the way back to block the ball and kick away from danger. Other than that he did not make any awful mistakes.

Saah - As I said earlier on, when in the box he looked quite dozy to be fair running into a space, causing confusion in the box. However his goal was very good, he got up very well making good contact with the ball. He cleared the ball as soon as he could on every occasion; I think he did pretty well.

Robertson - He did nothing wrong today. I remember once that he made a mistake trying to clear the ball in mid air and utterly missed the ball, but luckily that passage of play led to nothing. Other than that he made no mistakes and looked pretty solid.

Nicholson - He played very well in my eyes. His footballing brain is so important; he knows where every player is and makes it look easy sometimes. I can remember a few mistakes that he made a few wayward passes and tackles. But his set piece play is fantastic and that showed when he took the corner for Saah to score.

Macklin - He had an ok game, nothing special to be honest. He made a few good runs in the 1st half but in the 2nd he was very quiet. I can remember a few balls that he should have played down the wing, but failed to take the opportunity. Also he was out of position a few times when he should have been on the wing, although he didn’t have a poor game.

Mansell - My man of the match, his effort and hard working every single game is fantastic. He tackled well and got stuck in every single time a 50/50 option arose. His runs and link up play with the front men was top class at times and that showed by linking up with Mcphee when he scored the goal. Fantastic Manse again!

O’Kane - Eunan had a pretty good game, some mistakes were made but other than that he played well. He made a few good runs and that showed when he scored the 3rd goal. He linked up well with Mcphee and then later on Stevens. His goal was top class, maybe even too good for league 2 standard!

Morris - In my eyes he was the worst player on the pitch. He made a few too many mistakes, and lost possession of the ball way too much. However in the 1st half he made a couple good runs into the box and linked up well with Nico, Manse, Mcphee, Eunan and Atieno.

Atieno - He played very well, put in so much effort in his game today. Never stopped running and never stopped working. One thing that annoys me with Tawio is that he tries to win fouls when he can easily play on, then he moans to the ref that the free kick wasn’t given. However he played well and deserved a goal to be fair.

Mcphee - His touch let him down a bit in the 1st half also his awareness, although in the 2nd half he played so much better. He tried to get the ball down to his feet nearly every time a ball needed to be controlled. He turned with effect and linked up well with the players around him. His goal was richly deserved and I hope he plays even better in the future!

Lathrope - Can’t really comment as he didn’t do much when he came on, but one thing I can say is that he is committed to tackles and that is a good feature for a centre midfidler.

Stevens - He didn’t do much, same as Damon, but made a good run when he came on, linking up with Eunan. Other than that he didn’t shine.

Ellis - He worked his socks off when he came on. He was playing out of position (Forward) but that didn’t stop his work rate. He desperately wanted to score, but sadly for him no goal came but he played well nevertheless.

As I said earlier we go on to face Northampton away who drew 2-2 today at Southend.

[ferrarilover]

Whale whale whale, look who bothered to show up for a change, it's Brian Saah.

His goal was nice, and, while still not quite up to the levels we were expecting, he was much better today than he has been in the past.

If he can continue to improve at the same rate as Macklin has, he'll be a real asset.

Matt.

[Southampton Gull]

So in a couple of years he'll come good?

[usagullmichigan]

Tell you what I thought was awesome today...... was that Ling punched the dugout in anger. I love that.

[JamieE]

Tell you what I thought was awesome today...... was that Ling punched the dugout in anger. I love that.

Cambridge dugout must be battered and bruised then o:)

Glad to hear of another quality second half performance. Room for improvement too in our first half performances. Watched the highlights and as much as I want Mcphee to be our goalscoring machine, I fear that one may be taken away from him. Hope not.

[WHG]

Quote
'Mansell ran straight through the Macclesfield defence and put it into the path of Mcphee. The pass arrived at his feet and he put the ball in the net!'

IMO there was no way it was McPhee's goal, he skewed his shot straight into the path of the defender who knocked it in the net for an OG.
Also the reason we looked better in the second half was because we managed to score against their 9 man defence so they had to change their tactics enabling us to have more space which meant that our playmakers could expose the weaknesses in their defence.
When a team comes with the intention of playing for a point it will always be a pretty boring game until we manage to score and I think alot of teams will be intent on playing defensively against us because they have seen over last season and this season to date that we are one of the better footballing sides when given time and space to play.

[the_shredder]

My thoughts:
Great 2nd half, the first wasn't too bad - plenty of passing but severely boring as we never looked like we wanted to even create an attack, let alone a chance/shot. Macclesfield looked awful though and i never personally felt like they were going to score throughout the whole game, even when they did create a couple of good chances.

I thought the MotM could have been O'kane even before he scored, which was a confident skilled goal he took well - or mansell who created the second goal with immense determination. But it was not mcphee's goal - i had a perfect line of sight and after all mansell's work it was going to be a pretty disappointing miss if their defender hadn't knocked it in. But who's complaining? i actually felt mcphee had a very good game and perhaps prefers being up front as he looked very useful at times, though not sure about his actual shooting ability.

Great that saah got a goal, but to be fair, as much as i wanted to like him when we signed him, even though we have won both games i have seen him play, he has managed to change my mind. He may have had him moment today, but when it was announced he was MotM it was met with a lot of confusion and even laughter. I just don't think he's good enough to be in the first team, i think Ellis can make a few dangerous mistakes at times but he looks much more confident, strong, and able to pass the ball successfully which can be useful apparently. =D

Anyway great game and i don't think anyone really had a bad performance, some very smooth slick stuff at times, loving the little flick-ons we seem to be doing a lot of! Let's hope we can start playing like this for 90 minutes.

[Plymouth Gull]

The first half was like watching paint dry. They parked the bus, yet could have been 2 to the good but for Bobby. I was unimpressed with the first 55/60 minutes, but after that we seemed to kick into life.

Not too impressed with Macklin, Morris or Atieno yesterday - as somebody else said I think there was too much pressure on him being the main man up front.

McPhee impressed - Manse & Eunan both excellent, class finish from Eunan.

Still worry that the centre halves look shaky (mainly Saah, although he was okay yesterday).