Torquay United V Crawley 11th April 2009

TEAM: (4-4-2)
Beavan.
Mansell, Robertson, Todd, Nicholson.
Carlisle, Wroe, Hargreaves, Stevens.
Sturrock, Sills.
Subs: Brough, Benyon, Dsane, Hodges, Carayol

Burton 1 Histon 0....

2-0 all over... play-offs anyone?

Story of our season i'm afraid, still, look on the bright side, the goal scoring machine called Tim Sills has signed a year extension on his contract!

Points tight, goal differences tight; I'd much sooner that IF we make the play offs we'll arrive there buzzing and on a roll rather than off the pace like last time when we qualified far too early for our own good.

Onwards to Salisbury on Monday then and it's another biggie..............let's hope the Yellow Army take the place over and don't let today keep some of them away; then Stevenage next Saturday is absolutely massive.

It's not just long unbeaten runs that make a season, it's how you react when they end that determines how things will finish.

To ANYONE who can possibly get along to support the lads over the last few games I say "do your very best to play YOUR part in OUR quest, then succeed or fail we can have no complaints!"

As good as we were last weekend we were as bad today.
If ever there were contrasting performances these last two were it.
There was a distinct air of expectation today and with the performances of late fully justified but as usually occurs and when you get a good expectant crowd we fall flat on our faces. Home form has been a concern all season and as before and if the opposition get there tactics right we haven't really got an answer. The top spot now is gone, no more miracles and its now extremely important that we cement our place anywhere in the play off zone.
The match itself and especially the first half just gradually deteriorated with Crawley packing the middle of the park and pushing on at every opportunity we just couldn't get the ball down and find a pass with to many hit and hope balls and nothing sticking up front with both Sills and Sturrock struggling for form and dominate their markers. Their were huge gaps in midfield and the 50 50 ball always seemed to fall to the opponents. We had a ten minute opening spell which was encouraging but the rest of the first half was just awful. Second half and we continued to huff and puff while Crawley did all they could to slow things down and waste time. Eventually changes were made and it did lift us. Benyon, Carreyol and Roscoe all played their part in lifting the team and Mussy in particular was outstanding in the time he was on the park and was undoubtedly our biggest threat as every time he went on a mazy run his marker tried to hack him down and succeeded on occasions. One exceptional run and shot was somehow tipped onto the bar by Raynor and you just knew it wasn't going to be our day.
Without the rpoints deduction Crawley would be well amongst us and credit to them for that but their manager assistant are both complete arses and and should have both been sent to the stands with constant arm waving and appealing to the ref.
Bottom line is that not a single player was on there game today and Sturrock in particular looked a shadow of the player I watched last week. Was he carrying a knock?The stats don't lie and our attempts on goal, corner count etc was very poor.
Play as badly on Monday and we could be facing defeat and a very tricky run in.

Dave Saunders is a complete idiot who is more interested in reading e-mails and scores from other games than describing the game he is actually watching for free.

When Sturrock was taken off (was it again because of a tight hamstring ?), it was immediately obvious that we were not going to score in a month of Sundays.

Despite the relatively high achievements of the season, it is nevertheless painfully obvious that we have struggled to see off many mediocre teams at Plainmoor because of the absence of a natural goalscorer.

For anyone who says that we have one in either Sills or Benyon, you are fooling yourselves big time.

I am still very hopeful that we will make the play-offs as both Kidderminster and Stevenage have difficult fixtures remaining, but missing so many chances at home through the lack of a seasoned goalscorer is the true reason for this nerve-wracking finale.