Torquay United Women's Team

link - very comprehensive match report!

I suppose it says something about the abject state of this once decent club that 7 of the last 8 posts have been about a parks standard football team who play in yellow ... but win! ⚽️

So a 2-0 loss against a very good Exeter City team but it was generally a good performance until we went two down as we lost our shape particularly for the last 15 minutes.

We certainly started as the stronger team and could have had two or three goals with our main attacking outlet being Ellie Bishop on the left wing who gave their defence a torrid time. Danni Wyatt was just unable to get on the end of a Bishops cross and another one saw a blatant handball from the Exeter defender for the ref to show no hesitation in pointing to the penalty spot. Tracey Cross was the penalty taker last year but Bishop seems to have stepped up to the role, already scoring one from the spot this season but her effort unfortunately this time was well saved by their keeper. She had a chance to make amends shortly after using her pace to get onto the end of the through ball but was not quite able to quite pass their keeper and her toe poke of the loose ball was too soft with now both the keeper and defender able to block it.

The Exeter goal came out of nowhere, a long hopeful shot that may have just been going wide or hitting the post bounced on the ground just as our keeper dived across and it unfortunately flicked off her body and into the net. This seemed to give Exeter a bit more heart and they slowly cranked up the pressure to take control of the match but our team defended stoutly until half-time. Captain Danni Wyatt was badly clattered when their defender jumped right through and on her needing extensive treatment. Think Ruari Keating a few seasons ago. Somehow no card given, just a free kick. Another ref could have seen yellow or even red.

By this time the weather was pretty atrocious and playing on an artificial pitch worked out in these conditions. Torquay applied a bit of pressure early in the second half but like in the first another Exeter City goal sucker punched us. This time a good cross was just got to first by their striker who knocked it over but Our keeper in trying to make the save absolutely clattered their striker for the ref to have no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Penalty was very well taken into the bottom left hand corner.

With the manager putting on more more subs the team gradually lost their shape and threat leaving little chance to get back into it and we were perhaps lucky that Exeter did not extend their lead further.

Considering Exeter are top of the next league above, the women did very well to match and even out play them for parts of the match and I’ll take this as a big positive going forward.

link - good TUFC match report. Home draw on Sunday in the FA Cup for the women as they also look to make it into the first round proper.

link - Squad news is out and Danni will be at least on the bench. Looks like we have more women fit than men!

5-2 win very comfortable for the women to go through with a 90th minute consolation from Wotten that was somewhat controversial after our keeper had gone down injured with the referee waving play on but would that have been the case if things were closer?

Torquay were able get the goals their dominance deserved. Ocean controlled the ball and lashed the ball home into the top left hand corner from 25 yards for the goal of the game and there seemed to be only one result from therein. Ellie Bishop then got a late brace after a quietish game, used her pace to get on the ball for both goals, Robbins providing the pass for the first one with Ellie slotting the ball well pass the keeper into the far corner. Second goal needed a bit more work to thread the ball between ball keeper and defender. Wotten had a few chances which our keeper did well to save.

link - match report and thoughts from the manager on the first round draw. Makes a good point that prize money has been upped a lot following success at the euros and goes a long way in providing much needed funding for the club.