NLS: Welling v Torquay United 3pm 7th September 2024

link - ticket and travel details

link - 0-0 HT but Cooke wrongly had a goal disallowed as ball came off the defender.

Yes, should have put the game to bed much earlier and not sure how we contrived to lose by two goals. Good point about Moxey as first start for him this term. Bad day at the office but need to move on to the next one….

Guessing we may see loan players at Plainmoor soon.

That's right. The ref blundered big time and his telling off from the adjudicator after the match won't give us any points. The lino was correct to flag that Cooke was in an offside position BUT, and this is the important bit, it is not an offence to be in an offside position. The lino is saying to the ref: "Torquay 19 is in an offside position, its up to you to spot who played the ball last". The ref can't see that Seymour has played the ball (because he hasn't), so he has simply guessed that Seymour did. That's rank bad refereeing: you can only give what you see and you shouldn't guess what has happened. Actually, I think the lino is in a good position to see that the ball has gone past Seymour before coming back to Cooke, so he must realise that the ball has hit the Welling defender.

To clarify any other scenarios: the ball came from a throw-in so Cooke cannot be offside when he heads it, and Seymour was behind Cooke so he cannot be offside.

Bleddy NLS officials! 

I listened to the BBC Radio Devon commentary and saw the Torquay Talk video of the perfectly good goal that was disallowed. Interestingly the lino officiated at Ashton Gate. I hate VAR and wouldn’t want to see it at this level (or at any level come to that) but surely it’s not too much to ask for match officials to be up to the job.

It sounded as if we were poor and as others have said, the team is a work in progress. I like to remind myself at the final whistle at matches like this that we very nearly didn’t have a team playing at all.

It was interesting to hear Rave Thomas on the commentary describing the posters of the video as “our friends at Torquay Talk”! How times are changing. Would someone like to point out to him how firmly he nailed his colours to the mast of the previous regime? It would seem that even Rave is having to accept that those collectively calling for wholesale change last season might have been right all along.

I miss Dom Mee’s commentary when listening on a rainy Saturday afternoon by the radio. His enthusiasm filled the airwaves with a constant stream rather than the dead airtime and babble of others. Particularly when we were on the ball there’d be a fervent repetition of the players name e.g. Moxey, Moxey, Moxey, still Moxey. The BBC would do well to give him a go.