League 2: Aldershot Town vs Torquay United

[bixieupnorth]

another penalty turned down for nudge on billy kee, should be a bit of injury time plus 3.5 mins left

[HRG]

Very difficult to imagine salvaging a point from this.

[Plymouth Gull]

Inconsistency will be our downfall. Can't see us getting anything from Shrewsbury or Bury, then we're right back down to 12th/13th.

[bixieupnorth]

Very difficult to imagine salvaging a point from this.

hmmph i thought that after the first ten mins or so!!

3 mins added, poor poor performance, less than 2k there

[Dave]

Is Paul Buckle just trying to be to tacticly clever?

Are we just not good enough to go up?

[Dutchgull]

Yes & yes !!

[basil75]

Wouldn't rule out getting anything out of Bury and Shrewsbury - where they are in the table usually has very little bearing on our ability to get points.

Torquay are quite odd in that there is very little difference between the number of points earned from top half teams and bottom half teams - it's always the games were more optimistic about (such as today) that we never get any points from.

[SuperNickyWroe]

Is Paul Buckle just trying to be to tacticly clever?

Are we just not good enough to go up?

thats about the size of it dave.

[Dave]

Hands up here,poor poor,ah well move on saturday another chance to put things right.

[SuperNickyWroe]

bugger.

[CP Gull]

On the plus side, despite what Steve Breed suggested on RD commentary, the results in L2 have actually gone pretty well for us tonight with only Bury and Wycombe (amongst the teams above and immediately below us) actually winning and being realistic we aren't going to catch either of them now.

Bad performance tonight by the sounds of it, although based on clear cut chances I think we may have deserved a point ... but never mind, we move on to Saturday and let's hope we can win that one.

[Plymouth Gull]

Disappointing.

[HRG]

Apart from the penalty shouts I don't see how we have any cause for complaint. They need a rocket up their collective arses after that one.
And just as Forever said, on to Saturday.

[Jeff]

Normally I think I'm pretty good at writing these reports with a bit of enthusiasm, but today I'm going to really struggle. That was poor. Very poor. I'd go as far as to say that was without doubt the worst I've seen us play all season.

The first half will be very easy to sum up - dross. We started o.k, passing the ball around nicely and looked to be able to open up a nervy aldershot side at will. Stevens ran at them very early on a put in an inviting ball which was smuggled away. But that was as close as we got first half, and it wasn't very close at all. After those first 10 mins, the composure and fluency of our passing ebbed away, whereas aldershot settled and began to control the game. They wernt world beaters by any means, but they certainly had enough to be Torquay beaters today.

First half they didn't really threaten either. The only panic moments came on one through ball where Nico decided to dictate that potter was going to come and claim it, and there was a bit of a tangle before the ball ran for a corner. And then there was Gutteridge's up and under which floated against the bar, and bounced back into play but was cleared for another corner. And really, that was it!

Something badly needed to change, so we withdrew O'kane for kee. I personally had no problem with this - we all know o'kane is best operating in behind the forward line, but is somewhat lost on the wing. I still maintain that wherever we play him, he has lost a lot of his early season form now. Some nice touches and attempted killer passes today, but ultimately not enough.

The shots also made a half time sub, and brought on a very quick winger who immediately helped to up their tempo, and within 10 mins they were ahead. A deep inswinging cross from the left flank sailed to the back post, where gutteridge arrived late to volley in from all of about 3 yards. It was hard to judge from the angle, but I think the cross was such that Potter could not be expected to claim, and landed in a very dangerous area. A good cross in my initial opinion but will have to be seen again to see if anyone could have done better.

We immediately changed things, withdrawing the useless Pringle and sporadic threat of Stevens for Ellis and Halpin. Robbo went right back, manse in midfield. But the rest of the side was a fluid mystery. It's all very well being able to interchange the attacking 3, but we were mixing up the shape, positions and formations constanty. It didn't work. It was almost like buckle was making it up as he went along, and didn't really have a game plan to break the shots down. The side had no shape, and was very disjointed.

Aside from a shot from the tricky winger sub which Potter did well to parry, the shots never really threatened again. We managed to improve (believe me it could not have got worse!) and create some chances. A deftly floated ball from the wing from zebs was met with a looping header from
kee which was tipped over. And from the resulting corner, Robbo's header lacked a bit of power and the home keeper was able to parry away. Stanley took aim from long range a couple of times, but was quite comfortably off target.

The only really highlight of the second half was produced by Stanley, who won the ball in the centre of the park and set off on a lung-bursting run into the area. He shot, beat the keeper but with minimal pace, and although on target the ball was cleared off the line before halpin could get to it. Zebs had a lazy shot off target, and halpin later put in a cross which unfortunately was at Kee's midriff - Billy was unable to get head nor boot on it and the chance was gone. Aside from a couple of aldershot breaks which petered out (andnone great block-tackle right at the death) that was it. Pretty bleedin woeful to be honest!!

Ratings:

Potter - 6 - handling good, much vaunted distribution awful
Mansell - 6.5 - energy and commitment in the tackle, but even he seemed a little off colour tonight
Robbo - 6 - no real mistakes, although looked like an accident waiting to happen
Branno - 7 - unflappable. Always shows for a pass to get a team-mate out of a tight spot. No mistakes
Nico - 6 - nothing of note, although did a good job on the winger first half at least. Tested more second half and came off second best
Stanley - 7.5 - my MOTM. tried to get things going, tough in the tackle and full of energy
Pringle - 4 - weak, wasteful and largely anonymous
O'kane - 5.5 - as I said, tried some killer passes but things aren't happening for him at the moment
Stevens - 6 - started brightly, and perhaps was our biggest chance of a threat. But it was all threat and no real action
Robinson - 5 - poor. Countless times should have run the channel and made an angle. Never did though
Zebs - 6 - won nothing in the air, seemed to lose his cool with the early booking an drifted. Not helped by constant buckle tinkering with shape

Kee - 5.5 - as usual put himself about, but his header aside no really action
Halpin - 5.5 - one great run and cross, one nasty looking tackle and generally looked a little lost
Ellis - 6 - nothing of note

Again, like I said last week it was another game where we looked poor, yet last time I checked other results were broadly going our way and we are still in with a playoff shout. I just want us to be put out of our misery so I can stop dreaming!!! Many more days like today and my wish will be granted. Today was a flat performance of epic proportions.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing the differing views as it seems half of torquayfans.com was at the fame tonight!

[Neal]

Just got i from the game

mmmm...... it deserved a draw for me, we started brightly, Aldrshot were poor in the first half although they it the bar from a non shot.

Aldrshot better in 2nd ad I thought we lost the plot a bit, I dont think the changes made any impact.

I thought we were light upfront, not very creative, lacked any punch. I fact the game lacked punch throghout i thought.

Aldershot were not good either.

306 Torquay fans, great turn out.