I'm not surrendering because i'm a miserable sod, i'm simply basing my presumptions on all known form, performances and likelihood and if you had a free £50 bet, how many of you would put it on a Gulls win? How many would put it on Gulls to score? I'd hazard a guess that it would only be the most positive and speculative amongst you. Our 3-1 home defeat by Oxford was a game we should have been winning but by all accounts we were lucky not to be on the end of a hammering. Knill again making totally bizarre decisions in terms of his substitutions and team selections IMO. No Thompson on the bench and brings Stevens on in the last minute (we were 2-0 down after 54 mins ) and doesn't even use the full 3 subs again. When the ball went in for 2-0 there should have been 3 subs on and 3 off and change the direction of the game IMO. We were always going to lose anyway so what the hell. Utterly odd and i think we all need to get down our local woodlands, collect some squirrels and release them on masse onto the pitch at Daggers because it might help refocus his mind again as to what he is actually supposed to be bloody doing! *
(*Actually it is probably a better and more humane idea to go out and buy a soft cuddly toy squirrel instead of trying to catch them in a wood and looking like a total loony. I certainly do not want any squirrels harmed in the making of the protest ) o:)
He goes on to say,"It's quite edgy for the players to play at home". Which is true i admit. So does that mean an attacking blitz at Daggers then with the players free from the shackles of the Plainmoor crowd? Does it f*ck. It just means we can slack off even more on our travels knowing there are only a hundred and odd die hards there to dish out any stick ( which i still don't condone even given our predicament ). Part of it is that we are crap, part of it is that our management is and has been crap and part of it ( the part which can get us out of this doom ) is that our attitude is crap.
Anything can happen on tuesday night but i fancy Accrington to get a result over Lancashire rivals Fleetwood and Plymouth have a decent opportunity at home against a faltering Bradford side so it's not inconceivable that we could be bottom of the league pyramid come 10pm tuesday. The only hope i have is that all runs do come to an end at some point whether it be losing or winning and our run has gone on for so long now that surely it has to end at some point and results improve. I just hope it ends on tuesday and we can kick on.
The Daggers have a patchy home record winning 7 but losing 7 and drawing the other 4 and have scored 23 and conceded 19. Before todays 2-1 win at Rotherham they hadn't scored more than once in a game since a 2-1 defeat of Rochdale at home in the middle of January. Torquay on the other hand haven't scored more than once in a game since decimalisation so a probable 0-0 is on the cards. They sit in 15th place on 45 points and although they are comfortable they are by no means safe yet so will be looking to get 3 points on the board for this one. They have some really impressive home wins such a 5-0 thrashing of Rotherham and wins over Fleetwood and Bradford but that said, they have lost at home to the likes of AFC Wimbledon so we simply have to go for the win in this one and put them to the test.
Dagenham have had managerial upheaval of their own when John Still left the club after a 9 year stint to replace ex Gulls boss Paul Buckle at Luton Town. Still will forever be a legend at the club guiding them into the Football League in 2007 and getting to the League 2 play offs 3 years later beating Rotherham United 3-2 in the final to take their place in League 1. Sadly they were soon relegated and have spent the last couple of seasons battling at the wrong end of the table.
Interim boss Wayne Burnett has replaced Still and oversaw a 1-1 draw away at Bradford in his first game. The Daggers could even have won it but Sam Williams missed a penalty. Burnett then saw an Abu Ogogo og (own goal) give visitors Chesterfield a 1-0 win in Dagenham last weekend. Torquay fans like Agogo as he also scored an og in our game back at Plainmoor on the 1st of december in what was our last home league win - over 3 months of football since a home league win. Utterly disgraceful.
In the goalkeeping positions they have Chris Lewington and Jordan Seabright whilst defensively they have own goal Agogo, Luke Howell, Gavin Hoyte, Scott Doe who has just signed a deal keeping at the club until 2005, they also have Billy Bingham, Luke Wilkinson, Femi Ilesanmi and Jake Caprice who is loan from Blackpool and who made his Daggers debut in our 2-1 win at Plainmoor.
In the midfield they have ex Colchester player Medy Elito, Darren Currie who is older than the Sphinx and who has had more clubs than Fred Flintstone. Ex Posh midfielder Dominic Green is in his second spell with the essex club whilst former Republic of Ireland U21 international and ex Spurs and Southend player Kevin Maher offers bite in the centre. Also in there are Matt Saunders, Sean Shields and Tom Davie.
In attack they can no longer count on the services of Dwight Gayle who left the club last Novemeber only a few months after making his Daggers debut to go on loan to Peterborough United and he hasn't looked back. He has since signed a permanent deal over 4 and a half years believed to be in the region of £500 - £750k.
They do however have former Barnet striker Ben Strevens who signed on deadline day, he has yet to score this season for the Daggers. Brian Woodall has 2 goals, Sam Williams has 8 goals just behind Luke Howell who has 9. Youngster Louis Dennis is one for the future whilst also joining the club in January is Italian Gianluca Gracco from amateur side Citta de Pompei but he has hardly ERUPTED onto the scene. :Oops:
Last time out the Daggers registered a surprise 2-1 victory at Rotherham courtesy of goals from Medy Elito and Luke Wilkinson. Here is their line up:
1. Chris Lewington (gk)
2. Luke Wilkinson
3. Femi Ilesanmi
4. Scott Doe
5. Gavin Hoyte
6. Medy Elito
7. Matt Saunders
8. Kevin Maher
9. Luke Howell
10. Abu Ogogo
11. Josh Scott
SUBS: Jordan Seabright (gk) UNUSED, Dominic Green UNUSED, Billy Bingham ( on for Maher on 46 mins ), Ben Strevens ( on for Elito on 83 mins ), Jake Reed UNUSED, Louis Dennis UNUSED, Gianluca Gracco UNUSED.
In their last home game they lost 1-0 at home to Chesterfield in front of just 1,675 fans. I doubt there will be many more than 1000 there on tuesday.
DAGENHAM & REDBRIDGE - THE CLUB
Dagenham & Redbridge were formed in 1992 when Dagenham FC and Redbridge Forest FC merged and they decided to play in red and blue to represent the merged teams' colours. Their first competetive match was a 2-0 win over Merthyr Tydfil in the conference.
Rivalries include the mighty AFC Hornchurch, my God i reckon that game was a powderkeg of violence and trauma! Forget Besiktas v Galatasaray, Daggers v Hornchurch is where Danny Dyer SHOULD have gone. Interestingly one of their more recent rivals include Crawley Town purely for the Steve 'Fatty' Evans link. In 2002 Boston United, then managed by the rotund cheating Scottish grimper gained promotion to the football league on goal difference from Dagenham despite them being found guilty of making illegal payments to players and irregularities in some of their signings. The Daggers appealed but the FA decided to still promote Boston but deduct them points the FOLLOWING season and not during the actual season the offences were committed. Brainy those folk at the FA aren't they? Thick tw*ts. :no:
Anyway, the upshot was that Boston became a football league club by cheating and Dagenham played fair and lost. A scenario all too familiar in football even today. Since then Crawley became a target for bitterness as Steve Evans became their boss. It remains to be seen if the Daggers fans transfer this anger onto Rotherham United now fatty is in charge there but if they did then i'm sure they had a good time today giving the lardy snake some grief as they played the Millers at the New York.
One thing is for sure Daggers fans reading this, we have a soildarity with you as we also despise Fatman Evans for some underhand stuff against us when manager of Crawley and the fact that when we made it to the later stages of the FA Cup a few years back, we got Crawley at home and we lost 1-0. They then got Man Utd away in the following round. B*STARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So i'm not fond of the bloke to say the least and neither are most Torquay fans so we have something in common.
The club play their home games at the delightfully elongated LONDON BOROUGH OF BARKING AND DAGENHAM STADIUM although to many it is still referred to as Victoria Road. The ground ( i'm not calling it a stadium because it has a capacity of 6000 for Christ's sakes - it's a ground! ) is small and compact and was opened in 1917 but has had some modifications since then although on the pitch it appears they still play like they are 96 years old. One of the new stands is the Traditional Builders Stand (aka Pondfield End) and this was built to replace old terracing and is now a 1200 all seater area. The stand is covered, has windshields and is slightly elevated from the playing action. It is only 11 rows high but has no obstructions that may impair visibilty of the playing action like Hereford does.
This stand is the one in which all you motley crew will be housed in on tuesday night and apparently it is the BEST stand at the ground so a bit surprising it is given over to away supporters as we usually get treated like farm animals lining up for certain death. I suppose we have to be grateful to the club for offsetting the despondency and panic one feels as a person entering anywhere within the M25 and certainly setting foot in somewhere so close to London which may as well be a foreign country to me. At least we can feel secure and in comfort during the game.
There is the usual generally vile football fayre including Pukka Pies, horse and llama burgers and chips and according to some websites alcohol is freely available inside the away end. There is a small social club which allows away fans and the Eastbrook pub which is a short distance down the Rainham Road but other than that i'd take the advice of the internet grounds guide website which clearly states, "otherwise, to be honest, there is not much of interest in the area, so there is not much point in wandering off too far". Wise words, it's near London so get where you need to be, keep your head down, watch the game and then get the hell out asap. That is the slant i might have included if i was the website editor. Who said that Yorkshiremen are simple and don't want to broaden their horizons? Oh i think that may have been me.
There is no car parking at the ground itself but street parking only, much of it along the Rainham Road and take some extra money incase you get clamped. It might be me but it seems that whenever you watch programmes like Rogue Traders or Don't Get Done Get Dom, wheel clampers are almost exclusive to Dagenham or Romford it seems. Beats working i suppose.
TICKETS
All seats priced at £19 for adults and £13 for over 65's, under 18's and bloody students with NUS.
HOW TO GET THERE
You can travel by foot from Torquay with the Ramblers Association although it is likely to take you about a week and so you'll miss the game so i'd advise against that. You could hire a private helicopter but as they have a shocking safety record you are actually even safer getting public transport around London. You can take the train but you won't be able to get back, you could cycle like a tw*t and dismiss all other road users who have paid tax for the privelege of using the roads or you could drive like them. Leave the M25 at J31 and take the A13 towards Central London, then approxiamtely 5 miles later see sat nav or map for further instructions! :na:
OR you could take the big yellow fun bus to the ground and they need your support as they had 8 lost souls for Rochdale and 6 genuinely insane people for Accrington i'm led to believe so let's see if we can get 10 or more for this one shall we? It really is a whole load of fun, you get up at the crack of dawn, travel to another grim cackhole, freeze to death, see one shot at goal and then come home. I know i'm not selling it very well but the one thing you'll avoid for the Dagenham game out of all those scenarios is not getting up at the crack of dawn so it's well worth it.
TRAVEL CLUB DETAILS
Departs Paignton Railway Station @ 1pm
Departs Torquay Coach Station @ 1.15pm
Departs Newton Abbot Penn Inn @ 1.30pm
Departs Exeter Services @ 1.50pm
Fares are £30 for adults and under 12's £15.
Contact the travel club on 07861 907090
GET ON AND GET GONE PEOPLES!!!
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ANDY'S TOWN OF THE DAY - DAGENHAM ( but not Redbridge )
Dagenham is a large suburb of East London therefore by association it must be sprawling mess THE END.
Another one of those same time next week!
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The referee for this one is MR KEITH STROUD who incidentally isn't from the small Gloucestershire market town but is from Bournemouth. The only game i have been to where he has reffed looking back through my programmes is the 0-0 draw away at Port Vale last season. I thought he had a good game if memory serves me right and he has a reputation for being one of the better refs in our league. His sultry assistants complete with inviting black stockings and a certain rigidness in posture ( THEY ALL DO! THEY LOVE BEING CAMP! ) are MR MICHAEL BLACKLEDGE and MR DEAN TRELEAVEN with the 4th official simply a voyeur to oversee all the sordid action on the pitch MR PAUL HARRIS.
Their forum is at http://www.daggersforum.co.uk/
Their official club website is at http://www.daggers.co.uk/
Well i hope this hasn't taxed you too much and i hope that you may get some information and enjoyment out of it. I know there are a tiny minority of people who use this forum who delight in bullying me online and will no doubt find fault with it but i don't care. So long as most of you don't mind reading all this lot and can get something from it that's great plus it provides a platform for us to discuss the game in question on and prior to matchday. Many forums out there have some brutally poor and non existant matchday threads and so i'm quite proud to put the effort in and to make sure that we care deeply about each match and we care deeply about each others opinions as likeminded Torquay United fans. I'm sure fans of other teams who visit our forum for a good read also can take away a great deal and be impressed so long as they can get past the p*ss taking of their towns and clubs now and again.
I'd love to say that we were going to come away with a hard fought win in this game but i have to be honest with myself and i cannot see ANY reason why we should. If we scored i'd be amazed and if we got a 1-1 draw it would be pleasing although it wouldn't be enough IMO. Anything other than a win and confidence gained would see us go to Southend where we will lose. No doubts whatsoever about that. We won't get a good hiding because we hardly ever do but we'll be tight, create nothing and lose. That's how i see the Daggers game too. I'm going 1-0 to Dagenham.
We are Torquay and proud and not even these pathetic excuses for footballers will make this change. I'll still be Torquay and proud when those failures have long gone. We are all Torquay and proud and no matter the outcome of this season i shall be Torquay and proud at football grounds next season too. Nobody can take that away from me, not even our 'players'
Poke, Downes, Saah and Howe can stay, the rest can go and get a job in a pub kitchen or something because you aren't good enough for our club and you have let everyone down. Mansell and Nico should just retire, they have had poor seasons like everyone else but i won't forget the great days and the great service they have given the club. Leave whatever in the summer and you will still be total TUFC legends and be afforded great respect and admiration.
COME ON THE TORQUAY!! I NEED TO BELIEVE!!
I know will probably be a reasonable turnout for us giving the situation. But you couldn't blame anyone for not wanting to go even if they lived close to it.