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I shall probably not be able to write a match preview next week (when perhaps Lucy, or Forever the old stalwart, or anybody else, could step in) so I thought I'd have a go now in the absence of any other match thread.

Barrow, our visitors on Saturday, have three points from their first two games of the season, the same as the Gulls. They bring with them their manager Paul Cox, who achieved a greater measure of success with them last season than he did during his tenure at Plainmoor, taking them to eleventh place on 65 points. To be fair, his budget at Torquay, not to mention his wages, was much less than Barrow are presumably giving him now, which makes Kevin Nicholson's achievement here last season miraculous by comparison.

The teams last time out:

Barrow:
Dixon, Beeley, Wilmer-Anderton, Turnbull, Diarra, Livesey, Harvey, L Hughes, Hannah, Harrison, Williams.
Subs: Parry, Haworth, Bennett, Meickle, Murray.

Torquay:
Moore, Rowe-Turner, Lathrope, Gerring, Young, Blissett, Richards, Sparkes, Verma, Williams, McGinty.
Subs: Robba, Chaney, Scrivens, Reid, Nicholson.

Barrow, like us, will be aiming for a higher final position this season. They have a half-decent team and will present something of a challenge, so it should be an interesting and exciting game. However, I believe our lads are equal to such a challenge. They have yet to show their full potential and talents, but under manager Kevin Nicholson will undoubtedly improve as the season progresses.

There are many Gulls supporters, possibly most of us, who don't hold much hope of our lads achieving anything more than mid-table mediocrity this season. But think about this. The odds against West Bromwich Albion (whom we beat 2-1) becoming Premiership Champions vary between 750-1 and 1500-1. And for Leicester, last season's champions, somewhat less, between 28-1 and 38-1! The odds against the Gulls winning the National League title vary between 25-1 and 50-1. At those prices, if you have any faith at all in Kevin Nicholson and his players, I reckon the Gulls are worth a bet, and it's certainly worth getting up to Plainmoor and supporting them.

Even if the club has a minimal budget, it should not lack support from the fans. Let us be one of the club's biggest assets this season, and let's try to get a 3000-3500 crowd there this weekend. Our team is worth it, and together, just possibly, we might beat those odds and make it a season worth remembering.

Gulls 3 v 1 Barrow
Bliss, Willow, Young
Att. 3001

I hope that Chaney gets a start but understand the thinking to play Lathrope in front of the centre halves.
2-1 to United.

no commentray on bbc radio devon? actually quite good on Cumbria

Was late to get going but ok for me now on Gullsplayer. Agree that Radio Cumbria guys were very good when I did have them on.

Good start to the game, both sides attacking well and we've had a few chances.

Numbers falling off our brand new kit - what a fecking shambles. Amateur.

'Taking the p***' and 'f***ing disgrace'! Choice words from BBC Radio Devon during half time...

The fact we are winning seems overlooked in amongst all the ranting

What's all the ranting about?

On a slightly positive note, if we have no numbers on our backs, it'll make booking our players more difficult.

1-1

Same old story - useless.

brucie wrote:Same old story - useless.

Torquay are a team made up of freebies and inexperienced youngsters of which some are getting their wages paid for by fan donations, they have no money, a rookie manager doing his very best and they just narrowly escaped going out of the conference last season. In addition they are STILL run by a load of clowns and are a club so unstable they should really be at Broadmoor. Tell me what exactly is it that you expect?

It's a point and take the positives and move on.

Nearly forgot. It's Brucie and here I am going on about taking the positives.

When the Radio Devon link was not working earlier, I was listening to the commentary for Barrow. Apparently, Torquay are in the bottom 4 for the playing budget this season? If this is true and remembering there are part time teams in this league and also the attendances we have in comparison to others, a number of questions need asking. I know for sure there are not 20 teams in this league being bank rolled by millionaires.

People may point to the reduced price of season tickets, but this is nonsense, because we sold more than double what we had last season, so we actually raised more money up front than previously - and added to this the more people there are in the stadium the more chance they will spend their money there. So the question is, where is all the income actually going?....

With regards to the result, we just need to dust ourselves down and go to Sutton and win on Tuesday.

Great goal by Williams, it was a shame we never pushed on to get a 2nd and kill the game.

we allowed Barrow too much of the ball towards the end of the game and a cruel deflection lobbed moore.

Ref - where was his match fitness? never left the middle of the park as he couldn't run, booked Gerring for winning the ball