FL2: Torquay United vs York City - 23rd March 2013

Phew.

Looking good - not sure what Cruise was up to but hey ho 4 games unbeaten and 5 points clear of York.

Swangull´s match report is going to take some time as he has to first pop up to Newton to pick up his missus and then get himself a kebab at Plainmoor (shops not the ground) on the way back.

Thought their forward Chambers was a handful and Cresswell was nuisance when they pumped up the high ball, but the best team won.

Don't worry about the poster votes.

Performances like that mean you have a good chance of surviving and we have seen quite few in the last month or so. Exactly what the doctor ordered hard working and a purposeful effort to get forward and get the opposition on the back foot from the first whistle.
How many times have we watched the opposition take the initiative early which on many occasions left us chasing the game? The addition of a bit of quality in Labadie and Chapell cannot be underestimated in our recovery , without them I would surely be discussing another bruising defeat. As it is we are celebrating another hard fought win that takes us a little bit closer tho the promised land of safety.
Make no mistake this was a tough hard fought encounter from the off we adopted the desired tactics of passing and playing up the pitch and taking every opportunity to run at defenders . It paid dividends early on with an opportunist poachers goal from Elliot Benyon, his first league goal in a year We pressed hard early and at times looked as if we could overwhelm York with some good play especially after Jarvis had made it two with a cracking effort after 23 minutes. However York, fighting for their lives began to work their way back into the match and I was thankful that we had manged to keep them out by half time as they missed two clear chances , one a point blank header that went narrowly wide and a shot that Poke managed to parry away with his legs for a corner. Two nil, some breathing space and half time, the first ten or so minutes of the second period would decide the result, or so I thought but it was more like the entire forty five minutes that became so nerve wracking there were times I had to turn away. All od=f a sudden York realised thay had absoloutly nothing to lose and we had it ALL to lose and it slowly crept into our play as York began to gain confidence. Eventually our sudden inability to hold the ball up, pass it and keep possession caught up with us and a through ball into the center caught us a bit flat footed and as their forward bore down on goal Cruise eased the player over and the inevitable sending off and penalty would make for an extremely nervous finally. An immediate change saw Benyon replaced by Nico in a tactical move which was the correct shout though left Rene flicking balls on to nobody and allowing York to push five or six players onto our defensive back line as we continued to keep York out. One amazing save from Poke, tipping over a shot from outside the box after he had punched clear kept us in that vital winning position and we somehow managed to see the game out for an absolutely vital three points.
York , to their credit gave it everything and could easily came away with all three and are as desperate as we were a few games ago. But this was our day, possibly the result that means we survive as a football league club for another season but I don't envy the journey home for their supporters one bit who stayed with their team admirably for the entire ninety minutes.

Its hard to believe that the same weekend last year, we were walking around in tea shirts and eating ice creams, boy was it cold up at Plainmoor today and boy did our team put us through it once again. Credit has to be given to all the ground staff for getting the pitch fit for use, while it was very soft in places, it held up well enough as we did need to play York while we were riding the crest of the wave we have been on.
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The confidence of our players on the back of a good home win was there to see very early on in the game, clever flicks neat passing and at times it looked a bit too clever and what was really needed was an end product. We were making the game look very easy and a win almost certain, but we are talking about Torquay United here and we ended up making things far more difficult for ourselves than we should have.

In saying that we should not forget that York are also battling to try and stay in this league and their players do deserver much credit for battling away as hard as they did, especially in the second half when we started to go a bit backwards.

We took a nice early lead and got a second goal very quickly, it’s a good job we did as the result of this match might have had a different outcome had that not been the case. I was so pleased to see Benyon score his first goal since coming back to us on loan. He works so hard and it’s clear how much this club means to him and his goal was a typical Benyon type goal scored from within the six yard box. We took a corner from the left hand side, the ball was headed out to the edge of the box, a shot was fired in and got blocked but the ball fell to Benyon who made no mistake with his effort on goal. Our manager seems to think it come off his knee or even his shin, but who cares it gave us all something the cheer about.

But we so nearly lost that lead just a few minutes later, Chambers? should have scored as he was unmarked and had the whole goal to pick from where to place he header, but his effort went wide of the right hand post. York had a number of good chances to score during the first half and today it’s fair to say lady luck was on our side at times.

It’s always so good to see one of those memorable goals scored in a game you have attended, we were treated to one such goal today thanks to Mr Jarvis. He got hold of the ball and ran down the left hand flank, looked up and got the ball onto his right foot about 20 yards out and the ball just flew into the net. I do not think the York keeper even moved, our manager thought the ball had hit the side netting and did not know we had scored until he heard the fans celebrating.

Two nil up and cruising? Well not really as it only seemed to have stunned the York players into action and we started to give the ball away and not win those second balls and finding ourselves getting beaten in the tackles. We could have easily gone in at half time drawing with York two all, but thankfully that was not the case and one only wondered how well we would play in the second half..

To be honest I felt we were poor in the second half and at times York looked as good as we did in those opening minutes during the first half. We were no longer creating chances and allowed the York players to start dominating the play and that can be a costly thing to do in a game such as this one. York went close a few times in getting a goal back, but then we went and gifted one when there was no need to do so. I thought Cruse played well for most of the game and if only he stayed on his feet beside the York player who had been played into our box, he may well have forced him out wider and away from our goal. But he didn’t and brought him down and as the last man he had to go and I do not think he can have any complaints with the ref who had a very good game as far as I’m concerned.

So the score was now two one and we were down to ten men with York really starting to believe they could get something out of this game. They so nearly did after Poke punched the ball out to the edge of the area with both fists, a shot was fired back in and he made a wonder save tipping the ball over the crossbar.

You could forgive our fans if they were starting to think here we go again, after all we were looking very sloppy at this stage and hanging on for dear life. Now it was no longer about playing any neat football, now it was about showing grit, fight and the will not to be beaten. If nothing else our player showed that and we held onto the three points that were so hard fought for.

We did have one great effort on goal and had the ball gone in, it would have been as good a goal as Jarvis scored in the first half. The ball was half cleared from the York box and fell to Mansell who hit a wonder shot with the outside of his right foot that was heading for the top left hand corner of the goal, Their keeper pulled off a top draw save and just got his hand on the ball to keep it out.

Our manager said after the game he had set a target of four points from the last three games, he never expected seven and just how important are those seven points going to prove. We are now five points clear with six games remaining, while we are not safe just yet, we are a lot closer to safety that we might have dared to hope for.

A big well done to our players today, this was one of those games we have lost in the past and defeat would have painted a whole different picture as far as the league table is concerned. A big well done to all the fans who went today, it was good to see a number of faces I know after talking to them have been giving Plainmoor a wide berth of late.

Its been hard being a Torquay United fan this season, nothing new there then, but I have every confidence we will stay up this season and hope the club ensures next season the manager who ever he will be, gets the funds needed to put together a team that will be fighting at the other end of the table.