Torquay United v Dover Athletic – Saturday 20th September

[Scott Brehaut]

Some really good reviews tonight- thanks

[lucy6lucy]

You can't win every match 3/4 nil, this was always going to be banana skin game. We won, forget the performance. The lads are knackered. They have a week off now, so bring on Telford.

[SuperNickyWroe]

You can't win every match 3/4 nil, this was always going to be banana skin game. We won, forget the performance. The lads are knackered. They have a week off now, so bring on Telford.

so true juicy lucy........

id take a 1-0 win in the 90th minute every time..... :devil:

[PlainmoorRoar]

Bad bad performance but who cares a win is a win!

How they missed that open goal incredible!

Rice MOM are you taking the mick? With nothing to do, kicking and commanding of his area was terrible!

We need this week off to regroup and re energise our batteries!

Also hope the guy who needed paramedic attention is okay!
Anyone know anything about it?

[SuperNickyWroe]

Bad bad performance but who cares a win is a win!

How they missed that open goal incredible!

Rice MOM are you taking the mick? With nothing to do, kicking and commanding of his area was terrible!

We need this week off to regroup and re energise our batteries!

Also hope the guy who needed paramedic attention is okay!
Anyone know anything about it?

what? about being a paramedic?

well.................. :}

[ferrarilover]

Yup, that pretty much covers it. We were dreadful, but understandably so given the amount of football this same starting XI has played over the last couple of weeks. Despite that being comfortably our worst showing of the season, Dover didn't get near our goal through their own efforts and, even when Ricey gifted them an equaliser, they still couldn't score.

A note on their fans, who were absolutely incredible. Twice as many of them as I thought there would be and made a right old din throughout most of the match. A shame they had to see such a foul spectacle, but thems the breaks. Good luck to Dover for the remainder of the season.

As for us, well, Chris will give most of them Monday off and have a late Tuesday start. I think a freshening of the lineup, with Cameron restored and Briscoe too. Ajala and Chaps caused their own problems today, but they'll learn.

One closing query: are Barnet ever going to play anyone not in the relegation places? No wonder they're top, they only play the cannon fodder.

Matt.

[IlshamSchmilsham]

The over-riding impression today was one of collective tiredness amongst the midfield and attacking players. The defenders, on the other hand, looked on top of their game and hardly put a foot wrong between them. This shouldn't be too surprising because that is where our experience lies (even MacDonald, who I thought was first-class, is used to the rigours of twice a week Conference football). The past few weeks has really put the stamina and fitness of our younger players to the test, possibly for the first time in their careers, and they clearly struggled today, not through lack of effort, just mental and physical sharpness. So we can be grateful for three hard-earned points and the fact the squad now have a full week to prepare for the next game. Onward and upwards!

[chunkygull]

Even better than that - 6 wins in a row! :~D

We looked comfortable rather than spectacular today. Other than the open goal their striker put over the bar, Dover offered very little threat. We could have had a couple more - Young was unlucky to hit the post, and Bowman should have scored when through - but we didn't need to play to our best to win today.

The defence were solid, Bowman did well up front but I thought Duane and Toby were off the pace today.

All in all a good win, and a game against bottom of league to follow. The good times are back at the Launa Windows stadium!

:Oops:

Mistake noted and will edit. I meant 6th, honest. Thats what happens when you get all excited and rush writing your post. :~D

[hector]

I thought the team looked tired today but a win is a win and there were some good moments. Dover looked slightly better than their league position suggests but the game, the atmosphere just felt a little flat after Tuesday's drama.

[tomogull]

I had a feeling this would be a tougher game than what some fans predicted. Teams like Halifax and Kidderminster struggled to beat them 1 - 0 and they have beaten Eastleigh and drawn away to Grimsby. We looked tired some posters have said, but hang on - they're a team of mostly part-time players and they've played the same demanding five games in two weeks, plus they've had two away games this week.

Let's give Dover a bit of credit. They played with five at the back in the first half and I think their manager had done his homework because Young and Richards were closely marked and harried. After we took the lead, they had to come out and be a bit more adventurous and were the better team in the second half. They should have equalised after that mix up between Rice and McDonald. We didn't play well but we got the three points which is what mattered.

Couple of things - I thought Jordan Chappell would fit in well with the style of play this team plays but he had a poor game today with several wayward passes or passes putting team-mates in trouble. Toby Ajala - bags of promise but loses the ball or chooses the wrong option too often. Ryan Bowman - berated team mates several times today, even had a go at O'Achie at one point when he (Bowman) had messed up a pass. I don't like to see that in players - maybe why York released him? Finally, a word on the ref - not too bad today. He got most decisions right I thought.

[Gullscorer]

Happy with the result and with the scoreline, considering that Dover came with one aim in mind, to stop us scoring and take home a point, and perhaps sneak a breakaway goal. (Oops, that's three aims..)..

Sooner or later, though, we will score a bagful of goals, as Barnet did today. And it may possibly be against teams like Kidderminster or Forest Green Rovers rather than one of the bottom teams, because football, whether it be in terms of fitness, form, team selections, or whatever, is always in a state of flux, always changing and affecting how teams perform on the day.

Which also means that, inevitably, we will eventually lose our clean sheet record, even lose a game to end our run of games without defeat (as happened recently to Barnet). We may even have to endure a spell of poor results similar to those in August. Inevitably it will be a roller coaster ride, but the important thing is that we're generally moving in the right direction and there's no reason why the team's progress should not be maintained through to the end of the season.

[arcadia]

Dover got their tactics right with the three centre -halves and two quick fullbacks that stopped our wingers that were poor today. Downes and McDonald were our best players with McDonald showing that he's going to have clubs watching him if he produces the form he's in.
Dover showed up our weaknesses and caught the fullbacks out several times when they broke away. It's just that I hope we learn from this game as when they made their substitutions we looked vulnerable. Hargreaves made the right substitution as Cameron looked sharper than both of our wide players that started the game perhaps he thinks he's got something to prove. A win is a win lets enjoy but learn.

[brucie]

Seems like we were disappointing yesterday. Tiredness cannot really be an excuse when we had to play a team of part timers who travelled 300 miles just to get here. They have played exactly the same amount of games as us.
We have a free week and it should be another game we should win on saturday.

[ferrarilover]

Not quite as sapping though, playing the way Dover do as playing the way we do. There's a reason that in those 5 games we've played with enough energy to win 5 games, score 11 and concede none, where as Dover scored three points, scored 5 and conceded 9. We've also had the same starting XI for all those games (I think, can't be arsed to check, but it's as near as dammit), I doubt (although haven't checked) that Dover have done the same thing.
For all the tiredness we displayed, Dover never actually threatened our goal, save for the one gimmie offered up by a Rice mistake from a hopelessly over hit ball forward.
Couple of days off, a free week and perhaps some options utilised against Telford and we should see a much improved Torquay.

Matt.

[ROADRUNNER]

some games will be better than others, some will be pretty to watch and some ugly, its the result that counts and another 3 points, we all have good days and bad days and footballers are no different.