Torquay United V Evesham FA Cup First Round Proper

Thanks for your report swangull, I do need to give up trying to do them

A pretty acurate assesmet of the match Swangull , Evesham were really up for it looking a much better outfit than Chipstead did a couple of weeks back. It could have been a totaly diffrent story if the pen had gone in when we were under alot of pressure particularly from long high balls and Bevan and the central defenders once again did a good job. Would realy like to see him here for the rest of the season at least. Once again thank goodness we have Tim Sills most of our forward play and best bits around the box are centred around him and also Caryol is starting to really look the part but is the sort of player supporters need to be patient with and alow him the odd mistake, players with his ablity and style can win us many matches.

Not that we will ever have one on here, but for one day only I wish I had a banter board

I was with tufc01 for the second half and he felt It was not a penalty, It was hard to see with so many players In the box, It did appear to me It stuck a hand, but not really sure who's hand It was.

If they had converted that one, It could have been an even tougher second half, I did think he would score, you should at least hit the target from the spot and I think once they had missed the chance to get an equalizer, they offered less and less after that.

That was the ref (Darren Sheldrake) we had at Crawley who allowed himself to be influenced and bullied by Paul Raynor from the technical area and gave an incorrect penalty against Lee Mansell that day....................Mansell's high foot did not connect as the referee indicated and an indirect free kick for dangerous play should have sufficed. The physical contact on that occasion was forehead to cheek bone, but he indicated he had penalised the high challenge.

I don't think we can complain about getting a result without much aesthetic pleasure in a cup tie. At the end of the day, we are in the draw for round two and they are not; and that is the sole aim of the exercise!

Well, that was another tough one!

Whilst Bevan rarely had a save to make of any note (perhaps the very end of the first half when he tipped a long-shot over for corner) they did stretch us at times - particularly during the second half.
Getting the second goal killed the game (as you would expect), but had they scored that penalty (which I thought was fairly dubious, sounded like Bucks did as well) then it could have been a different story.

Their keeper had a couple of saves to make, but nothing out of the ordinary. All in all it was a result that we had to grind-out against a team that did well at times and seemed streets ahead of Chipstead. There have been several teams that have come unstuck today by opposition well below them, so it was a relief to go through.

At times we seemed to lose composure - they wre very dogged in thir takling and their approach to launch the ball route-one in the second half with the wind behind them seemed to get us doing the same. Still,anything that they did, we could do better and the likes of Carayol, Sills and Roscoe caused them so many problems down the channels - Sills especially gave their centre-halves a torrid time and it was great to see him get another brace.

It was sweet when the keeper got caught-out by the deflection for the second goal - nice to see cheats do not prosper...... Their niggling tackles and attempts to slow the game-down by obstructing our free-kicks and throwing / kicking the ball away was to be expected (although the referee could have done something about it) but their play-acting in the first half was discrageful - think back to Droylesden but far less convincing. This cheating was to draw the referee to book our players - something that I hate in football, so unlike the Chipstead match I do not go away with any good feeling towards their team whatsoever.

The similarities with the excellent form we had in the first half of last season is that Sills is proving such a bloody handful for the opposition, the wingers are causing immense problems for the opposition full-backs and we are doing the business very solidly. I feel that there is more "flair" than the matches I saw last season, but you expect that of a team on such an excellent run.

It's also another £20k in the bank for winning through to the 2nd round - certainly something not to be sniffed at.

So, here’s the thing, I don’t do match reports. I don’t understand stats or positioning or 442 or any of that nonsense. That may explain why I never comment (or at least very rarely) on the actual way we play (other than to say we where great or hopeless!)

But I did promise I would give this a go, so here goes...............
The day started well. I had to go to scabby abbot (i am allowed to say that because I was brought up there) I did my usual thing of trying to count how many tufc shirts I see on the morning of a matchday (usual none!) (remember Chelsea away shirts don’t count!) Today was special, a real treat, whilst travelling through kingskerswell I spotted a little old lady on the way into church wearing a tufc scarf. Fair shout sweatheart. You are a star!


So on to the game...................I managed to chat to an Evesham director before the game who told me this really is the big one for them. The previous biggest game being the final of the amateur cup in 1923 (? Lost to London corinthiens). He was gracious about the welcome tufc had offered them today.

Minutes silence next.........................or not ? What happened? We were told it was going to but then nothing. Any ideas anyone?
I can’t do a minuted commentary so I will just document what I saw .................. early on Evesham gave it their best, pressing for an early goal with mansell busy at the back needing to head back to keeper in first minute.
Evesham fans were in good form singing “shall we sing a song for you?” tufc responded with a rousing chant of “yellow army” which went on to the family end as well.

The game carried on in a scrappy style. A few good chances, most notable a ball picked up in midfield by Thompson laid on to carayol and the shot held by keeper.

My delightful son is getting bored at this point and announces that for Christmas he wants a pair of self designed signatured boots! (only £100 apparently!) Having got over this bombshell I am disturbed to hear Vinny (he is a member of this site) announce that he only has “two little things”. I shall go no further!

Tufc pushed on, most chances via the Thompson – carayol route but the keeper was picking up any crosses.
Nicholson corner was good with woods hitting just wide of the left stick, sills had a clear header which was held by keeper.
Evesham had a few chances but to be fair they seemed to think that the goal was around row Z.

At this point I did my usual trick of playing “spot the look alike” in the crowd. Unfortunately Lemmy from Motorhead (there is one for the teenagers) was not there today (you must have seen him in the family stand pushing a friend in a wheelchair?). There were however some real finds today. One of the stewards in the family stand was a spit for a little Britain character (I can’t possible say which one!) there was also a Lewis Hamilton stood in the far end of pop stand.

The game continued with chances from both sides. A few “ping pong” chances from sills and dsane were saved or went wide. Evesham hit row z a few times. Dsane took a beautiful 30 yard chance but it was saved.
The driver of WF54WPD was called twice before the police threatened to hang, draw and quarter him. (come on mate – don’t block a garage, you give us all a bad name)

Evesham sang a rather amusing ditty of “sh*t ground no fans” but then moved on to the “where’s your caravan” aimed at Hargreaves (boring!)
Hargreaves concedes free kick which leads to nothing and I am briefly distracted by a lady wearing leopard skin gloves (how camp am I for a straight bloke!)
We all laugh as the news comes through that the greasy ones are losing one nil!

Ok ........ so now the good bit, One nil tufc (but the bad bit was I was in the loo!) It was however carayol on right which went out for a corner and sills headed the Nicholson kick.

The first half continued with a few chances on both sides, Evesham generally shooting high or wide (although dsane also hit one which must have ended up in cary park)

There was a bit of handbags with sills and their keeper as well as their number 10 going down on the edge of the box resulting in woods getting a yellow. I am also fairly sure Thompson got a yellow? For a challenge on goalie. Not sure why though i was a long way away. Generally fans around me thought this was harsh but I cant comment.

Half time
Highlights included 6 times world champion ray reardon drawing the 50/50 (i was about 3000 away but the crowd was only 2000 and something? How does that happen?
The city score is read out the a resounding cheer.................ha ha.

Second half

Plenty of “cheat cheat cheat “chants at the keeper. Evesham gave it a good go, there were a few good chances but generally they were kept at bay.
Mark Owen (yes you heard me right) had a good shot saved by bevan. Nicholson put dsane through and mansell took a cracking shot which hit the side netting “we thought we had scored “ was on my mind.

The chips arrived.

City go 2 nil down ha ha!

Hargreaves shot saved by keeper. Carayol scores but ruled offside. No idea why. I can only assume Sillls or Hargreaves. There was a comedy moment when the Evesham keeper passed to sills only for sills to take a shot. Evesham pushed up and got three corners but didn’t really make much of them. Then came the penalty. I wont even try to argue whether it was or not, I couldn’t tell. Either way it didn’t count because it was placed wide of the left post. Happy days!

I was a bit worried at this point. We had stopped controlling the midfield and were allowing them into the game more and more.
We became more settled as the second half continued. Dsane and woods narrowly missed chances, carayol hit a sweet volley just wide.

The second goal (which I did see) came about from a Rowe pass which went behind Carayol for sills to follow up and place (after a defection I think?)

City are losing 3 nil................................oh joy of joys

Subs were used in last few mins, Benyon came on for Thompson and Stevens on for Carayol. There was some fun at the end with stevens and sills taking on a few defenders each but the shot was wide. There were a few more row z style shots from both sides and as the rain came down in buckets the ref blew up (I have always wanted to say that!)

I was a bit disappointed at the end to hear so many tufc fans booing the Evesham team. I don’t think they were dirty or cheated to such a degree that they deserved some of the vitriolic abuse that was aimed at them from the tufc fans by the tunnel at the end. I went over there with louie to clap both sides off. I was genuinely surprised, and also maybe a touch naive?

MOM was sills. Mine would have been Carayol. I think he was involved in everything. Attendance was 2275.

Not a bad afternoon out, a few beers and a laugh with friends. The Evesham fans were good natured and we took time to give them some programmes, ticket stubbs and a team sheet to give to the kids after the game. I am not sure of the actual away attendance but I would guess at 300 ish?

Onwards and upwards, well done tufc, a potential banana skin put to bed and let’s hope for leeds in the second round .

Oh yes and city lost!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( I have just had a text from a friend who supports city...............There was only one word with four letters.....I will let you guess what is was!)

Note: Any inaccuracies within this report are entirely deliberate and are not proof of the fact that really I am a plank.
Thanks for reading.