Torquay United Fans Forum

I support the idea of Torquay United Supporters Trust being on the board of the club and giving the viewpoint of the fans. I do not support the idea of TUST owning the club. The successfully trust owned clubs have a far bigger fanbase than ours. Whilst I do not have a crystal ball I do not believe this will work and thus cannot support a bid at the present time for TUST to own the club. With only 133 members it cannot sustain the expenditure required (the fact that Thea has racked up £3m of costs should tell everyone this).

I wish you success in assisting with the future of our club, but I cannot see how this plan for ownership at the current time is what the club needs

Surely 25th April home to Macclesfield has to be Thea Bristow day whereby she is presented with a gift on the pitch so everyone can say Thank You. The debt of gratitude we owe this woman as fans of this club is so great that it must not be ignored

Hargreaves: "McQuilkin will feature against Hemel"

Squad with only 4 on the bench and McQuilkin doesn't feature

Wasn't the remit: "who you think are the best players to pull on the yellow shirt" so therefore it is unlikely that any player who was particularly good will have clocked up too many appearances as they will have been cherry picked by clubs further up the league structure fairly quickly!

I wonder if an alleged incident involving a palm tree on Torquay Sea Front and the injury that subsequently followed are the reason that Mr Brandon does not feature more highly on the list

Without Luke Young this side are devoid of ideas and would finish bottom half of the league, today illustrated this perfectly as from the off Braintree bossed the game, not with particularly good football but just by having a greater desire for 3 points.

The first goal for me is a decent delivery and either Pearce needs to win the header or if Rice is coming he needs to clean out everything in his path (as he was not fast enough off his line, arguably due to the quality of the delivery) this wasn't an option and Rice by half coming meant that as soon as Pearce didn't win the header provided it was on target it was 1-0

The second goal was another dangerous delivery from the right and the number 15 for Braintree wanted it most and that meant it was 2-0.

People in the crowd were claiming the ref was a 'homer' but even if he had reffed it fairly we didn't create any chances so can have no complaints over getting beat.

No ratings as no-one earned one

Rice - Error for first goal, kicking average
Ives - Steady but I feel Conference is his current level despite others seeming to think he can play higher up
Pearce - Didn't lead which as captain he needed to do
McDonald - Arguably best of bad bunch and looked up for the scrap but like ever other player in yellow couldn't pass to a team-mate and sent it long far too often
McQuilkin (Cruise) - Anonymous
Richards - Battled but never looked like bossing the middle of the park
Harding - Anonymous
Ajala - Arguably fouled fairly often but doesn't help himself by spending more time on the deck than upright
Briscoe - Anonymous, as was Chappell who replaced him
Bowman -Anonymous
O'Achie - Awful, replaced by Yeoman who did more but was bland

If Young doesn't play on Boxing Day I can see Hargreaves playing for a 0-0

Rice, Pearce, Briscoe, Young (c), Bowman, Ajala, Richards, MacDonald, McQuilkin, Ofori-Acheampong, Ives

No Berry and Tonge does not play in his place. Safe to say he's on his way at end of the season

Interesting to see Nuneaton and Grimsby have agreed to settle their tie on the day

http://www.footballconference.co.uk/mob ... s_id=13966

To avoid any extra unnecessary games I wouldn't be adverse to doing the same thing

I've sat down and thought about this as I did not want it to be a kneejerk reaction to game. It's difficult as after a defeat we as fans feel like we are the worst team in the world and when we win we forge/forgive a lot of mistakes.

Tonight we were beaten by a very average Alfreton side. If the game was played on paper we win but it's not and tonight showed that. I've gone through each of the players performances below:

Rice - 5 - Although not directly at fault for any of the goals, he does not command confidence from his defence (the disallowed goal showed this as you see Briscoe's head sink as if to say the keeper's at fault for that one, albeit the ref ruled it out and saved Rice) and he should not get beat at the near post for the first goal.

Tonge - 5 - Outmuscled for the 3rd goal but did ok given Ajala did nothing to protect him, having said that it isn't as if Alfreton had a winger to bother him

Richards - 3 - Played out of position, at fault for 3 of the goals, here's hoping this doesn't damage his confidence

Pearce - 5 - Do wonder why he didn't just go man for man with Hawley the whole game as it is only when Hawley drifted onto Richards (as any wise old pro would knowing he is inexperienced) that resulted in goals

Cruise - 6 - Thought he got forward well and helped to provide threat as Cameron 1 on 1 with his full back did not seem to deliver

Young - 6 - Easily the best player on the pitch ability wise but at times tries to make things come off that players with greater ability than his would struggle with

Ajala - 6 - Looked lively and a threat when found wide and had his full back on toast, shame his delivery isn't as good as his approach play

Cameron - 5 - Fairly anonymous for me, certainly didn't have the impact on the game that Ajala did

Wakefield - 5 - See Cameron

Briscoe - 6 - Took the first goal well and was in the right place for the second. Doesn't seem to go in behind the opposition defence or be the target man which can make him ineffective for large parts

Bowman - 5 - Poor in that nothing seemed to stick/work off him. However sense if given O'Achie's chance in the 2nd half he would have buried it

O'Achie (subbed on) - 5 - Worked hard but given the chance he had he has to score and it proved costly when he didn't

When we get the ball into the middle third and play we can play some good stuff but defensively on dead balls we look tripe and I hope Downes is let know by the rest of the team just how costly that red card has proven to be

We go again next week. COYY

We should win, that's a given but would like to see O'Achie back among the goals just to keep him ticking over

A clean sheet would be nice but am not going to get obsessed with records that mean very little. 3 points here is the aim and avoidance of injuries and suspensions are also more important than not conceding a goal. Up the yellows!

Whilst I agree that O'Achie and Bowman are the obvious choice to start up top on Saturday, personally I'm not too sure the partnership will be effective as neither have the pace to go in behind the defence, meaning that Nuneaton could play a high line knowing they won't get caught out by the pace of a striker onto a through ball and thus make the pitch a helluva lot smaller.

I'm sure Hargreaves knows this and is working to formulate a system ahead of Saturday that will overcome the problem. 3 points at home is a must if we want to be successful in this league this season. COYY

In the absence of a match thread a mere 20 hours before kick-off I have knocked up the following:

Lincoln away represents the next game for Chris Hargreaves’ team and the yellow army in tow. It’s a long trip, in excess of 250 miles each way but a win is much needed after 3 draws on the spin. However as Grimsby showed across the bank holiday weekend, 3 draws followed by a couple of wins make the league table look a whole lot more desirable.

Last time out in a 3-2 defeat away at Halifax, Lincoln lined up with the following XI:

Townsend
Diagne
Caprice
Newton
Brown
Power (Marshall - 78' )
Bencherif
Nolan (Ledsham - 78' )
Mendy
Tomlinson
Burrow (Kabba - 84' )

The goals came from Bencherif and a Tomlinson penalty. The former was sent off for a second bookable offence during the game and will be missing from the backline of Lincoln for Saturday’s match as a result. Lincoln were level at 2 each when they went down to 10 men with the winning goal coming 15 minutes from the end.

The Imps have added to their ranks today with the loan signing of Delano Sam-Yorke from Cambridge who was also on loan to Lincolnshire club last season scoring 3 goals in 9 games. He appears to be available for Saturday’s encounter although whether he will start having only signed today is questionable

I anticipate Torquay lining up from the following with Harding injured and Bowman suspended:

Rice
Tonge
Downes
MacDonald
Ives/Cruise
Briscoe/Chappell
Richards/Wakefield
Young
Cameron
Ajala/Yeoman/Benyon
O’Achie

Safe journey for all those travelling to the match and fingers crossed a positive result can be achieved by exploiting the fact that Bencherif (who IMO is one of the best defenders in the division) is suspended. COYY!

I'd like to see him be considered as the striker to play alongside Bowman.

Is composed once through (one of the finishes at Sixfields last season showed that) and nippy enough to work off the big man, given the question marks over both Benyon and Yeoman seems a no brainer to throw Chapell into the mix to me