Torquay United Fans Forum

Fraid not.

I'd like to add my thanks for the excellent reports. Also, as a footnote, the win reminds me of one of our most famous victories in the early 50s against Colchester (our "nearly" year, when we missed promotion to the Second Division on goal average and were unbeaten at home all seaon). We were two down after 20 minutes and seemingly had no answer to Colchester's speed and penetration. We reorganised (no substitutes in those days!) and gradually took command, going in 2-2 at half-time and eventually running out 4-2 winners. I was 12 or 13 but the memory is still fresh after more than 50 years, as I bet this one will be for the lucky few who were there.

Unfortunately the history of the club is littered by depressing lows immediately following fantastic highs. Let's hope Macclesfield doesn't follow that pattern.

I can't get to the match and won't be able to bear to listen to it either. I'll find the result just before 5, that way if we lose it'll just be one huge disappointment instead of a series of them! I fervently hope we win as losing would be just about our worst-ever humiliation, especially with Evans crowing and the media all over Crawley. COYY - PLEASE!

Dave Thomas said in the radio commentary that with Manset you never knew what you were going to get - one day he'd be brilliant, on another virtually absent (I'm paraphrasing).

Personally I'd be delighted if the match was off. Chesterfield are smarting after two successive defeats, will want to prove they're still promotion contenders, and after a pretty stressful journey we could wind up with a thrashing. Chesterfield have scored many more home goals than anyone else in League 2...

Now that it's all over, surely our thoughts must turn to revenge. I suggest Torquay United announces that it will refuse to take part in the Champions or Europa leagues.

Re ref-watch - thanks to both Matt and Nick then. Jeff, if you barely noticed the ref at that game last season, he must be very good!

Excellent preview as usual Nick and thanks for the note on the officials. I agree with the others that this material is so good that it should also appear on the club's site.

Could have been worse, could have been drawn away? Try this for an all-too-possible scenario:

1. A boring draw at Plainmoor and we're faced with the long flog up north.

2. Into the fourth round draw, winners away to Manchester United.

3. Lose by a blatantly unfair penalty at Carlisle.

Thoughts on the ref please folks?

Excellent point but I'll try to take account of the bias. With this in mind I've had a read through a lot of the match threads (amazing what you find time to do when you're recently retired!) and it's just about possible to form a relatively objective judgment - for instance, universal condemnation of a ref across the reports of a particular game allows you at least to say "not good experience with this chap in so-and-so match last year" and cite a few examples.

Matt,

After a working life in journalism and advertising, and dealing with the practical side of many threatened libel actions, I can assure you that verbal abuse is not held to be an influence on "right-minded people".

The most memorable conversation I had about this was with the Very Senior Partner of one of London's most respected legal firms after he'd reviewed some papers I'd sent him.

VSP: "I gather this chap here is calling this other chap a female sexual organ."

Me: "Yes."

VSP: "Being called names doesn't win libel cases."

You're free to call me an effing idiot and there's not a thing I can do about it.

As far as referees are concerned, I'm going to start compiling a list based on people's comments here. Obviously will take some time to become useful, but I for one would like to get an idea - eventually! - of what to expect. Also obvious that performances can vary from match to match, but that can be taken into account.

There's always a lot of comment about referees of course, but I was wondering if anyone - not necessarily on this forum - monitors and keeps a record of their performance? There can't be too many to keep an eye on. (Would make a great PhD thesis!)

It would be very helpful to know in advance which referees are crap/don't give us anything and which are terrific/award us three penalties a game. I know assistants play a part too but in the end the quality of the man in the middle is what counts.

Note on the law of libel, in case anyone's worrying: it's OK to say someone's crap (which is clearly just an extreme opinion) but not to say he appears not to know the rules (which calls his competence into question).

The roles of the club and supporters on match days are different. The fans are expected to give partisan and vociferous support, but the club is acting as host to our opponents and visitors, and therefore the playing of triumphalist music is, as Alpine Joe neatly put it in the other thread, the height of bad manners. Well done to the club for recognising this. Unfortunately it's a fact that the key to improving the atmosphere is success on the field - it applies to every club in the land - and no amount of gimmickry will alter that.

Good luck tonight Dave!