Torquay United V York 28th August 2008

Just got in from watching the game at my son in laws.

Firstly I thought our supporters tonight were brilliant, yellow army throughout, well done.

As soon as Sodje came on I said he would score as they always seem to against us.

Overall I feel gutted that we did not win. York were poor and deserved nothing from the game. I'm sure if Sodje took that kick again 99 times he would miss every time.

Still concerned about the front two, D'sane had a great game, never stopped running. If we were winning every game he would have put away the one on one with the goalkeeper, that's the lack of confidence I suppose.

Defensively a much improved performance apart from the mistake on 87 minutes.

More confident than after the Ebbsfleet game. The season has a long way to go and we can still be there or thereabouts at the end.

Ellis and Hodges were only rendered out of position by the flick on by Brodie. When playing at centre back you simply DO NOT get that close thirty yards from your own goal line.....................if you do, and you're not particularly taller than the man you're marking; what are you going to do? Foul him or get caught like that and Woods has been prone to that ever since he's played for us. All he had to do was stand off and time his challenge and he's favourite to win the ball; but no - serial relegation man Woods never learns and at his age he never will.

Paul Parker was highlighting Woods' poor positional play and poor decision making in the first half but he got away with it because York were not incisive enough, but he was a ticking time bomb waiting to happen and eventually fell for the sucker punch as he so often does - usually unnoticed by those who get distracted by his sometimes spectacular ways of getting himself out of self induced trouble brought on by such poor decision making.

When we used to regularly concede late goals under Rosenior, who was in the defence? Bad decision makers cost you dear, they've only got to make one bad decision in defence and that's it because other players are making poor decisions up front that result in poor penetration.

Poor decision makers put a manager's job under extreme pressure, we saw it on Saturday when poor decisions cost ALL three goals at Crawley. If players are young and inexperienced, a manager can work with them on eliminating that. When a player is 32 years old it has become a habit of a lifetime and a good manager will soon eliminate that player from his team.

I would like to see Todd and Ellis persevered with as the number one pairing, I thought Ellis did very well last night and I thought Robbo handled Brodie very well and knew just how far he could go with a good bit of old fashioned intimidation................a good kick in the back of the legs usually takes a forward's mind off the main priority next time and it worked a treat with the dangerous Brodie!

Just as they did against Wrexham, York showed that in THIS league you can pass the ball until it disappears up your arse to no effect, but change your lineup to something more basic and GETTING THE BALL FORWARD quickly will catch out poor decision makers in the other side and open them up.

The Leroy lovers don't like it, the purists on here don't like it; but it's a FACT and it's what wins/saves games late on.

It's not "hoof ball" it's common sense and lateral thinking football. It's not Fancy Dan football that allows your opponents to funnel back and get behind the ball, it's pragmatic football that at THIS level will catch out the slow and the gullible. Where did last night's two goals come from? Getting the ball in the box quickly before defenders could sort themselves out!

I agree with the remarks about Hodges. I cannot see why we needed to replace a perfectly good left back in Nicholson with Hodges, who is perhaps slightly better defensivley but lacks any desire or ability to go forward when we are attacking.

With Zebs and Stevens creating space for Nicholson last season we were able to put the ball into the box and score goals. When Hodges does make a rare foray forward his distribution is limited and he takes a year to get back and defend when we lose the ball.

Last night I remember Hodges coming forward and giving the ball away midway inside the York half. Despite this mistake he then sat down clutching his foot while York attacked because he could'nt be bothered to get back.

The bottom line is that we have needed a right back for a long time. In January Bucks took alot of the bite and work rate out of midfield by putting Mansell at right back and signing a new midfielder in Adams. He may pass the ball quite well but he was unfit and as a result we were losing the midfield battles that we had been winning in the first half of the season. Then in close season, Buckle signed a load of midfielders and, wait for it, another left back. Now he has realised that Mansell needs to go back into the midfield leaving us back at square one, no right back and Robertson there again who, to be fair, is decent enough defensively but is one of the most technically limited proffesional footballers in England with very little composure or understanding of the game and his distribution is just really poor.

Personnaly, I think Buckle needs to either sign a right back before the window closes or try to make Thompson or Wroe work their, although I'd still be sceptical about the idea of another midfielder being tried their. Having said, he aught to sign a right back, im almost certain that he wont because there is probably no decent one's around that will be available without money and I cant see him spending any.

My other issue is that the need for Lee Phillips seems so evident now. We play a long ball game because this is the conference and, lets not kid ourselves, the standard is pretty poor. Lat night though, Dsane, who would probably score afew with decent service looked lost trying to win constant long high balls. I have nothing against Dsane but for the style of football we play he just doesnt seem to work and neither do Benyon or Green. They are all too light wait and not capable enough to challenge in the air.

With Phillips up front long balls often worked. This is because we had Sills winning just about everything in the air and Phillips constantly hasstleing defenders and using his strength to challenge for everything. Even though he was'nt particularly good in the air, he never shyed out of challenges and always gave defences something to worry about. With Phillips work defences had too forward to worry about.

With our style of play Dsane is easy to defend against and as a result Sills is also because defenders have only really got to stop him from winning the ball and Dsane doesnt have the movement or work rate that Phillips did witch freed up space for Sills.

It seems to me that all of the things Buckle hoped would happen have very much not happened and, of the new signings, only Carlisle has really impressed so far and even so I would rather have Zebroski on the wing with someone like Welsh able to come of the bench.

Carayol, by the way, I thought was distinctly unimpressive last night though I actually thought that Woods and Ellis, on the whole, had a decent game at the back and to be fair to them, they limited York to one, edge of the box effort, witch was unfortunatley, pretty unstopable.

I was impressed by Mansell and Hargreaves in the midfield although, im always impressed by Hargreaves in the midfield.

Credit has to go to Hargreaves as well as Carlisle for the goal. Hargreves won the ball twice in the midfield before playing a quick ball out to Carlisle, who managed to control it very well with his head before sending a decent delivery in witch eventually found Danny.

I agree with Merse, but Ellis has to take some blame too. He let Sodje get away from him. I've always been a defender and my trainers/managers have always taught me to keep watching the player I was marking. And if that player had pace, they told me to stay a couple of feet behind him so he couldn't get behind me.

Ellis lost him for a second and got punished by a quality goal.

I feel Woods played very well over the last two game, yes he got to tight on the forward for their goal, a crime I have seem many defenders do In the premiership. Ellis also played well and given the chance will get even better.

I also felt Roberson, who has not had hardly any starts and can't be feeling to confident, played well and also passed the ball out of defense well most of the time.

Love him or hate with Woods in the defense the last two games we have looked more like we have a defense, than any other game so far this season.

It's all about opinions. Woods distribute from the back rather than smashing it don't make me laugh. As for Nicholson / Hodges - Hodges is a better player than Nicholson ever was or ever will be. Nicholson started last season well and deteriorated as the season progressed.