Torquay United Fans Forum

Apparently I've already voted, which I'm pretty sure I haven't, but would've gone B as it's a bit different, so don't think my vote would have much impact on the final result.

G is a classic but I wouldn't buy it as I've still got the same one from the mid 90s (which many washes ago bore the signatures of the likes of Tony Bedeau and Brian Healy).

As too often happens in football these days, I think this matter will come down to money - whether another club offers enough to Torquay or to Rene. I can only go on the manner and quality of his performances but I would like to believe Rene is happy and in a perfect world would like to stay, but as a goal scorer he's likely to be in high demand and as a young man (with a family to think of?) in a profession with a short lifespan it's in his interest to go where the money is.

Obviously I'd love the club to be able to match what he wants in a long term deal, but if the right offer comes along from elsewhere I wouldn't begrudge either party for accepting it.

The comments I saw from Ling on BBC seemed reasonable, we weren't great but got a point so can be happy with that. First half I don't think work rate from either side was acceptable, don't know if it was the cold or a flat crowd but nobody seemed bothered to be playing, it was only after half time when Oxford seemed to believe they could win it that anyone got going. Our defense stood firm when put under pressure so can be pleased with the clean sheet they earned but I'd have liked to see more movement, desire, and willingness to get on the ball from the rest.

Oxford probably don't look bad enough to be relegation fodder but certainly aren't good enough to be amongst the top bunch, if that's a good performance for them I pity their fans.

Downes
Rice
Oastler
Craig
Thompson

I think I agree totally with roaylgull, except we did have one other shot - a free kick from Nicho that went nowhere near the goal. He also didn't mention our offside goal which came right at the start of the second half, but I think was rightly ruled out because Downes was past the last man (really shouldn't be at a free kick when he can look along the line).

This was my first game this season, the main things I noticed that haven't changed from last year are that Lathrope can't pass and Bodin isn't as good as we'd all like to believe. He tried a couple of things but like everyone else on the pitch didn't really look that interested.

Don't think our system suited our players today, though I'm not sure exactly what system suits 4 central midfielders. Jarvis is not a target man and when he went off we still tried hitting long balls towards Bodin and Mansell which is never likely to work. On the two occassions we tried playing more than one pass in a row we looked alright, but nobody wanted the ball so we passed it across the back four or lumped it forward and lost it. Silver linings for me were Rice who did everything well, Downes who was immense and suggests Ellis will not be missed, and Thompson who at least looked interested and gave it a go when he came on, but looked knackered after 10 minutes and needs to work on his movement.

Ref made some inexplicable decisions for both teams, ignoring what looked like obvious fouls, failing to book Constable despite several dives, and giving multiple corners and throws the wrong way. My highlight of the whole game was the Oxford fans going mad cos they thought he'd given us a penalty after their defender made a good tackle to keep Craig from going clear, conceding a clear corner, but he was actually giving them a goal kick. Their appeal for handball when Oastler blocked a cross with his arse also amused me.

We didn't really deserve anything from the game, but Oxford didn't deserve to win so a draw was about right. On this evidence there'll be plenty of teams worse than us in the division to keep us safe from relegation worries, but we'll struggle to score enough goals to get near promotion.

If I remember rightly I think Suarez's second goal against Norwich came from him nicking the ball off a defender, although rather than coming from an offside position, he came from inside the box when a goal kick was taken, which I believe means it should've been retaken.

Westcountry Brazil are in it to... prop up the table.

I got 103, disgusted with myself I forgot Mick O'Brien. I have no recollection of Anthony Lloyd or Nathan Abbey though.

And I forgot Ian Morris

All the surgery and botox Helen Chamberlain desires to keep her (and thus our fine club) in the public eye forever, and make the players determined to get promotion and win the right to see the tattoo on her arse (which she must agree to do again in exchange for the enhancements).

Or pay a younger bird on telly to talk about Torquay and get a local hotty to get a tatt in an intimate place.

Now that is quite impressive - by away fan numbers we're second bottom of league 2! But now I really do wonder what caused such an increase last year?

I wholeheartedly applaud Nicho for his attitude, his approach, and his commitment to the Gulls. It hasn't crossed his mind for a second to pick up his wages, try and bring through a younger replacement and ease into retirement, he wants to be first choice at Plainmoor for years to come. LEGEND! I am proud to have his number on my back (moreso than having Gulls' for sure!).

I was all impressed and trying to work out what had changed last season to make so many more go to away games but I think happytorq's hit the nail on the head that it's in fact down to reduced capacity at home, so it's probably the same number going away but fewer at home, thus a higher percentage than before. Probably back to 8-9% next year, but hopefully with a full Bristow's Bench too.

Massive trek in the summer season to a newly promoted team - couldn't think of a worse first fixture.

Rovers away the weekend after the wife's 30th - not ideal.

I'm sure I'll find my way to a few though

That would be an interesting one. Doubt we'd get anywhere near the wages he's been on previously, and Big Nev was largely here cos he's mates with Wes Saunders (that was my understanding at the time anyway), but if he fancies a bit of local football he could certainly do a job.

But in general I fully trust that Martin Ling will bring in a solid goalkeeper. There are a lot of pretty useless ones at this level, so as long as we avoid an absolute duffer I'll be pretty happy.

I usually think we overprice our players on this site, but I fully agree with the above, think Ellis is definitely worth 6 figures minimum. He's young, has been superb for most of the season (20 clean sheets - they weren't all just down to Bobby), and he's got a year left on his contract. Hold out guys!