FL2: Torquay Utd v Dagenham 1 Dec 2012

In a week when someone found it necessary to label our manager for hypercritical and spineless decision making lets hope Nicholson and Easton are the first names down on Mr Lings teamsheet and can produce back to back wins. Totally agree with Longeaton and Ospel on this one, be nice not to read such utter bullshit before , during and after the game. Anyway Rob, hope the turnstile made it safely over to Holland !

Collection for Movember on Saturday!

www.torquayunited.com/news/article/movember-collection-tomorrow-517374.aspx

So that’s the reason it has been so dead on here the last few days and there was me thinking it was because we were one member down, I was starting to think someone must have started a TFF no more thread.

Its very cold in the Bay after suffering a third overnight frost on the trot and so our fans will need to wrap un nice and warm, well those who can get out of the Christmas shopping with their wife. I can’t see there being any real problems with the pitch, but it might be a bit hard in the areas the sun don’t get too, that’s if the sun does decide to come out today.

Martin Ling will pick the team he feels will have the best chance of winning today’s game, it’s his job and he is in the best position to do so. He has dropped a few hints that he will stick with the players and formation that worked well last weekend and so the home fans should see a more attacking sort of game than they have been treated too of late.

We do need to build on last weekends result and the home fans are due a good performance from the players after they have had to suffer some very poor games recently. With Poke back in goal we were very solid in defence last weekend and I think we will be hard to break down at the back, so I can’t see four goals being put past us today.

Howe is surely due a goal or two after not scoring in number of games recently and I have a good feeling he will be on the score sheet today. Would not like to say who big the gate will be today, it is cold, it’s near Christmas and our last two home games results might just play a part in the gate being lower than the club would like.

As always if you are going to the match, we would love to hear your thoughts and views on it, Hope you all enjoy the match and have a safe trip both to the game and back home again.

It’s too early to wish you all a happy Christmas, so I will just wish you all a happy match day instead.

I think this is going to be a tough game tonight. I'm hoping firstly that the electric doesn't get knocked out as we're in the middle of monsoonal rains and it can pop off at any time and secondly we get 3 points. Don't care how we do it. 1-0 will do for me.

for Dagenham, Saunders hits a 25 yard shot that goes in off the post.

Nice win, excellent. Still worried that we're not taking our gilt edged chances but I s'pose that's the price we pay for supporting L2 players.

A slightly fortuitous win in the end with a deflected goal via Niall Thompson's boot but deserved none the less. We did at least approach the game in a more positive manner and were on the offence from the off , straight away the crowd were "onside".
Its so important to take the initiative in the early stages, something we have repeatedly failed to do of late. It sets the tone on and off the field. After our early pressure the Daggers came back in to it and gave us some cause for concern but rarely threatened Pokes goal in what ended up being a fairly even first half which eventually tipped our way with "couldn't miss" goal well taken by Danny after some quality work from Howe Bodin and Easton. There were some good signs today and it looks like the confidence is coming back again with Easton having by far his best game for us and Craig looking so much more comfortable in free central role, his tackling back was particularly good today. With Danny and Ryan Jarvis covering plenty of ground the whole set up today looked more balanced and threatening. Defensively very sound once again though we did tend to gift them possession far to easily especially leading up to their goal. Far to many defensive headers were just going straight back to the opposition and we finally paid for it when one landed on the boot of Saunders who took a full volley swipe as it came down straight into the far corner off of the post. It was a super strike as strike which should have earned a point for the Daggers but with Niall on for Danny who was tiring and some good forward approach play and passing out wide to Niall who riffled a cross in only to see it fly into the net and past Lewington in the Daggers goal. A liitle lucky perhaps and there were the usual last minute scares with D&R pressing hard but running out of steam.
A good win against the form side and just about deserved but for me it was the more positive offensive approach that pleased me the most and there's no doubt that Lingy is squeezing every last drop out of our limited squad which bodes well for the coming months and we will hopefully be completely safe by the new year when he can perhaps experiment a little.