NL: Torquay United v Wrexham 3pm 19 November 2016

Well at least we did not lose and at last we scored a late goal. I would say a draw was about fair. We struggled for much of the game chasing a 1-0 deficit. We made some promising moves but the end product was not there. The difference today was thanks to the loan signings our bench looked a lot stronger and we had some decent attacking options. Sponsors MOTM went to debutant loanee Moore who won headers well and had a good physical presence as well as a hunger about him. There was relief in the crowd when Blissett was substituted in the second half and not Moore. Crowd a sorry 1,484 with I guess less than 100 from Wrexham. The atmosphere was sadly flat with only a little chanting towards the end of the match.

The match had not really settled down when Wrexham took the lead on 11 minutes. A long ball was pumped up front, our defence went missing and Wrexham were through on goal with Moore to beat. The ball was slotted past Moore into the net. The goal clearly lifted Wrexham and dented Torquay's already fragile confidence. Wrexham had several corners in the first half and the returning Verma at right back made some terrible judgments with the ball nearly gifting Wrexham a goal. Once Moore (the keeper) came to the rescue and on another occasion Gallifuoco made a fine goal line clearance. Wrexham had a fine shot that beat Moore that crashed off the post. Torquay rarely tested their keeper in the first half, our best chance was a Moore shot from an angle that skimmed off the top of their cross bar. There was the odd good Torquay move but no end product and we did not look like scoring. It was only when we used width Torquay looked dangerous but we were mostly too narrow and did not utilise the two big men up front in Moore and Blissett.

Torquay had a couple of decent chances that went begging in the second half. A fine deep cross on the left by Rowe-Turner was met at the far post by Blissett who headed against the cross bar. Torquay then had the clearest chance of the match. Verma slipped a defender on the right, crossed over to an unmarked Moore in the centre of the goal but he headed wide. Wrexham should have wrapped things up in a huge goal mouth scramble that Torquay somehow survived. McCoulsky and Chaney made a double substitution for Blissett and Ward and we looked more balanced playing with more width. When Sparkes is used in his preferred position on left wing he is very dangerous and was one of our best players today coming back from injury. Reid replaced Sparkes and in truth we were struggling to get many attacks going and the game seemed to be drifting away from us yet again. However Torquay won a few corners and each Luke Young delivery was dangerous. On 87 minutes Moore rose up and headed the ball firmly in! Relief and the home crowd finally woke up a bit. A couple of minutes later Wrexham hit a long range shot that appeared to go through Moore into the net. The offside flag went up and Moore was spared his blushes.

Today was a little better and a point was most welcome after trailing for most of the match. Moore made a big difference today and finally there is some good competition for places in attack. McCoulsky did not get chance to get into the match today but he is the sort of player with pace we have desperately needed. I thought having Sparkes back today was an improvement but we need to use him on the wing to make best use of him. Our defence still has its lapses and Verma today was very error prone and would be better playing in right midfield. If only if we had a specialist right back. I thought Rowe-Turner did well assisting attacks down the left and at times is a good crosser of the ball. Moore showed today how effective a striker can be and outshone Blissett today. But until we find ways to give our strikers decent service we will continue to struggle. We rescued a point but we do not work the opposition keeper enough.