Next 8 Games

[Dave]

Agree totally, to catch Yeovil would be a slow burn, in a previous post I was merely pointing out the size of the task to catch Yeovil in its most extreme form.

And anything lower than 1st place isn't potentially a good place to be in.

The size of the the task in hand potentially amplified by the fact, in 2018 TUFC lost 7 games on the way to the title, 21/22 Maidstone lost 7, and last seasons champions Ebbsfleet lost 7,we have already suffered 7 defeats in November and little or no margin for error left.

All about mentality, Yeovil play tonight after suffering their first defeat for some time, our team goes up against our old friend Alan Dowson Saturday, we all know what expect from a Dowson team, think we'll know a lot by 4.45 Saturday.

[Skillsy]

Going back in time to that great day at Wembley in 1991…. I believe Blackpool were second bottom in March but could have won the title had they won the last match. Yes that was obviously a phenomenal run, but it shows it can be done!

I played for Blackpool at the time of the 1991 play off final. For the record, Blackpool won their last eleven home games and only needed a draw at Walsall on the last day of the season to gain automatic promotion, but Walsall won 2-0. This dropped Blackpool into the play offs and Dave Bamber's scuffed penalty at Wembley finally put Torquay up.

Interesting little anecdote, hopefully.......All Blackpool players were on a promotion bonus of £2,500, not bad in those days. The club were struggling financially and in order to mitigate the cost of promotion we were offered a deal, a few days before the final, which was..........either we stick with the original deal, or the club would give us half, £1250 fixed, whether we went up or not. The club thought they would beat Torquay and this was a way to reduce the bonus pay out. I was convinced Blackpool would win so didn't accept the offer, but when Bamber's penalty trickled wide I regretted my decision! He was a great lad, Dave Bamber, but I called him every name under the sun at that moment.......

[happytorq]

I played for Blackpool at the time of the 1991 play off final. For the record, Blackpool won their last eleven home games and only needed a draw at Walsall on the last day of the season to gain automatic promotion, but Walsall won 2-0. This dropped Blackpool into the play offs and Dave Bamber's scuffed penalty at Wembley finally put Torquay up.

Interesting little anecdote, hopefully.......All Blackpool players were on a promotion bonus of £2,500, not bad in those days. The club were struggling financially and in order to mitigate the cost of promotion we were offered a deal, a few days before the final, which was..........either we stick with the original deal, or the club would give us half, £1250 fixed, whether we went up or not. The club thought they would beat Torquay and this was a way to reduce the bonus pay out. I was convinced Blackpool would win so didn't accept the offer, but when Bamber's penalty trickled wide I regretted my decision! He was a great lad, Dave Bamber, but I called him every name under the sun at that moment.......

ah, one of my earliest Torquay memories. I wasn't even there, lol - I listened to it on the radio.

Wasn't there a TUFC fanzine for a while called "Dave Bamber's Left Foot"? (might've been right foot)

Edit - Also, on that £2,500 bonus. Today, with inflation, that'd be about £5,500. pretty decent even now. I don't know what League 2 players are on these days but that has to be close to a month's salary for non-Wrexham/Stockport/Notts players, right?

[Skillsy]

It would have been right foot, not left! He could barely stand on his left foot, let alone kick with it. Having said that, had he taken the penalty left footed it could not possibly have been any worse

[AdrianC]

Thanks for your replies, very interesting.

Definitely Bamber’s Right Foot! Some hilarious things in it, the TUFC Subbuteo team was just brilliant! Alan Hay was just the empty base, Mario Walshe had a ballet tutu, Scott Colcombe was about half the the size and John Matthews about twice the size!

I should get out more

[desperado]

Trying to figure out who you are Skillsy
As you said you played for Blackpool and Torquay....Ian Gore ? Russell Coughlin ?

[Mr Tea808]

Sadly Russell Coughlin passed away a few years ago, he was a quality midfielder in his prime, by the time he came to us it was at the tail end of his career, but at Argyle he was quality.

[desperado]

Sorry I'd forgotten that, obviously not a great lover of Argyle but that team was really good.
Coughlin, Tynan, Hodges, Nelson etc.
Remember Ian Gore scoring for us in that ridiculous 8-4 defeat at Walsall, can still see Ian Hathaways shot in the last minute at 3-3 hitting the post rolling along the line hitting the other post and staying out ! Sorry to go off thread.

[AdrianC]

I was there for the 8-4, managed to get out of work early, straight on to the M25 at Reigate, keeping everything crossed that we’d make it!

[Forest gull]

Don't write us off yet for the title. You don't have to look at the Premiership for an example of a runaway club losing it in the end. It was only a couple of seasons ago that Torquay were twelve points ahead in Feb / March and we still missed out on automatic promotion. It's a long way to go to the end of the season, and anything can happen. I wouldn't bet on Yeovil yet.

We had played many more games than Sutton and Hartlepool at the time, so although we were ahead it wasn’t that simple.

[Dave]

Well that's game one chalked off and we've been thrashed, and to think some believed we could chase down Yeovil and win the league, what ever wild fantasies some of you are having share them with me, could do with cheering up

[brucie]

Exactly right.

[Dave]

I have the upmost respect for everyone opinions and the right to express them, but are some holding on to 'hope' and failing to see what's right on front of them, below I'm going to list the teams above us in the table, our results against them and current form, because I think it highlights a huge problem going forward, unless things change.

Yeovil L 1.3 LDWWW (10 PTS)
Aveley L1.2 DDLLW (5PTS)
Hampton/Richmond L 1.3 WWDWW (13PTS)
Bath W 1.0 DDWWL (8PTS)
Maidstone L0.1 LWWLW (9PTS)
Braintree W2.1 LWWLW (9PTS)
Worthing L 0.3 DWLWW (10PTS)
Tonbridge not played WDLWW (10 PTS)
Chelmsford W 2.1 LLWDW (7PTS)
Dartford L 0.3 WLWLW (9TS)
Hemel Heapstead L 3.2 WDWLW (10PTS)
TUFC LWLWL (6PTS)

So it's quite clear as things stand at the moment only Aveley have a lower current form than ourselves, and whilst I'm as certain as can be that a play-off place will be gained by our team, looking at our results against the teams who could very well be our opponents it doesn't bode well.

I know current form can change very quickly and some of these above have to play each other so it will NOT work out exactly, however should things continue any like it's panning out right at this moment, we could very soon find ourselves 18 pts off top, 13 pts off 2nd and something around 6pts off the play-offs.

The very fact GJ survived relegation, the very fact the local board still sits on it's hands and does nothing, says nothing, and GJ remains should tell us all what we need to know, yet some are still stuck in a shoulder shrugging malaise, still stuck in a dream world thinking Clarke Osbourne is going to come into town, and ride off into the sunset on my little pony with the good ship TUFC where, we're going live happily ever after is embarrassing.

Come on, we can't except this, we shouldn't have to except this, what are any us prepared to do about it.

[portugull]

When I posted this thread on the 19th November we had 8 games up to 30th December.

Well we have taken 9 points from a possible 12 but we have an additional game to play before the year is out. Taunton away on Tuesday 19th December.

We are up to 4th and Yeovil have only taken 8 points from their last 5 games with 2 wins, 2 draws and one defeat.

We are looking more confident and 38 goals in the League means only Yeovil with 42 and Worthing and Bath with 39 have outscored us.

Given all our injuries I think if we can be in the Top 3 at year end it will be a good recovery from a poor start. COYY

[Southampton Gull]

How our season pans out is definitely going to be dependent on our injury situation. I've always felt confident in the abilities of our manager to get us promoted (much to the annoyance of some) but now as we start to look like more realistic contenders for promotion I do worry about the never ending additions to our list of injured. That I feel is the biggest obstacle for us so the rest of the season is going to be nerve-wracking for sure.