PSF: Torquay United v Exeter CIty 3pm 27/07/19

Probably the biggest test of pre season so far but that's all it is a test to see how far we've come and how much further we need to go to be serious contenders for a place in the football league.
GJ has the right approach and has proven his worth at so many other clubs with an ongoing plan to continually improve the quality of the squad.
Exeter should be better than us and will be favorites to win this.
They wont have an easy ride because of our competitiveness and work rate. Whether we have the level of quality to win this one is another matter.
Expecting a little more squad bolstering before next weeks opener with players of equal quality to or better than we have here already and that must be seen as the only formula that will get us out of this league and back where we belong. We simply can't stand still and Gill Johnson realises that more than anyone.
Todays goal will be to entertain, enjoy and avoid injuries while gaining match fitness and sharpness with the result way down the list of priorities.

I thought that was an excellent game in preparation for the start of the season against a strong Exeter side that looked particularly good defensively although we did have the chances to win the match.

The only surprise in the lineup was that Kalala who has been one of the stars of the preseason campaign only made the bench today although to be fair Keating has been playing very well and again he ended up as man of the match and it will be very hard to leave him out of the side now with his passing in particular having improved massively. Covolan made his first start and did well and Niate was back from injury.

Torquay dominated the early exchanges forcing three corners in the first five minutes where Exeter barely got out of their own half. Our goal came after 12 minutes as a reward for this good work where Duku managed to regain the ball on the edge of the area (city thought he fouled) and fire home low into the corner of the net.

Covolan did make a very good save midway in the half but Exeter’s main path to our danger area was putting the ball behind Niate who was made to look slow by good solid league opposition, whether that was partly down to his return to injury I am not sure but he seemed better in the second half.

Vincent had a very good game at left back and seemed to get better as the game went on and am now very happy to see him play in this position although I suspect he will have much more to offer playing in the centre of midfield once Davis comes back from injury. Our best move of the game came from a good combination down the right and the low hard cross was well met by Andrews but grazed the bar as it went over. Reid was quiet today and can only remember one quick fire shot that went over the bar in the first half.

The goal came at a bad time just before the break where a long corner was headed back into a mass of bodies in the six yard box and was just forced over the line from short range.

The Exeter players came back on the pitch early and suspect their manager was not too happy with the first half performance. I think we had the first decent chance of the half where again some good work from Keating on the right fired another cross to the far post where Andrews, uncharacteristically, from last season at least, fluffed his first time shot well wide.

As is always the way, you miss your chance at one end and the opposing team goes and score at the other and after some good work from Bowman, Ajose was able to get on the ball drawing defenders to him and nicely squared the ball just out of reach of Covolan for the dangerous Williams to slot home.

Shortly after, Johnson decided to bring on Kalala for Andrews and although he came up with a few nice touches and moves he was also quiet partly down to having to deal with better quality opposition. Little had another good game but today his two free kicks just flew over the bar so it did not appear meant to be for us today and not getting too cocky isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There is confidence and over confidence. Reid had a half chance making room to fire off a shot that ricocheted off a defender but appeals for hand ball were turned down.

So a close fought game which Exeter just shaded. I see Johnson was not too happy and is talking about 3 new signings on Monday to bring the squad up to strength. Would guess at Buse as he was on again today and played tidily and two loan signings, a central defender hopefully (Baldwin?) and maybe Edwards or Cooper?

Remind me who Cooper is? Is that the Exeter defender? Cheers for the match reports.

Ah, yes. Am guessing him and Opi Edwards would be an either/or scenario. Someone mentioned that Aden Baldwin has not been featuring in pre-season. I think we need a defensive starter that hits the ground running. We are not improved in that area from where we were at the back end of last season and the radio commentary seemed to consider Niate’s positioning as at fault for the first goal today. Didn’t listen to second half.

Others have suggested that Vincent, while willing and athletic, does not have the positional sense for the left back role as of yet. Pleased to hear he was rated today by those on here, but he won’t possibly be as finished an article there as Davis, who will need a while to get back up to match fitness.

I would expect Niate and Vincent to be targeted by Boreham Wood and Solihull as things stand. I hope this is an area GJ strengthens next week. I’d be surprised if a centre back isn’t THE priority. If we start with a combination of Niate at centre back and Vincent at left back next weekend, I’d be both very surprised and fearing the worst against quality opposition.