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brooker wrote: ↑26 Jul 2017, 10:46 It was a good game to watch actually. Bolitho Park is a nice little ground, and Parkway were up for it from the off, the tackles flying in all over the pitch; Tallan Mitchell was absolutely clattered in the first minute, they obviously decided to stick one on him early. There didn't seem to be a huge amount of Gulls who had made the trip, we were next to some Parkway fans, who instantly pointed out Austen Booth (Torquay triallist), who had been on loan there from Truro towards the tail end of last season. He stood out as one of our better players; good on the ball, composed for a young defender, and agressive in the air and in the tackle. Sam Chaney also stood out in a wide attacking role, taking people on and moving the ball quickly. I heard a few Parkway supporters at half time name him as the best player on the park.

Despite Parkway's spirited battling, Torquay started to gain the upper hand, a few successive chances culminating in a through ball leaving Reid one on one with their keeper. All he had to do was make some kind of contact with the ball to score, but instead tried a trick to take it around the keeper, forgetting to take the ball with him as he did so. Parkway were a goal up from the resulting play. Quick distribution by their keeper was followed by a few simple passes up the pitch which sliced us apart, a diagonal ball put their striker in on goal, and he wrong footed Osborn with a soft shot.

Special mention in the first half goes to Rory Fallon, who did almost nothing. Even when he won the ball in the air his headers were tame, looping, off target etc. He's never been blessed with pace, but on one occasion when the ball was played for him to turn and run onto, he was beaten to it by a couple of players from either side, all of whom he had a considerable head start on. If we take him on after that showing it will be through desperation alone.

The second half saw us bring on 4 or 5 of our first 11, but was killed by Parkway solidly protecting their lead. We looked short of ideas up top, and didn't even play a single ball in behind, having brought on Pittman for Fallon. We found ourselves level in the last minute of the game, with a really clever set piece, played along the floor around the outside (left) of the wall, Pittman got there first, put a cross in with his first touch, and Gowling headed home from the edge of the six yard box. A fair result all round, and we looked good up until the final third, where a lack of cutting edge still seems to be our biggest vice.

kevgull wrote: ↑26 Jul 2017, 13:12 Started with a 2nd team squad with a 2nd team mentality, lucky to get any sort of a result.
[highlight=yellow]The high light of the game was Fallon coming off and the low light was Torquay fans chanting his name as he left the pitch!
[/highlight]Agree with the ground as the setup was a credit to Parkway.

brooker wrote: ↑26 Jul 2017, 10:46 A fair result all round, and we looked good up until the final third, where a lack of cutting edge still seems to be our biggest vice.