Torquay United v Barrow 3pm ko Saturday 3rd February

Been out all day and unable to get back in time for the match but see we are winning 3-0 so maybe a little bit of hope for this season yet.....

Decided to take a chance and go today thinking it is as good an opportunity to see us win a game of football though sadly more than likely academic.
Nice to see the few remaining staunch optimists around me enjoying this rare win as well though realist that I am I found it hard to get very carried away.
First half was poor from both sets of players both keeper s having little to do and far to much hoof ball out from the back - Mc Ginty guilty of a hoof to Mr Nobody on numerous occasions easily surrendering possession and handing back any hard won initiative on a plate.
When we did get the ball down and play it all started to look more cohesive and threatening and I'm pretty sure Owers would have been saying the same at half time.
Certainly we did appear to look more solid in areas where we have been so vulnerable but whether that was because we were better and improved today or was it that Barrow were so poor?
Time will tell of course.
We certainly looked sharper at the start of the second period.
Romian impressing with his perseverance and unselfish running and Brett Williams looking like a proper target man doing all of the hard stuff that often goes unnoticed to many.
The five at the back also looked solid enough and that was key to us finally getting on the front foot with the first of our opening goals a poke over the line after Gowling had headed towards goal.
Scruffy and unspectacular but effective. Dowliing's second was easier on the eye beating the keeper wit a fierce low drive after some good solid build up play and a flick on from Brett Williams.
The third goal was the pick of the bunch. Romain held up the ball well and played the simple pass out wide Efete finally receiving the ball after some sharpe simple interplay provided a the perfect low cross for the incoming Young to score with ease. Yes that was the goal I enjoyed te most a proper bit of confident attacking football so rare to witness., An Oasis in what has become a vast featureless desert.
3-0 and cruising Barrow looked embarrassed and finally stepped up the pace putting us under pressure without really hurting us. Untill that is Josh Gowling who it has to be said had a solid game at the back lunged in with a challenge when there was absolutely no need to with the player making the most of a slighttky mistimed challenge. Gowling with his experience should have known better.
Fortunately we managed to dig deep and see the game out with only one or two more small scares in the remaining 15 minutes of normal time though you could sense the nerves all around the ground.
One win down - only another eight to go for us to stand any chance of staying in this division.

Cracking second half and nice to take the wife up the Dumpling with a smile on my face.

I can't get too carried away with the result as I'm sure our hope will be ripped apart next saturday and as we are going for a curry after the Daggers game, well that is one game we won't win...sorry folks.

After overdosing on defeat for far too long, the Plainmoor faithful who can’t kick the football drug, were at last rewarded with the shot in the arm they’ve so badly needed. And with the points in the bag we even brought on Connor ‘Legal high’ Evans for the last 15 minutes. It wasn’t just Chelston with an uncharacteristic smile on his face as supporters flooded out of Plainmoor intending to spend the evening celebrating in whatever fashion appealed most.

But we’d had to endure a tedious opening 45 minutes before the adrenaline rush of the second half arrived to cheer us up. A cold wind whistling through Bristow’s Bench,  a Barrow side seemingly settling for a draw from the first whistle and slowing things right down, and a struggle to create really good clear cut chances on a soft pitch.

One person who wouldn’t have felt the cold is new crowd favourite Elliott Romain, who again gave a fully committed, tireless, skilful, and effective performance. His prodigious workrate even guilt tripping Brett Williams into running about a bit. It was good to see Brett back in a Torquay shirt, and it’s clear that he still has qualities that many in this division don’t have. The man King Kev memorably compared to Dimitar Berbatov, had a good game for us, and it was in the official programme (wonderful value at only £2 yesterday) that Brett drew different comparisons of his own: ’I’ve always been between the Michael Owen and Emile Heskey types of players’ explained Brett, ‘I’m in between and can do a bit of both - run with the ball and hold it up’.

I wonder also, if we might also have been one Ballboy short for the first 20 minutes ? Judging by the number of times Vincent Dorel had to make his way down to the snackbar cornerflag to retrieve the ball himself to bring back for goalkicks. All in all a solid but far from thrilling opening half, giving us a scoreline at the break which read:

Gulls 0 Ziggers 0




Not too sure about ‘The Ziggers’ but as the 50 or so Barrow fans brought a flag down with them proclaiming that, it’ll do for now. What else did we get for our £2 besides the Brett Williams interview ? Only a further interview with the ‘People’s Champion’ himself….Elliott Romain !! Another top notch 90 minutes from Elliott yesterday and with the exception of the Match sponsors, surely everyone else’s ‘Man Of The Match’ by a clear distance. The dedicated and self-effacing Elliott seemingly putting his all action, robust style down to the grounding he had playing for Three Bridges FC in County One Division and the Ryman South:

'I’m not really that exciting. I don’t do much apart from football; there isn’t anything else in my life’ admitted Elliott. Before harking back to happy times with Three Bridges FC - ‘They’re strong physical leagues where players get bashed up. That really moulded me as a player, playing in that environment at just 18 years old. I enjoyed playing for Three Bridges, and it was my platform to work my way up in the game’.

Further notes of interest, to be gleaned from the programme was that the Official Supporters Club has ‘well over’ 300 members. That information being revealed hot on the heels on another fans organisation having to confess that in reality it has no more than ‘just over’ 400 live members, despite the much vaunted ‘north of 500’ we’ll have all been lead to assume from certain sources. So no cavernous difference in membership numbers, particularly when your remember how recently the Official Supporters Club was launched. Yet you can guess which organisation is being invited to the microphone by the hosts of a TUFC fans podcast this coming week. Further proof that the (perpetually) crying baby gets the most attention.

But let’s try to forget about scheming Socialists and talk about strikers. Our brave lads were men on a mission as they purposefully went about notching up maximum points from the encounter. If table toppers Macclesfield, even on their own patch, didn’t have enough to defeat our boys last week, then neither would these glow in the dark Ready Brek kids from the shadow of Windscale (no, I’ve not consulted a map) who were visiting Fortress Plainmoor yesterday.

Our first goal came when King Kev’s shrewd Summer signing, Josh Gowling, got a few wisps of his ‘Don King’ hairstyle to the ball at the near post, causing confusion on the goal line, with Cap’n McGinty ensuring there was no doubt we’d taken the lead.

We lept to our feet in celebration at Plainmoor, and I’m sure Clarke Osborne was also punching the air in delight as he avidly listened to the commentary at home. Only a few minutes later and Clarke would have been jumping out of his armchair again as George Dowling hit a firm low shot diagonally past the keeper and into the net.

Then the third goal, which was just like watching Brazil, only that Brazil couldn’t do it quite as well, and certainly not on a soggy playing surface like Plainmoor. Luke Young adding the final touch to a great move that oozed composure, vision and desire.

By this stage the go ahead for preliminary designs for Great Escape 3 posters was being signalled. We did concede from the penalty spot to give Barrow a consolation. A soft decision in Barrow’s favour, and one I think Referee Carl Brook would have thought a lot longer and harder about before awarding, had we not had a three goal lead with a little over 15 minutes remaining.

Improved performances, improved results, and seemingly an improved team thanks to the club’s Owner sanctioning further recent outlay on player recruitment.

Let’s keep battling against our opponents, both on and off the pitch.

Barrow 1 nil up against Sutton (Boo)

Guiseley 1 nil down against Gateshead (Hurrah)