FL2: Torquay United vs Chesterfield - 16th November 2013

Bugger! So it is. I regularly had breakfast in Chesterfield mind back in the mid-1980's when working in that area intermittently, but that was before anybody started telling me what I can and cannot eat so I just ate what was put in front of me! I just thought that black pudding was a delicacy (loose description!) found in Northern parts beyond Taunton!

They over emphasise the crooked spire as a feature as well. Obviously they have never visited the church at Ermington!

Whilst Oatcakes may be more readily associated with Staffordshire we've been making our own for at least as long. Ours are bigger!

This ain´t looking good and according to the BBC Sport statistics we have had 2 shots at goal so far, none on target.

Game over, 2 shots on goal and none on target.

Time for Thea to get her knives out of the drawer?

If the board could afford to pay off Knill and Brass, the first question I would be asking is how the fleck they can afford to do that but can't afford to strengthen the squad!

Hypothetically, were that to happen we could be a club paying Ling, Knill, Taylor (although perhaps not as he has another job now), Brass, plus new manager and new assistant.

And the new man will still have the same dead wood in the playing squad and even less money to spend on improving it.

But were a new manager to get similar results to Knill, could we see a situation come Easter where he is sacked and the club are paying FOUR managers and assistants; with even LESS money available for the squad.

It's not ideal (but the seeds of that were sown in the summer when Knill's recruitment budget was cut), however the best business solution is to wait until January and hope that Knill can offload some under-performing wages from the bill and replace them with better quality.

The colours were firmly nailed to the mast before the season started - we are a club unwilling to spend on the playing squad, so replacing Knill solves nothing and, if anything, makes the situation worse.



Someone is going to respond by playing the Conference card. I understand and agree that relegation back to the Conference is simply unacceptable, but removing Knill at this stage actually increases the chances that we will return to the Conference, as paradoxical as that seems this evening. Panicking isn't the answer yet, although it could very well be by the end of February.

Out of interest, let's say Knill is removed - who is available to replace him who we know can do a better job?

Of course Knill and Brass should be on their bikes after yet another clueless, disjointed and unimaginative performance that just served to echo the deep rooted problems at Plainmoor. It wont happen because we simply cannot afford to chop and change managers and coaches despite their dreadful performance since taking over the reigns. You would honestly believe that a club of our stature would build in some sort of safety clause in a contract that would safeguard the club from this sort of situation where it was all going from bad to worse with little prospect of any sort of turn around. I personally believe we will now slowly plod on regardless each of us hoping that Knill and Brass can conjure up some magic until we quietly drift out of league football once again only this time never to return. I simply do not believe the will is their within the club anymore and it was rumored today that even Thea has been heard to say " why do I bother?" and I have to agree.
As I have previously suggested we will find our level at some point and then perhaps we may be able to compete and win matches and believe me it will be way below football league level. Today was, in my estimation Conference South at best. Chesetrfield didn't have to win this game we simply handed it to them on a plate. Defensively we were embarrassing with the usually dependable Arron Downes the main culprit and Pearce looked like all the confidence had drained out of him since being dropped and looked nervy throughout. McCourt despite his error in for the second goal did at least look like a footballer who was hungry for the ball and for all our many failings we did try and pass the ball today even though it was sideways and backwards most of the time, fine if you are a threat and have a lead perhaps.
The forward line and lack of threat was for me the biggest disappointment. MacCallum was again dreadful and should back go now as he offered nothing kept falling over and fouling his opponent, didn't win a single header all afternoon and cannot control and hold the ball up and has no pace. Utter garbage to put it politely and lets face it we would have been relegated last season without Rene Hows hold up play and goals. Hawley didn't look interested for much of the match as did a few others which makes me believe that the players have lost all confidence in the manager and what he is trying to achieve. That in itself is bad news and will only make the situation worse as the season progresses. The players were playing to instruction today and for the first time in a while we did at least try and pass the ball but when we did get into any sort of threatening position the opposition so easily broke up our play it became difficult to watch and I honestly felt embarrassed to be associated at what was being served up on my behalf. Far too many sub standard footballers at the club with one or two now looking uninterested and the rest devoid of purpose and confidence. Knill may well have brought in the best he could from those willing to come or who were simply available but his persistence with failing tactics is the thing that has peed me off the most, yes he changed it today and gambled with a partially ready Mozika and the enigma of Nathan Craig maybe his last throw of the dice that emitted a sense of panic I thought, and perhaps the last throws of the dice.
Bottom two now with the worst defense in the division, it was only a matter of time and the pattern has been steadily growing for many weeks now and having witnessed so many similar situations in the past we are only heading one way the die has been cast and will be tough if not impossible to change now so I now expect relegation.
Gear up for the Conference people I can see little prospect of us staying in the football league at this rate.

Enough is enough as far as I'm concerned. This is as bad as it gets and the rot has truly set in. Knill is clearly not the man for the job and his days are numbered as far as I'm concerned. I can't see him turning things around and it is mainly due to his incompetence we are now in the relegation zone. It's never easy managing a team of Torquay's size but a half decent manager should do an awful lot better than Knill. His team selection today was just asking for trouble with too much chopping and changing and playing players out of position. Today our 2 full-backs were dropped so we had a very unfamiliar back 4. Worse still in the middle of midfield we had Mozika who has hardly had a game for over a year and has yet to prove himself and an 18 year old loanee in McCourt. Mozika was never in the game and McCourt had an absolute nightmare. Mind you, he was not the only one - experienced players like Hawley were simply awful and many others like Downes, Chappel very error prone. It was difficult to pick a player who played well. Sponsors MOTM went to left back Cruise. Crowd 2,361 with 300+ from Chesterfield.

Until Chesterfield scored Torquay were playing ok without troubling Chesterfield. Torquay were trying lots of short passes in their own half and kept reasonable possession. But on 10 minutes, Downes made a hash of a clearance in the penalty area, Chesterfield shot firmly through Rice who perhaps should have saved it. After 19 minutes it was really game over. McCourt gifted the ball to Chesterfield about 25 yards out, they ran though on goal, Rice saved the shot but Chesterfield scored the rebound into an empty net. For the rest of the match it was a stroll in the park for Chesterfield who should have scored more. Torquay were simply clueless with no pattern or ideas and moves time and again broke down with passes going astray. Knill was too incompetent to change things around and his only 2 subs were like for like subs. It was so clear that our central midfield was not functioning but nothing was done about it. We desperately needed to do something like get Mansell back in central midfield or move Craig, who was playing on the right wing, into central midfield. Did either Mozika or McCourt win any tackles today? The biggest cheer of the day was after 70 odd minutes when a long distance shot by Craig was easily saved. We acually had a shot on target and all the home crowd gave a raptuous cheer to signal the moment. We were that bad!

Sadly I brought tickets for the Plymouth match in a couple of weeks. I regret that as I just cannot stomach anymore of this rubbish. Knill has lost the plot and drastic action needs to be made in my humble opinion. I have no confidence that he will turn things around, the more he tries the worse it gets...

Oh dear, well at least the club can do a decent carvery and thanks to Dean Edwards today for being a great host. At least the club does a lot of good OFF the pitch.

Pete, their 5 shots (if thats what they had) on target were the 2 goals (individual mistakes im afraid) and 2 in the last few minutes. That makes (I think?) 1 shot on target in the other 80 or so minutes so its hardly that we were played off the park.
Not that its anything to write home about but we certainly had 1 shot on target (Craig, though it was straight at the keeper) so i would take the bbc stats with a bit of a pinch of salt.
The problem from where I sat was being outmuscled and outnumbered in midfield again. They played a variety of 4-5-1/4-3-3/4-3-2-1 depending on where the ball was but making sure they had enough bodies in midfield at all times to get possession back. When we did try and break, they made sure there were enough people back to snuff out any threat by closing us down really quickly.