Matchday thread: Torquay United v Southport – 16th August

[portugull]

Ryan Bowman rose to the bait and got sent off for a simulated head butt because the Southport player Kay trod on him deliberately after fowling him.

Kay knew exactly what he was doing because he knew that Bowman has a short fuse and if fouled and then trod on under the nose of the referee Bowman would react. Any professional footballer must surely understand that a head butt even if simulated will result in a red card. I watched Chris Hargreaves very carefully when Bowman left the pitch and CH ignored him. He was obviously fuming. Such a shame as the stupidity of Bowman cost us 3 points.

The 10 men battled for 70 minutes and very nearly won the match. Downes was outstanding in defence and with the exception of Cruise who was frequently outpaced the defence held firm against a Southport team who were clinical cheats. The one thing I have noticed in the last two or three seasons is more and more teams are cheating in all sorts of ways and the officials just do not seem to be up to the job.

Big positives from the match were Courtney Cameron who was excellent, Luke Young who is an absolute dream signing and the tremendous team spirit which Chris and Lee Hodges have created. Hargreaves has got to talk to Bowman about his temper because he is a classic striker in some ways like Rene Howe who has everything that we need in a striker except for the fact that he possesses a self destruction button.

With Harding injured and Bowman out for 3 matches it will be interesting to see how Chris responds with his team selection for the next game.

Finally there was some real passion and support from the crowd today, 3 short of 2000.

[MidDevon]

Ryan Bowman is a ****

Had he been booed of the field by the bench (as he deserved to be) for being such a **** then perhaps the other players would have not felt so sorry for themselves, and on blaming the ref, and concentrated more on turning over what were a very average Southport team, although credit to the 10 that were left...they did do well

Bowman cost us a win and I hope that the lad who came on in the second half really takes his chance and keeps Bowman the **** out for longer

just to repeat

Ryan Bowman is a ****

[Modgull]

Just got back so here goes. Steve Breed got it just right IMO. This was a good, exciting match - perhaps because of rather than inspite of the sending off.

First the sending off - all Bowman's fault - no need to even get involved with Kay. He should have walked away from any provocation but instead got a deserved red card. So he'll also miss the next three games - the ones we really needed to be winning before we match up to the stronger teams in the division. Shame players contracts don't have sending off penalties as well as goal and win bonuses.

The rest of the team (apart from Briscoe who seemed content to stroll around most of the time) really got themselves up for the fight but Young nearly got his own marching orders for taking his revenge on Kay - fortunately picking up only a yellow.

Yeoman could not cope on his own and there were few chances created in the rest of the first half. At half time he was replaced with O'Archie who really made a difference - he was a real handful and took foul after foul from the Southport central defenders. He also had or created three good scoring chances but fluffed each of them.

Cameron was running his opposite number but, unfortunately, so was the Southport winger. Cruise was so woeful in trying to combat him that if it had been a boxing match the referee would have stepped in to save him from further punishment.

Which meant that the two central defenders, particularly Downes, deserve great credit for dealing successfully with all the threats from the wings. And on the one occasion Southport burst through Rice made an outstanding save.

The midfield of Young and Harding worked hard and generally well but we have probably lost Harding for a while now with a pulled hamstring. Richards looked as if he can provide adequate cover though.

Briscoe was eventually replaced with Ajala who managed in the short time he was on to provide much more of a threat. Briscoe looks either unfit or uninterested or both. Ajala every time for me.

Which just leaves Tonge. I thought he had a much better game today but I remain seriously worried about Cruise who was skinned repeatedly and he should be thankful that none of his errors led to us losing a goal and the match.

Southport deserved to lose for not showing more ambition against 10 men for over 70 minutes, the referee was abysmal (How Foster got away without at least a booking I don't know) and the crowd were awesome. Well done to the 1,900 who were there!

[drummergull90]

Second game in a week for me, can't remember ever being at Plainmoor twice in a week!

Thought we were really good today. Such a shame about Bowman. He's clearly a class above, but if he's going to act like that I'd rather we didn't have him at all. Getting sent off for violent conduct 25 mins into the third game of the season is simply not good enough. With him on the pitch we would have won that game comfortably.

Positives: Cameron, Young and Downes were all excellent. Why on earth did Argyle let Young go? Far too good for this league, great passer, reads the game well. Best we've had since O'Kane. Cameron was at the heart of everything. He seems so much more mature and composed than he did last season, great to see. CH got the tactics bang on, O'Achie looks to be getting sharper and caused them real problems when he came on. What I like about this squad is that we have options. If plan A isn't working, we have a plan B and probably a plan C due to the variety of quality players we have signed. Really encouraging. Also the crowd really got behind the lads in the second half.

Negatives: Bowman being a prat. Cruise got skinned a million times, but did make some important tackles and blocks. His distribution is woeful. As was Rice's, don't think a single goal kick met it's intended target. Needs to do better.

Ref was a complete prat, didn't have a clue. Worse league means worse refs.

Southport were appalling, lacking in any quality in any area of the pitch. Classic case of a crap team shutting up shop and trying to get a draw against the big boys. Guess we will have to get used to that.

[portugull]

Can metal guru clarify Ryan Bowmans disciplinary record last season? How many red cards???

[lucy6lucy]

Isn't a straight red, just a 1 game ban?

[Burnhamgull]

I watched the game from the family stand today and sadly a crowd of just under 2,000 looks really lost, even in a ground of our size.

I think a little bit of self belief and we could have attacked Southport earlier. The players seemed a bit stunned by Bowmans early departure and it took a while to get into the game. Their efforts in the second half deserved 3 points but it wasn't to be.

My concerns are over the size of the crowd and the lack of "signed up" match and ball sponsors for the season so far. Add that to the fact we're still waiting to buy our replica shirts and it all points towards a certain lack of professionalism still lingering at the club. Things on the pitch are looking more promising than they have for 24 months however.

[hector]

Not much to say about the game - it was poor, even before Bowman received his red card. In fact, towards the end, Southport probably had more clear-cut chances than us. Their rather poor left-back, at one stage, waltzed throughout our team and only his non-league finishing, blasting the ball virtually over the Babbacombe End from the 6 yard box, prevented Southport from going home with their first away win in a year. Southport were shockingly poor, when you think about the sort of teams we are used to watching, and we couldn't beat them. Ten men, eleven men, it doesn't matter, we should be beating teams like that!

[Dave]

For violent conduct the ban is 3 matchs. Wonder when players will ever learn, no matter the provocation you just cant retaliate , put your head, hands or even show that intent, your going off, Bowman you've let yourself and team mates down there.

With 11 men on the park no doubt we'd have won this game, but here we are, welcome back to the non-league, Southport did a job on us, we do look shaky at the back, however if Downes can hold that form with Pearce on the way back things might tighten up back there, thought we looked going forward at times, Cameron was the pick of the bunch, and O'Archie was the obvious choice to come as Yoeman was struggling as a lone striker.

Referee was truly as awful, not just for us, to balance it up, there a blatant handball he failed to give for Southport, we were denied what looked a clear penalty as well, maybe we've used our luck up on that score, sadly for us one of the few decisions he got right was the red card.

2 big points dropped.

[Scott Brehaut]

Can metal guru clarify Ryan Bowmans disciplinary record last season? How many red cards???

43 appearances. 8 goals. 2 yellow cards. 2 red cards.

http://www.soccerbase.com/players/playe ... son_id=143

Just read the two match reports - the first sending off was against Bristol Rovers. He came on as a sub and was sent off a few minutes later after a "clash" between him and the a Rovers captain. Looks like they both came together, both went down and Bowman came up again, got sent off and the Rovers captain got a yellow.

Second red was for a very bad tackle.

[portugull]

Thanks Scott. Bowman played for Hereford when Martin Foyle was the Manager.

Foyle I guess knew Bowman had a short fuse and was a dangerous player so told his defenders to provoke him and he might get himself sent off!

It worked.

[Dave_Pougher]

My first game since our win at Bristol Rovers, far to long.
Southport wanted a player dismissed that was obvious from the start, didn't see much of Bowans actions and would like to see it again before passing judgement but to me there appealing for that send off was pretty violent. The ref was a tool, the incident where in out box in the first half where he said he didn't see one their players smack ours then made Rice take a free kick on the spot where the same incident occurred? Southports falling over at every given opportunity spoilt an otherwise entertaing match even Bartlett was shouting out positives! Was it their no.10 who came on at about 60 mins and was down in less then 10 secs without touching the ball lol.

In the last match, from the little I saw, and the first half of this one, we played some good stuff on the deck, that switched to be bit of long ball in second half, because we had to. Like the look of Acheampong, not quiet the finished article yet but think there's potential there. Downs was my MOM twice I saw him in the opposition box only to be doing match saving tackles at the other end leaving some our players in his wake. Their best player was their keeper without a doubt.

[brucie]

Could not have been more frustrated after the drive down and seeing Bonehead Bowman cost us two points. It may have been 0-0 at the time but we would have won at a canter had it been 11 v 11.
Unfortunately that was the only decision the ref got right in the game because he was seriously useless.
I may have done o'Archie a dis service on Tuesday night because he did very well.
Southport were worse than Welling but we have tossed away two points - if we are going to do anything this season we cannot afford to drop points to teams like that.

[tomogull]

I would rather watch Welling play each week than Southport. At least Welling played some neat football. Southport used all the tricks in the book to get our players booked or sent off - horrible team. Bowman stupidly rose to the bait and saw red and lost us two points. Shocking ref - conned all match by Southport's play acting and not helped by his linesmen.

Pluses for me - impressed with the players that Hargreaves has brought in. McDonald, Young, O'achie, Ayala and Richards all played well - Richards only for 15 mins or so. Bowman started well but Hargreaves will have to curb his hot-headed streak. Another good performance by Rice and also Cameron and Downes. Tonge had a steady game if not spectacular.

Minuses - Cruise yet again skinned time and time again by the winger. Our winger from Mansfield (forgotten his name !!!) looks about three months off fitness and disappeared from the game after about half an hour. Harding doesn't do it for me. He doesn't close down opponents and he doesn't get in his tackles. If he's out for a few games, I think we will see more from Richards. Tough call for Yeoman when he had to play as a lone striker but as Tuesday night, he gets knocked off the ball too easily. No questions about his workrate and I hope he starts getting amongst the goals soon.

[Neal]

THe main problem with this league is the poor reffereeing. What about writing to the league authorities and complain, I know it won't make any difference BUT we are the customers and if they got a number of letters maybe someone will take note.