FC: Torquay United v Kidderminster 3pm 21 March 2015

A lovely sunny Spring afternoon, saw United collect a very valuable 3 points, and barring a complete catastrophe, banish any further need to worry about relegation. It hadn't been easy to turn down the day's counter attractions, such as being part of the bumper 2000 crowd at Poltair Park to witness St.Austell v Glossop, or to attend the Exeter Mosque Open Day, which unfortunately had an inconvenient 2pm kick off time: Exeter Mosque Open Day

The importance of the match, particularly to the manager, was underlined by the sight of Bill Phillips and Paul Sturrock conspiratorially getting their heads together in a corner of the Plainmoor Community Swimming Pool Car Park pre match. The Sturrock entourage later headed up to the ground and opted to watch the game from Bristow's Bench.

'Pride', 'Passion' and 'Belief' were the three words emblazoned on the St.George's Cross flag that was displayed by the travelling fans in the away end. Three attributes that neither side have exhibited in any great quantity over recent weeks, as they've both suffered a run of poor results. Local lad Brett 'Carry On' Huxtable had been handed the whistle for the afternoon, and although I always get visions of Charles Hawtry and Kenneth Williams running the line for him, there's invariably a bit of comedy involved when Brett is officiating.

The Gulls shaded the early exchanges, and it was a decent open game. Early incidents saw Courtney Cameron decide that a change of footwear was required, and Big John Campbell's hamstring only lasted 15 minutes before he had to make way for the cover star and subject of the main interview in TQ-One: Ryan Bowman. Ryan had initially been consigned to the bench as punishment for a further show of petulance on Tuesday night, and Chris would have been looking for a reaction from his heavily tattooed forward, and that's pleasingly just what he got.

Within 10 minutes of being on the field Bowman hit a crisp low shot with sufficient power that it had zipped into the net before the Harriers keeper could get down sufficiently to paw it away. We saw another side of Bowman's game a little later as he chased a through ball alongside an opposition defender; the Harrier's keeper was also advancing from his goal to collect the ball, and Bowman delivered the necessary nudge to ensure that defender and keeper collided heavily. The ensuing forehead rutting earned a yellow for Ryan and for Kidderminster defender Grimes.

Above: Two men down, but no requirement for either to leave the field after receiving treatment from the trainers. meanwhile Louis Briscoe uses the stoppage to ask Lee Hodges to point out the best Snack Bar for a half time burger and chips.

Old pro Lee Hughes is more than twice the age of Levi Ives, and he did his best to ruffle young Levi, both verbally and physically. All credit to the youngster who I thought had a steady game all afternoon. A little later and another collision, this time between two Kidderminster  defenders who both went down and needed to be administered with the cold sponge. After the lengthy delay, 'Carry On' Huxtable ruled that neither player had to leave the pitch before play resumed, providing us with an interesting half time talking point as to the exact requirements laid down in the rulebook. Harrier's came more into the game, but United were equally capable of launching some decent attacks. About 10 minutes before the break a wayward clearance from  a Harriers defender came flying towards the posh seats of Bristow's Bench and a sudden cry of 'Look out Squire !!' could be heard. For one awful moment we feared that Squire Budleigh would be decapitated, but at the last second he magnificently got two hands to the speeding ball to produce a save that put Rice's 'De Gea' class effort versus Chester in the shade.

H.T Gulls 1 Harriers 0

A little 'Squire' trivia to start the half time break. United old boy Paul Holmes turned up to perform the various interval draws. Holmes hails from Stocksbridge in Yorkshire, and it is of course, the great Peter Eustace who is still affectionately known as The Squire of Stocksbridge. The 50/50 prize money was £130 and the holder of Ticket no. 15112 was entitled to it. The crossbar challenge proved to be more of a problem even with £225 at stake. A succession of re-draws had resulted in winning ticket numbers 13813,13461, and 13941 being announced before Ray from Paignton eventually emerged onto the pitch. Ray, not being in the first flush of youth, not unexpectedly had trouble 'getting it up', and after three limp efforts disconsolately trudged off, with his head (and everything else) hanging downward.

Even brighter sunshine for the second half, but a cloud enveloped us in the 61st minute when The Kiddies scored. McQuilkin (I think) gave away an unnecessary free kick and returning legend Nicholson was going to take it; but not before Courtney Cameron had retreated the required 10 yards. Nico gestured to 'Carry On Huxtable' to assert his authority. No luck, so an agitated Nico then strode out the 10 yards himself in order to demonstrate that Courtney was barely seven and a half yards from the ball. Brett couldn't back down, but Kev wasn't giving up as he waved his arms and glared at the linesman instead. Neither official could be moved to intervene and so Nico took out his anger by flashing a deadly super accurate free kick into the heart of our area which the veteran Hughes guided into the net.

But it's all about reactions from Chris's brave battlers these days, and a good passage of play, including a nicely directed ball slipped through the square Harriers defence by the hard working Ajala, saw Ryan Bowman angle the ball across goal wide of the keeper but comfortably inside the far post to restore our lead.

Not the toughest of opposition, but a win is a win, and hopefully Chris can now devote the majority of his thoughts to next season and experiment to his heart's content with line ups and formations for the rest of this campaign as he plans for the big promotion push of 2015/16.