FL2: Torquay United v Dag & Red March 2nd 2010

Almost snatched it in the end, can't have luck all the time. Mansell hitting the crossbar also.
The commentry was not good, can't they just mention where on the pitch the action takes place when the ball is in play. Sounded like a quiet performance with a quiet crowd in the stands.

But a clean sheet at last, roll on Darlington!

From here in the East Midlands looks like a good point. Bloody delighted that the other results went the "right way" as well.
Am up early in the morning so will read the reports tomorrow.

Overall 6 points from last 4 games is great and I for one am absolutely delighted.

Not too much to report about tonight's match as there was not a great deal of goalmouth incident. Crowd 2,140, less than 30 from Dagenham, sponsors MOTM O'Kane. Torquay played 4-4-2 but without orthodox wingers so there was little in the way of exciting and pacy runs we have witnessed this season from the likes of Thomson, Stevens or Carayol. O'Kane replaced Macklin from Saturday and played right midfield with Wroe left midfield, and Thompson and Mansell in the middle. Up front Zebroski partnered Barnes.

I can't think of any worhwhile chances from either side in the first half. The second half did liven up and at times the game got a bit stretched. However that also meant that Dagenham were at their most dangerous as they had some good pacy players. This was a good solid Torquay performance and we had some (not many) decent chances in the second half. Mansell came closest with a rasping shot from about 25 yards that dipped beautifully but rattled the crossbar with their keeper looking on. Apart from that Torquay typically missed the target when presented with a good chance, again Mansell having the pick of them. He really is offering a lot back in midfield. O'Kane came close in injury time with a curling free-kick from our left that their keeper parried. Bevan did not see too much action all night.

I'm quite happy with a point tonight. It was not that entertaining for the neutral but at least we are looking more solid and grinding out some points. The emphasis was more on containment and hopefully nicking the odd goal which we nearly did. Again Branston and Ellis look very solid in the back, and with Bevan in goal our record is improving. Robertson again was used for his long throws with even towels laid on to give the ball a wipe, like Delapp of Stoke. Rowe-Turner was better at left-back but still makes mistakes e.g. with the timing of his tackles. O'Kane shows some good vision to pick out passes. Zebroski looked hungry and provided some good moments. I have yet to be convinced about Barnes, I expected more from a championship player. When he did try shooting they were pretty tame affairs.

I said I would be happy with a point for this game and if I’m honest I’m now disappointed we only got one point as the three points were there for the taking. If the rest of the team did not have to carry two passengers in the game then I’m sure we would be celebrating two wins on the trot.

R&D were no where near a good aside as I was expecting and caused us no real problems the whole game and our problem was not taking the chances that did come our way, but you have to say we were very unlucky to not score from a great strike from Mansell that crashed against the bar with their keeper rooted to the spot.

I bumped into Darryl when I got in the ground and he was on the way to the press box and he gave me a team sheet (he also said he wanted a chat sometime about expanding our pages in the programme next season) I took one look at it and was unsure how we were going to line up and my first thoughts were that we would play with Barnes up on his own with Thompson in the hole behind him.

But no Zebs was upfront with Barnes and Wroe was playing wide on the left with Thompson in the middle with Mansell. To be honest Wroe had a half decent game out wide and at the start of the match we were getting some good balls into the box, but we made nothing from any of them. O’Kane also had a decent first half but was absent for the second half but one thing I do need to praise most of our players for tonight, was their fighting sprit and their hard work.

Thompson once again had a poor game and sorry but Rowe-Turner for me was only very slightly better than he was on Saturday and these two players for me were our weakest links and you have to question why Bucks started both off them and why he stuck with them for so long in this game and in the end only Thompson was taken off for Benyon.

I hope Rendell is back soon and Barnes is sent back to Plymouth because he is never going to score for us but mainly because what he done to Benyon is unforgivable and I hope Bucks reads him the riot act.

The pitch did not look to bad but it was very wet around the area where the player’s tunnel is but it played well enough and looks far better than many other clubs pitches I saw on the TV over the weekend.

So we made a bright enough start and it did not take Rowe- Turner too long to hack the D&R winger down and give away a free kick in a dangerous area and thankfully nothing came from the free kick.

Zebs was working hard up front and chasing everything and on 20 minutes his hard work won us a corner and from the corner the ball found its way to O’Kane who hit a power shot with his left foot just past the post.

We then had a good move where Zebs might have done better with his shot, Wroe played a good ball to Barnes but Barnes let the ball run onto Zebs who hit a very weak shot with his left foot that the keeper saved with ease.

On 28 minutes Branston got far to tight to the player he was marking and found the ball going over his head and the right winger picked it up, Ellis went out to the winger and did his best to stop the cross coming in but failed and the D&R forward got a good header in on goal that forced Bevan into making a good save.

The ref was having a very poor game and giving some strange decisions and he had booked Barnes earlier in the half for what looked a nothing tackle. The ball went out of play and the ref was having another word with Barnes, then R&D took the throw-in back to their keeper, he miss kicked the ball a bit and it came out to O’Kane who went around the last man and into the box and then the ref blew his whistle. The ref then indicated that is was our throw-in, but why wait for all that happened when the R&D player took the throw-in before deciding it should have been our throw-in, very strange.

Barnes should have done better than he did near the half hour mark, Robertson took a throw-in into the R&D box and it got headed back out to him, he put in a nice cross and Barnes could only manage to glance his header wide of the left hand post.

So not the best first half of football I have seen at Plainmoor and I felt if we could take just once chance then that might be all we needed to get the three points.

No changes made during the break and every one we had a good chance when Wroe made a great pass to Barnes who in turn laid the pulled the ball back to Mansell who made a complete mess of his shot and then Wroe had a good shot blocked as did Barnes

At the other end two half chances came quickly for R&D, one a shot Bevan saved with ease and the other a header past the post and than was the last Bevan was required to do for the remainder of the half.

The came the Mansell screamer and boy did he hit it well, Robertson had the ball at his feet on the halfway line and looked like he did not know what to do with it, the ball looked on to go wide to O’Kane but he played it to Mansell who did well to keep hold of the ball and go past his man and give the ball a right old thump. The D&R keeper did not move one inch and it was just our luck this time the ball came back off the cross bar.

Not a great game but in the end a point and we maybe deserved all three and as I said might have got them if we had eleven playing out on the pitch.

Footnote, it was nice to meet new member Boveylad who was standing next to me and just happened to mention forums and asked if I belonged to one

I must be simple, i quite enjoyed the game, I accept we have got to grind out results at the moment, and that we are doing! the defence is looking as solid as i can remember since woodsy went. Both branston and ellis read the game well and shout a lot, bev between the sticks has added confidence into the defence and now they have played more than once , so are getting a gel thing going!
Robbo also did well and again a header back to bev inside the six yard box that i couldnt of imagined happening only a few weeks ago,
the midfield is coming together and didn't look as light wieght as it has recently. even ty did some ok things out there,
Barnes holds the ball up really well but... theres times when a knock on would be more benificial, okane really worked hard and is starting to make things happen, so ok it wasn't a vintage performance but it was a step inthe right direction with a feel of a team that are starting to work for each other and getting used to each other,after all the player changes lately a settled team(ish) is starting to take shape, its all good.
I would of taken a nil nil before the game but felt we should of won in the end after all the pre match waffle about how good dag and red are...... they arn't in fact tufc shouldn't worry about any of the other teams they are all beatable ( i know i'm going to regret saying that)

Dire, Clueless & Bereft of idea's....
and the players were not much better.

Now i have always been a fully fledged member of the Paul Buckle fan club.

However, i do find myself questioning his recent team selections and substitutions (or lack of them).

Ungrateful i know, in light of 5 points from our last 3 games against 2 opponents pushing for a play off spot. But i have seen those 3 games first hand and the points haul papers over the cracks.

I could understand him wanting to shore up the team against a team like Dagenham, but i couldn't understand how Smith isn't a better option than Rowe Turner and why Nicky Wroe was playing left wing. You don't buy/loan/inherit 7 wingers and play your most creative midfield player wide on the left.

However, once he could see that 3 points was a real possibility there were several options available to him. Thomson on, or Carayol on, or Stevens on, even Nicholson would have done a better job at left back. There could be an argument that these guys aren't the ones you want in the heat of a battle but it was hardly that tonight.

There is a saying that you are only as good as your bench, well our bench was very good tonight, however they all pretty much stayed there.

Ellis got my vote as MoM. Bevan great safe in first half from what i believe was 1 of only 2 real shots on target all night, with Mansell hitting the bar with the other.

Our ball control and first touch was disappointing tonight and our distribution was not much better.

Branston does have a presence and is strong in the air but his ball control/distribution is woeful, it just gives possession straight back to them, mostly via a throw in.

Was not best pleased to see Barnes and Benyon having a full on argument with each other. Embarrassing.

We are playing like a fragmented team with no real confidence. I will take dire and survival anytime, but does it really have to be like this ?

I believe that we are pretty much safe now anyway, 9 points is a lot for Grimsby to make up and there are 2/3 other teams around us who are equally poor. However, i am starting to get concerned about our long term position

Perhaps i just need to sleep off the disappointment of tonights game performance and just look at the league table in the morning so that the glasses become rose tinted again.

In all fairness I think the plan was to stop the D&R pacey wingers getting at us all night and the two banks of four we lined up worked and we were only weaker in the middle as we played Thompson in there.

Muzzy was getting ready to come on and Bucks changed his mind and sent on Benyon , if we had of brought on both Thomson and Muzzy on the wings to try and get the win we would have found we might have handed the game to R&D as the wingers would have had only our fullbacks to get past as Thomson and Muzzy would not have done the defensive tracking back that would have been required.

We said we would be happy with a point and we got one and a clean sheet into the bargain so all in all we can't really complain.

Now onto the Barnes problem with Benyon, Barnes was clearly getting frustrated and did not like the way he was being handled by the center backs of R&D and a ball came into the box(was it a corner?) Barnes found himself on the floor in the box and appeared to be holding his head.

The ref blew for a foul and it may well have been given against Barnes, Benyon walked back in to the box too check that Barnes was OK and appeared to try and help him up. Once Barnes was on his feet he put his hands on Benyons chest and almost pushed him over and was giving Benyon was then mouthing off the Benyon.

Not the sort of behaviour we want to see from one of our players to a fellow team mate and Barnes has done nothing to make himself popular with any fans at Plainmoor.