Torquay United vs Gillingham

[Plymouthgull]

I too am not that bothered if Benyon leaves in the near future. I think kee has more potential as the 'lone striker'. I do wish Buckle would either start Kee or bring him on with at least 30 mins to go.
On a related matter, does anyone else feel that Ellis had a poor game yesterday? I thought that Branno coverred a number of poor decisions made by Ellis.

[Modgull]

Don't be fooled by PB's post match assessment of the second half. We were struggling to contain Gillingham's midfield and when Bayo came on he won nearly everything in the air too. So on both counts it was only a question of time before we conceded. The fact that it was a deflection that beat Bevan is testament to his basically fine game rather than an indication of bad luck.

What I felt we needed to do is defend higher up the park and, in particular to hold play up front when it got there. By that time in the game Benyon had been bullied and beaten up and we should have sent Kee on before conceding and not as a response and to hold onto a point.

My player ratings for those who might be interested:

Bevan 7/10 and MOTM - two great saves in the first half but still fails to dominate his area
Nicho 6/10 - very steady game
Branston 5/10 - struggled manfully but let his man come off him and turn too often
Ellis 5/10 - ditto and should have scored with a free header 10 yards out
Robertson 5/10 - got badly caught out on a couple of occasions
Stevens 6/10 - drifted in and out of the game as usual but also provided some useful penetration but wasted a couple of chances
Mansell 5/10 - struggled to fill the gaps left by a lethargic Wroe
Wroe 3/10 - no penetration, no spark, no accuracy to his passing
O'Kane 6/10 - showed his ability in flashes only - one of the few players who always hits the target when shooting
Zebroski 6/10 - worked tirelessly initially up front in the 442 but later on the wing in the 451
Benyon 6/10 - what a thankless afternoon for him as he saw his support drop away as we defended ever deeper. Was the victim of a bullying by the Gillngham defence and lack of protection from the referee

Oastler 5/10 - insufficient time to show
Kee - ditto

Referee 4/10 - inexplicable decision to give them a dropped ball oportunity led to PB's banishment and the way the referee reacted showed he had totally lost it. Fortunately it didn't have a major consequence but if they had scored from it there would have been a riot. The lack of punishment for the Gillingham centre backs was another failing.

Crowd 6/10 - better attendance but atmosphere was generally flat

Entertainment value - 8/10 - the neutral would have had plenty to keep their interest

Incidentally, according to the official figures we had nine attempts and only one on target (presumably for the goal) - well I counted 10 attempts but 6 on target which is an improvement on recent matches.

[YellowMurphy]

It happened at morecambe and its happened today, lets keep or midfield the same for the full 90, and not sit back on a 1 goal lead, last 3/4 games, we have took the lead early, and then conceded late on. If we can do what we did against crewe, we will be fine, attack the full 1st half. Whenever we bring Oastler on as a sub we are inviting pressure onto ourselves. We look a decent organized size at the moment, and best of all were playing decent football. All in all a good performance, and maybe its karma for what we did to them up there place? Id say a specific highlight of the game was Stevens performance, linked up well with everyone and looked maybe our biggest threat, best performance hes had in a while.

[Fletch]

Id say a specific highlight of the game was Stevens performance, linked up well with everyone and looked maybe our biggest threat, best performance hes had in a while.

He may have looked good going past the fullback but the end product was sadly lacking in execution. In fairness he wasnt the only one but I would have expected more from him given his undoubted skill.

[RussianGull]

I think had Buckle brought off Benyon as soon as we realised the Ref was against us, put on Billy to give a little bit of tussle the outcome may have been different. As fletch just said, Danny looked brilliant on the flank, but coming inside and more importantly getting a shot away (on target) looks to be a weakness, its all very good being Red Rum but he's got to put the ball in the net. Highlight for me was the big hug Branston gave Bayo at half time, comedy gold!

I'm glad Buckle got sent to the stands, not because I'm a buckle basher, but because it shows how much he cares about our lads on the pitch, maybe one day there'll be a Buckles Army chant, 200 games in charge, we should start to get behind him a bit more.

I spoke to a Gills fan after the match on the train, and they were mighty impressed with Bevs, as was I, a deserved man of the match.

[Fonda]

We'd soon regret any decision to get rid of Benyon. To sell our primary goal threat at a vastly reduced price would be something of a short-sighted decision. You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.

Personally, I'd be inclined not to bring Oastler on to try and secure points in future...

If we're leading late in the game against Crawley and he comes on, i'm going home.

[gullsrus]

personally i would lay the blame on our lack of ability to finish off a game when we are on top, our refusal or lack of bottle to put in a tackle, WHOLE team defending at the end of a game when we want to keep the score as it is and not just relying on a 10 minute sub

[Dave]

Have to agree with Fonda here,how many times now have we gone into the last 20 minutes with a narrow lead,made the same predictable defensive substitution ,and got the same predictable now boring negative result,the gills boss must have rubbed his hands togehther with glee,when bucks did excatly what his scout report said he would in the event of a narrow torquay lead.

To me, towards the end of the game we were not holding the ball up,not putting the gills back line under enough pressure as a result they were playing the ball out from the back far to easily,and the ball was coming straight back at us time and time again,when that happens it is only a matter of time before your opponents will score.

i am not saying i am right or even this would have worked,however to me it was crying out for Billy Kee up front with Benyon,Kee would have given us some beef up top and may have held the ball up,and with a fresh pair of legs , would also have chased down there defenders and put them under pressure,which may have given our back line some breathing space.

I do not want to seem as if iam being over critical of PB ,he is doing a good job with poor resources,however this whole subsititution thing has been bugging me for a while,like to see him try something different.

[gullsrus]

from what i can read into the substitution oastler was put on to man mark akinfenwa therefore things could have gone the other way and he could have scored 2 and we could have lost the game never mind drawn and i couldnt see nicky wroe having the guts to challenge him !!

[Fonda]

from what i can read into the substitution oastler was put on to man mark akinfenwa therefore things could have gone the other way and he could have scored 2 and we could have lost the game never mind drawn and i couldnt see nicky wroe having the guts to challenge him !!

The point remains, by continually calling on a defensive midfeilder, you are naturally inviting pressure. When we hadn't conceded in 80 minutes playing one way, why change it? Surely it's much better to try and play out the last few minutes in the opposition half than your own? Rather than seeing an extra opposition striker on the pitch as something to worry about, why not consider an opportunity? As they are throwing bodies forward, they are naturally leaving gaps behind...

[gullsrus]

change it because akinfenwa was brought on later and pb obviously saw him as a threat. tbh i thought oastler did a pretty good job of keeping him quiet . their goal was described as a wicked deflection and last week 2 needless penalties were given away. i put that down to bad luck and carelessness

[royalgull]

Tiredness. Midfielders get through a lot in a game, straight swapping one for another, i have no issue with that. Oastler didn't suddenly come on and joining the back 4, he went where Wroe was playing. It didn't make any difference. And it wouldn't have done if Wroe had stayed on. As ever 1 up with a few minutes to go you are going to get 'kitchen sink' from the opposition. They've got nothing to lose by then.

We still had some chances of our own after Oastler came on, we never took them and at the minute we're going through a bit of a phase of pretty poor luck. 2 pens last week, this week a shot which bevan saves easily gets deflected and squirms into the corner.

Having said that, Saturday was he worst performance i've seen from us this year. I never felt we looked like scoring, some of our passing was suicidal at best and Bevan kept us in it at half time. We were a bit better second half but after Julian's clanger we never troubled him enough or chucked enough balls into their box to see if he had the confidence to deal with them.

i thought we lacked a bit of strength up front and support for Elliot. When the midfields not quite on it's game this way of playing gets found out, I thought Gillingham were worth a point.

[Fonda]

change it because akinfenwa was brought on later and pb obviously saw him as a threat. tbh i thought oastler did a pretty good job of keeping him quiet . their goal was described as a wicked deflection and last week 2 needless penalties were given away. i put that down to bad luck and carelessness

I put it down to the ball being in and around our penalty area, because we are sitting deeper and inviting the opposition onto us in the dying stages of every game.

[royalgull]

You don't invite pressure, it comes from the other team if they are still in the game with a couple of minutes to go. That's football. If they didn't have a go with a few mins left then whats the point turning up?

Buckle could hae made 3 attacking changes, put 2 up front all the rest of it, it would have made NO difference to Gillingham's attitude in the last 5-10 minutes. They were going to chuck it towards akinfenwa and commit people forward.

[Fonda]

Tiredness. Midfielders get through a lot in a game, straight swapping one for another, i have no issue with that. Oastler didn't suddenly come on and joining the back 4, he went where Wroe was playing. It didn't make any difference. And it wouldn't have done if Wroe had stayed on. As ever 1 up with a few minutes to go you are going to get 'kitchen sink' from the opposition. They've got nothing to lose by then.

We still had some chances of our own after Oastler came on, we never took them and at the minute we're going through a bit of a phase of pretty poor luck. 2 pens last week, this week a shot which bevan saves easily gets deflected and squirms into the corner.

Having said that, Saturday was he worst performance i've seen from us this year. I never felt we looked like scoring, some of our passing was suicidal at best and Bevan kept us in it at half time. We were a bit better second half but after Julian's clanger we never troubled him enough or chucked enough balls into their box to see if he had the confidence to deal with them.

i thought we lacked a bit of strength up front and support for Elliot. When the midfields not quite on it's game this way of playing gets found out, I thought Gillingham were worth a point.

Oastler is a 'midfielder', but that is where the similarity with Wroe and O'Kane ends. One is a converted centre-half, and wants to do no more than sit in front of the back four. The others are progressive players, that want to keep us on the front foot. They might lossely play in the same position, but the team plays very differently when Oastler is on the pitch.