NL: Dover v Torquay United 3pm 12 February 2022

Last 10 in League. W7 D1 L2. A repeat of that in the next 10 should see us set up nicely for the final few fixtures. We are rank outsiders to gatecrash the play-offs still, of course, but stranger things have happened.

Would love those Sinclair Armstrong rumours to be true. I could see us going up via the play offs if he came on board for the remainder. However, I would be surprised if QPR want him to go back to the National League.

That was a strange game.

There are many advantages to an away day at Dover: it's only about two hours drive from where I live and parking is excellent at the rugby ground below The Crabble. On the other hand the ground is a mess, the pitch is worse and the fans' priority appears to be insulting the opposition rather than supporting their own team. That might be an exaggeration, but having decided to watch the first half from the Dover end I remain convinced they sang "Football League and you mucked it up" more often than any song supporting their own team and were happy to chant "one handed self lover, one handed self lover" any time a Gulls fan walked in front of them to get to the one refreshments outlet in the ground, situated at the opposite corner to the away section. The stewards were friendly, the fans certainly weren't.

We started very well, not even two minutes gone when a deflected cross (free-kick, corner, throw-in? I can't remember) was wonderfully controlled by Asa Hall on his chest, allowing him to lob a shot over the defence and into the corner leaving the 'keeper flat-footed. Great goal. Following that we dominated the first 15-20 minutes with close, quick passing seeing us buzz around the penalty area and creating chance after chance. We were getting loads of space on our left hand with Martin and Wearne combining well. Sadly, our shooting was wayward, mostly clearing the stand never mind the bar. It looked like a training game. After a while our quick, accurate passes started to go awry. Too many interceptions by Dover prevented us from getting our attacks going. Had Andy Hessenthaler spotted something in our formation and made the necessary adjustments to plug the gaps? We started booting high balls towards the front line and, with CLE and Holman up front, that didn't seem to be the best tactic to succeed. It was almost as if Dover had managed to drag us down to their level and it came as no real surprise when they scored an equaliser. Probably against the run of play in that they hadn't created that much up till then, but they had prevented us from playing our game.

In the second half we got back into the game and pressed strongly. We had loads of opportunities, most of them resulting in us trying to dribble the ball into the back of the net and coming aground on the massed ranks of Dover defenders in the centre of the penalty area. Dan Holman should have had a penalty: I'm sure the ref played advantage and Holman eventually ran out of room. Had he gone down at the first foul it's possible the ref would have pointed to the spot. Asa Hall was clearly held back but the ref missed that as well. I've read criticism of Holman on other sites but I thought he was central to most of our good passing and movement up front. However, he's not the player to win headers and he doesn't function well if there is no room in the box. If we'd stretched the game wider in the second half and stopped aiming the ball a foot above his head he might have had more success. I've now heard GJ say that the pitch wasn't in very good condition so they needed to play off the ground. Well, maybe so, but that didn't stop us in the first 20 mins so is he blaming the pitch unnecessarily?

In the end Danny Wright came on for Holman, and Dover's resistance crumbled. A corner from Armani Little that wasn't floated into the arms of the keeper, this time found the head of Lewis who nodded home from close range. Dover piled on the pressure, their keeper even going up at one point for a corner. We held on for the three points, even padding the stats by grabbing a third late into time-added-on when Duke-McKenna dribbled down the left-hand side of the area and stroked the ball home across the keeper and into the far post.

The joyous Gulls fans walked out of the ground happy with the result, until one steward decided to shut that gate leaving about 20 of us having to walk across the main stand and out of the gate at the other end of the ground. I mean, what is the point of shutting a gate just because 90% of fans have gone through it? I hope I never have to go back to that hovel ever again!

Overall I thought we played very well in parts of the game and lost our way in others. I thought the defence were excellent, and Dover are not as bad going forward as they are defending. There were times when we got bogged down in midfield. Other times we played too much over one side of the pitch with players free on the other side. Where is the vision? Do we need a midfielder to stop play and look around to see how we can stretch the game (something Randell was very good at last season)? It's a good thing when we can win when not playing very well, on the other hand we were so dominant on the first 15 mins we should have been two or three goals up. If we keep missing gilt-edged chances, good teams won't let us off the hook in the way Dover did. I thought the tactics were wrong with Holman playing as the lone striker, especially if we are going to play long balls from the back. Or maybe the tactics were right but he didn't get the support from CLE that he was expecting. I'm not sure what to make of Evans this season. He was so effective playing behind Wright last season, whereas this season he has tended to get lost playing on the right of a front two. Too many moves seem to flounder at this feet, possibly because he is trying too hard to make things happen. I would like to see GJ rethink Evans' role in the team as I don't think we are getting the best from him.

On yesterday's showing better teams will beat us; on last Saturday's showing we can prevent better teams from beating us by hard work. We are a strange team this season: none of the fluidity that we had last season, a mish-mash of players from all parts of the league almost dragging wins from the jaws of defeat. Somehow we are 4th in the form guide with very winnable games coming up. It's a classic season of mid-table mediocrity and I'm very worried that it will be the hope that I won't be able to stand.