Gillingham v Torquay United, League 2, 25/02/12.

[bixieupnorth]

lame display from about the 5th minute onwards, dont want to complain too much cos we're still streets ahead of where we thought we would be now, but it sounds like a really bad day at the office from almost everyone out there today, after only about 3 turned up against bradford

mr ling, its over to you mate, some impressive geeing up of the boys or a serious look at a few loanees!

regarding oastler, if its a case of mistaken identity he'll surely get let off of the extra two games for a straight red, but can they inflict it on saah instead, i dont see how they can possibly do that?

the question therefore is, who would be rather lose for two games, saah or oastler?

[Gulliball]

It'll only be one game as it wasn't violent conduct.

[yellowforever]

I think this indicates the need to freshen up things by bringing in a loanee or two.

The squad has done brilliantly up until this stage, but we need some reinforcements, especially in the forward department, a player of Bodin's ilk would go some way to helping us produce a better display going forward.

[Scott Brehaut]

Manager of the month curse....

[ferrarilover]

Absolute and utter rubbish. Rene Howe doesn't want to score. Everyone far, FAR too slow today, as if they'd been told tackling had been outlawed so none would be forthcoming.

Referee the worst I've seen for a while, but was equally bad for both teams. Quite how he managed to confuse very ugly, clean skinned, black as the ace of spades Saah with white, pretty and tattooed up to the eyeballs Oastler, I'll never know. Not an excuse, of course, but certainly didnt help.

Bloody Gillingham are crap, but we were worse today, and got precisely what we deserved.

Matt.

[bixieupnorth]

now now Scott, for the last time THERE IS NO CURSE!

please can everyone stop referring to it from now on!

[Jeff]

Absolute and utter rubbish. Rene Howe doesn't want to score. Everyone far, FAR too slow today, as if they'd been told tackling had been outlawed so none would be forthcoming.

Referee the worst I've seen for a while, but was equally bad for both teams. Quite how he managed to confuse very ugly, clean skinned, black as the ace of spades Saah with white, pretty and tattooed up to the eyeballs Oastler, I'll never know. Not an excuse, of course, but certainly didnt help.

Bloody Gillingham are crap, but we were worse today, and got precisely what we deserved.

Matt.

I thought it was Saah at first, then when I saw Oastler walking I thought I must be going mad. I'm glad that my eyesight has been proven to not be that bad.

[tktufc91]

It definitely was Saah, just goes to show how useless the referee and linesmen were today. The one nearest us couldnt even hold his flag properly.

Fair play to Ling though, calls it like it is. Not good enough. I'll be going to Crawley next week in the hope that we can pull a result from E*ans. Can't be much worse than today....

[AustrianAndyGull]

Well done to all the travelling Gulls contingent today, i'm sure you made yourselves heard despite an apparent non-event. We lost today, i expected it. We'll lose on saturday too most probably but it's not a problem for me. IMO defeat against Crawley will more or less see our flirtation with the top three come to a sad but expected end. We simply can't compete with Swindon and Crawley in terms of firepower regardless of if Ling brings someone in and we don't at the moment have the potency of the other teams up there. This is not a criticism of anyone at the club, we simply haven't got the funds or quality to see it out to the bitter end. A play off spot should be well within our capabilities and to not secure one would mean we have suffered a catastrophic collapse in form. With two defeats on the bounce soon to be three and performances in the last 3 or 4 games being really tepid this leads me to be concerned that we could have already embarked on another shocking run of form like earlier on in the season where it wasn't just results that were unacceptable but the performances also. I desperately hope i'm wrong but the next 7 games are difficult, Crawley away, Aldershot at home who we should be beating, Bristol Rovers who have struck form and are looking for a late run into the play offs, Rotherham away always tricky and we've yet to win there, Burton away is winnable but tricky, Swindon away defeat and Vale at home who have picked up and are looking for a play off spot. This is a bad month to go on a poor run and fingers crossed we can pick up enough points to keep us in the play off picture come April.

[Sexy_Gulls]

Well at least we weren't subject to a hail storm this year!!

Very frustrating day all round. We stated brightly then faded and once they scored we fell apart trying to chase the game. Clearly we need another forward, someone with pace who can change the game with a bit of brilliance. Not one player managed to beat his man today, especially Stevens who was either ignored on the wing or marked out the game in the centre.
Rene started well, knicked the ball of their defender and started a move that ended up with Stevens hitting the post. But then the ref booked him for a late challenge (couldn't tell if it was deserved, but it was so early in the game that a yellow seemed a bit hasty), this and a few other ticking offs from the ref caused Howe to stop being physical and he basically gave up challenging for the ball. It would be easy just to blame Howe for this, especially he seemed to be sulking, but the ref hamstrung him with the threat of another sending off and a lengthy ban. If we had another striker in the squad then I think Ling would have subbed him.

The ref was terrible for both sides. Missed obvious fouls (one on Nicho and one by Morris spring to mind), took ages to blow his whistle and managed to confuse Saah with Oastler.

Not particularly down heartened though. More, "oh well.." than "You bunch of useless *****"

[bengull]

The Hallmark of any good team is how they bounce back from disappointment and after Saturday's defeat at the hand's of lowly Bradford it will be interesting to see how TUFC respond with a tricky looking trip to Kent to face a misfiring Gillingham side. Torquay's last defeat before that well-organised Bantams team left Plainmoor with all three points was two months previously against Accrington. In between those two defeats Torquay garnered 26 points from a possible 27, an unbelievable run, and one which Torquay will be keen to replicate starting with Saturday's fixture in the South East.

Gillingham came to Plainmoor in October and took advantage of a Gull's team low in confidence and confused in shape, on that day Gillingham ran out comfortable 5-2 victors and the two clubs looked poles apart in terms of class and expectation. Since then though the Gills have been inconsistent: free scoring, at the right end, but equally as generous at the other. Currently without a win in 6 league games and having dropped from play-off certainties to 13th place in recent weeks, outspoken manager Andy Hessenthaler is under a fair bit of pressure from his own fans. This could be the perfect opportunity for Torquay to capitalise and get revenge for the heavy defeat earlier in the season.

Martin Ling continues to bide his time in order to add fresh legs to his squad. He has made it known he is looking for a few new players, however the extended excellent form of his current group should allow him a few days longer to find a man right for the atmosphere and ramifications of the squad. Chris McPhee may continue in the midfield as Damon Lathrope is rated as 50/50 to return: a situation that Ling might err on the side of caution with in order not to aggravate further the important midfielder's injury. There is also a question mark up front as to who will get the thankless task as the lone striker, a selfless position that has allowed other members of the team to express themselves greatly this season, neither Taiwo Atieno or Rene Howe will be pleased with their goal totals so far this season, but both should be satisfied that their tireless efforts leading the line have led to great success on the pitch.

And so to my first visit to a surprisingly pleasant Priestfield, situated in the open away end bathed in sunshine. Torquay, looking for their 5th away win on the trot, lined up 4-5-1 with Rene Howe up front, and fit again Damon Lathrope restored to the midfield, on paper Torquay's strongest eleven took to the field today. They faced an attack minded Gillingham team which included two ex Gulls; Jo Kuffour and Gavin Tomlin both of whom had enjoyed successful spells in the Westcountry.

Torquay, as is so often the case at the moment, took the game to Gillingham straight from kick off, hitting the post in the first minute from a cross-come-shot by Danny Stevens. The diminutive winger cut inside and his dangerous shot across the keeper evaded everyone and came back off the inside of the post. It could have been a very different story had that gone in but sadly that was as near as Torquay got to scoring in the first half. Gillingham settled soon after the early let- off and passed with real purpose going forward, finding space in particular behind the two Torquay full backs. In the end it was only some vital defensive touches and some overplaying from the Gills' forward men which really denied the home team from having a meaningful effort at goal. Although Joe Oastler had to be brave and alert to clear off the line after Olejnik had been beaten by a piece of nice interplay.

The first half was a tale of two sides looking very positive on the ball going forward but lacking the final ball to create a goal-scoring chance. On too many occasions for both teams, the final ball was over hit, failed to beat the first man, or ended in a tame effort easily gathered by the goalkeeper. The referee, who I thought was poor throughout, continually broke up play with fussy decisions, a very early caution for Rene Howe looked extremely harsh to me, which more or less took the sting out of the striker's play for the rest of the afternoon. Every time he contested a ball a foul was given against him, yet at the other end a similar challenge by a Gills striker on Mark Ellis went unpunished. At half time though Gillingham may have just shaded it and I got the feeling that the first goal would win the game

Into the second half and Torquay again looked to claim an early advantage, this time Rene Howe was the beneficiary of some slack Gillingham defending, and ran in on goal, however some procrastination on his part saw him fail to pull the trigger allowing the defender to atone for his earlier error by getting a crucial tackle in. This proved to be a pivotal moment in the game and perhaps Howe will look at his laid-back style and think he may have been better getting his shot away earlier, it turned out to be Torquay's only clear cut opening in the half.

Gillingham forced a series of corners and finally their pressure paid off, a fine delivery was met by centre back Clive King who headed it into the net. So often this season Torquay have scored through strong set-piece play, but on this occasion they conceded from a routine corner, this undoubtedly will be a disappointment for Shaun Taylor, whose defensive coaching has made us such a strong unit of late. This woke the crowd up who up until that point had been deafly silent, the phrase 'you only sing when you're winning' might never have been more appropriate.

Torquay looked for a quick response and passed the ball round nicely on a number of instances, linking up cleverly and threading the passes together in the manner that has been so pleasing on the eye in so many matches this season. Damon Lathrope, showing no signs of being hampered by injury, displayed why we missed him so badly against Bradford last week by pinning the team together. Atieno was thrown on early in the second half as Torquay moved to a conventional 4-4-2 but this had no real impact on proceedings. One piece of play towards the end is to my mind symbolic of some of our problems this season: Rene Howe manufactured a bit of space on the right wing, and played the best ball of the match into the box, a striker's dream, not one Torquay player was in a position to meet it. Our approach play is excellent, top class, but really it is Howe we need to be scoring that chance, not supplying it.

Gillingham, looking to time waste at every opportunity, kept finding space in behind Torquay, especially as we pushed up looking for the equaliser. In the last minute Tomlin capitalised on some poor defending by The Gulls and ran through towards goal, Saah tried to get a foot in from behind and a coming together left both players on the floor. From the away end it was unclear what had happened, and although the home fans made their feelings known, the referee initially waved played on. However the linesman flagged for the foul and the penalty was awarded, the referee compounded Torquay's misery by brandishing the red card, and then totally summed up his inept performance by showing it to Oastler, even though the culprit was Saah. Oastler was 10 yards away at the time of the foul. The spot kick was duly converted but in truth, in the last minute of the game, that was pretty much irrelevant, however it secured a morale boosting win for the Gills: their first in eight games.

I think 2-0 flattered Gillingham today, although they did deserve to win the game, the incident in the last minute marred what had been a hard fought match, and for large portions an even one. Torquay's lack of goal threat looks now to be an issue in desperate need of addressing. Like at the beginning of the season, we can create decent chances, we just need to start taking them again. I trust Martin Ling to find the right man, and after only two defeats in eleven there is still no need to panic but reinforcements are clearly needed if we are to maintain our playoff position after a hectic eight match month of March. It doesn't get any easier for the Yellow Army as we travel to Crawley next, however whilst still being comfortably embedded in the top seven there is still no reason to forecast doom and gloom for the rest of the season either. There are still fourteen games to play and plenty of points to play for.

[brucie]

Plain fact is if we go behind we are basically stuffed. Luckily it hasn't happened too often due to our excellent defence. However we sold Robbo and replaced him with a player who is probably nowhere near league 2 standard at present and our only other signing Craig is probably Western League standard (which is about the standard of most of our benchwarners).
Having seen the wins over Dagenham,Northampton, and Cheltenham i would say that we are very unlikely to score more than one goal in a match very often.
Hats off to Ling - to be safe from relegation at this stage of the season is a fantastic achievment, but in all honesty we have not a hope of achieving a top seven finish.

[Colorado Gull]

What a very poor performance yesterday was, in my eyes only Saah and Bobby played well yesterday, the rest were poor. Ellis and Lathrope did alright but everyone else didn't play well. The full backs couldn't deal with Tomlin, he was running rings round our defence at times. Mansell and Eunan created nothing, with Morris not in the game. I think Ling should have swapped Danny and Morris over, Stevens on the left and Morris on the right didn't seem to work. Danny had a good effort in the first few minutes when his shot hit the post, and if that went in we might have gone on to go from strength to strength and get something out of the game. Rene Howe? Well as soon as he got a yellow card early on in the first half, he didn't look interested. He didn't go for balls or tackle and could not hold the ball up. In the first minute of the 2nd half, he turned and was one on one with the goal keeper. He then decided to take touches in the space of a second, totally messed it up and his shot was intercepted to go out for a corner. Lathrope shouldn't have been substituted in my eyes, he might have not been 100% fit, but Mcphee didn't do anything when he replaced Damon. Morris played poorly, replaced for Tai, but he did nothing upfront. To top it all off Oastler was sent off for Saah's last man challenge! Made I larf when Saah went walkabouts after he made the foul. Then the ref sent off Oastler, that ref should never referee again.

We are crying out for a player like Bodin, we need a striker with pace and that can create something. I am not panicking, but it was a very depressing performance yesterday.

I managed to take one video yesterday and uploaded it onto the TorquayFansdotcom youtube channel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib-1LmwU ... ature=plcp

[Scott Brehaut]

However we sold Robbo and replaced him with a player who is probably nowhere near league 2 standard at present

The same player who has appeared in the top five of most peoples MOTM's since he has come back?
The same player who has, arguably, played better than Ellis since he has come back?

I can't comment properly given that I haven't yet seen them play (although will be very soon!!), and therefore can only go on what I have read - which suggests to me that the defence is, currently, no poorer for having Saah in the team.

[usagullmichigan]

The same player who has appeared in the top five of most peoples MOTM's since he has come back?
The same player who has, arguably, played better than Ellis since he has come back?

I can't comment properly given that I haven't yet seen them play (although will be very soon!!), and therefore can only go on what I have read - which suggests to me that the defence is, currently, no poorer for having Saah in the team.

You expecet Brucie to be logical?