Torquay United Fans Forum

The only good sides I've seen are Yeovil (who outplayed us in the league) and Worthing who outplayed us twice.
Both, particularly Worthing, have declined since they played us.
We should have been top three, and suspect that if Johnson had gone sooner we'd have made the play offs (until the 10 point deduction).
As long us we pick up another 6 points or so we'll have served the deduction without any impact on promotion or relegation.

Breaking it down -

Win one of Weston or Havant at home and one of Truro or Taunton away and we should be safe.

But really don't want to go into the last game needing a win or looking at results elsewhere.

Yesterday’s results have made a huge difference to our chances of staying up.
Thanks to late goals elsewhere we were the only one of the bottom teams to win.
Welling are back in trouble and Hemel aren’t safe either.
With 7 teams still at risk of joining Dover & Havant in the bottom 4, it would seem that about 50 points will be enough for safety.
We need 2 more wins from 7 games, 5 of which are teams in the bottom half of the table.
If it wasn’t for the 10 point deduction we’d be 9 points below the play offs, roughly where we’ve been for some time.
So we are a mid-table team and should be better than those at the bottom.
I’m far more optimistic than I was before yesterday.

TommyGunn wrote: ↑22 Mar 2024, 18:31 Truro City’s remaining home fixtures

All home games to be played at Meadow Park, Gloucester

Tuesday, March 26 – Dartford – 7.45pm
Friday, March 29 – Slough Town – 5.00pm
Thursday, April 4 – Hemel Hempstead – 7.45pm
Saturday, April 6 – Aveley – 7.30pm
Tuesday, April 9 – Torquay United – 7.45pm
Thursday, April 11 – Yeovil Town – 7.45pm
Saturday, April 13 – Maidstone United – 3.00pm
Tuesday, April 16 – Dover Athletic – 7.45pm
Thursday, April 18 – Weymouth – 7.45pm

And they've still got 3 away games to play plus Eastbourne home which has yet to be arranged.
At least Dartford is early in this run of fixtures.

But quite ridiculous for a team from Cornwall to play one from Devon in Gloucester.

What is best - a bad owner as we've just had or starting again as a phoenix club?
Depends how bad the owner but if any only want the ground I'd rather start again.

torregull wrote: ↑22 Mar 2024, 09:55 Truro face a huge challenge to stay up given their schedule of matches.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68630567

One would expect Truro will drop points as a result but with all those games they'll probably pick up enough to stay up.
Unfortunately they still have to play Dartford twice, plus Eastbourne, and Truro's fixture congestion will make it easier for these teams to beat them - and they are the two we have most chance of staying above.
Of course we have to play Truro too - and Taunton who have almost as many games to play.

It's a strange bottom of the table.
Bottom four there on merit.
Next two have loads of games in hand.
Then Torquay who are only there due to points deduction but have the worst current form.

greb46 wrote: ↑21 Mar 2024, 19:05 I'm no expert and doesn't sound ideal but I guess as an analogy if your on the Titanic and there's one lifeboat available to save yourself you have to take it.

Or build a new boat yourself. Not very good to start with but gets better with time and it's your boat not owned by someone who may have questionable motives.

Yes we can't rely on other teams. We will have to get points ourselves.

Whilst Tuesday's abandoned match doesn't help Truro, leaving them with yet another game to fit in, it may not be good for us as when Eastbourne play at Truro they will be in a run of many games within a short time, so Eastbourne more likely to win. As it stands Eastbourne not gaining points is better for us than Truro. Of course us beating Truro would be of more benefit.

Taunton lost to Chippenham tonight.
Now only 3 games in hand on us and a point behind.
Hopefully their two wins (Worthing & us) were flash in the pan and they're back to losing form again.

From Eastbourne's website this morning -

Eastbourne Borough’s National League South fixture away at Truro City was abandoned with 58 minutes played last night owing to injury to Alex Finney.
The Borough defender suffered a horrific knee injury after landing awkwardly having won a challenge with a City forward in the Sports’ penalty area.

However, we are pleased to report that Finney, 27, was last night in a stable condition in hospital, awake, talking and laughing with staff.

We await news of the x-rays and tests carried out and will provide an update when more information is available.

Important match tonight, Truro v Eastbourne (at Gloucester).

Given that Truro have the same points as us but 5 games in hand I think we want them to win.
If Eastbourne win they'd only be a point behind us.

Of course if we don't gain at least 6 and probably about 9 points, then there's not much point at looking as other results as we'd be very likely to go down.

Dave wrote: ↑17 Mar 2024, 19:18It was reported back by a number of fans at Tonbridge Saturday that our team turned up in their cars Saturday and not on a team coach, well this sums it up, and a certain poster who still try's to paint Clarke Osbourne out as a white knight, well for you know who this tells CO is 'not' still paying the bills , and we truly are down to essential operating costs only, like wages etc.

Aaron Downes came over and spoke to some of us before the game. He said that because of the M25 closure the cost of a coach was about the same as a hotel. They asked the players which they’d prefer and they chose cars plus hotel rather than coach. So the club still found the cost of travel but for hotel not coach.

More or less the same players were in a play off position for the first half of the season.
Since Christmas we have achieved relegation results.
What has changed?

Today’s results have given Welling and Truro a big step to safety, and brought Eastbourne into a position from where they have a reasonable chance of staying up.

Table now -

Played Points
Welling 38 43
Torquay 38 41
Truro 33 41
Taunton 34 40
Dartford 38 38
Eastbourne 38 37
Havant 38 29
Dover 38 22

We still have a goal difference that is significantly better than everyone except Truro.

50 points should still be safety.
Whether we can get another 9 points must however be doubtful.

Since Christmas we’ve only beaten two teams, both at home and both of them are very poor / poor form – Dover & Dartford.
We only have one similar game left – Havant – our final fixture.

I can’t see us picking up more than 6 points.
If that is the case to stay up we need both Dartford & Eastbourne to win no more than 3 games (10 points Dartford, 11 Eastbourne).
There’s a good chance one of the two will fail to do so but less so both.
Or Taunton and / or Truro to win no more than 2 of their 12 / 13 remaining games. Again unlikely.

It’s not looking good unless our form improves.

Jarvis should have scored early one but apart from the goal that was the only real chance we created.
We had a lot of the ball and if it weren’t for our appalling defence a draw should have been the result.
A good number of Torquay fans there (200 or so?) but strangely quiet.

And I agree that Hall should have played a part on the pitch today.