FL2: Torquay United v Shrewsbury 3rd April 2010

I find myself fully agreeing with everything you have said in your post merse, Muzzy was voted man of the match for his very exciting runs he went on and such eye catching runs are always going to make any player stand out.

There was a moment during the game that the whole of the main stand ended up shouting out at Muzzy, a ball had been played up by Shrewsbury just over the halfway line and Muzzy made no effort to move to the ball and try and win it, instead he stayed rooted to the spot and just stood and watched as a Shrewsbury player who dd make the effort, go and get on the ball and set up an attack.

It goes without saying if you play Zebs on the wing you will lose what he has to offer upfront and the question would be for me is can we afford to lose that because Zebs is needed to offer cover for Nico.

We should not forget the excellent run he made down the left in a recent home game where he then cut in to the box near the byline and set up a goal for us, so if he is playing well he still has plenty to offer playing out wide on the left hand side of the pitch.

Yesterday it was more the case that Zebs was poor on the ball most of the time, his attempts to go past any Shrewsbury player especially in the second half, were very half hearted in my view and he also got a bit of stick for bottling a fifty fifty ball near the halfway line.

Nico had an excellent game again yesterday and clearly showed he is more than good enough to play in this league, were the Shrewsbury defenders as slow as he is? is that why Muzzy went past them with so much ease at times? its not always just about pace, but how that pace is applied, and even those not so gifted with pace, can make the yard or two they will need to deliver a cross by out foxing their marker by making a quick dash past them.

Well if Muzzy does become available, I think a fair amount of Shrewsbury fans would take him!

Just on a general point about Zebs - yes, his defensive tracking back is important, and yes, he made one or two tracking back tackles yesterday, however, these tackles were made when his own poor control, doppyness or poor decision making had got us into trouble. I like Zebs, but lets not pretend that yesterday he was anything but a liability in his position in midfield.

Strangely for Zebs, I also thought there were one or tow 50/50 or even 60/40 challenges which were lost becuase the oppostion player appeared to want it more than he did. Maybe he is carrying a knock?

Left the ground via the Family Stand and saw Colin Lee resplendent in his long black Undertakers coat. A supporter (who seemed have devoured the contents of the local pie shop) spoke with Colin saying "that must have been a good half time talk, you must do it more often - better than the bloke we currently have". I muttered under my breath "he's doing alright", Colin Lee turned 'round and gave me a look which was:

A) What the feck you talking about

or

B) Thanks for the support.

Me, it looked like an A.

''Pictures provided courtesy of Torquay United FC & Pinnacle Photo Agency UK. Not to be copied or reproduced.''

Agreed, but also what a pillock and to have pissed his career up against the wall of life; what a waste!

Instead of being a local legend in the small time of the game, this guy could and should have been up there with the Wayne Rooneys of this world, played for England and been a world class player with wealth and reputation to match.

In my opinion, Mark was better than Lee Sharpe and I know Bruce Rioch reckoned his left foot was as good as any in world football. Having observed him at close quarters whilst refereeing, I can testify there was nothing wrong with his football brain, it was the "other one" that was the problem!

In all fairness to Thomson he didn't say anything at Bideford, he actualy said it the following day and it was because of his peformance in the Devon Cup, although I don't think he was any worse than anybody else in that game. That of course could of changed because Macklin went back and we did not sign someone else so he could well still be here for all I know.
Yes Loram could and should have made loads of money. He was one of my all time favourite Torquay players though, flawed genius maybe but boy was he good.

My two scouts at Bideford saw him half heartedly run out at the start of the match, turn to Sean North and say "that's the quickest you'll see me move tonight", before playing to minimum of his ability.

As for Mr Loram. He had the potential to play at the very top and he made it as far as the bench for QPR against Newcastle. Am I right in saying that Jim Smith signed him for QPR?

It's a shame when players fail to recognise just how good they could be if they worked a bit harder on applying themselves. I can cast my mind back when I used to play football before I got far too porky to enjoy it. I was just average on a good day but awful on a bad day. Football must be an absolute joy to play if you have the pace, touch and poise of Jake Thomson.

It's most young boy's dream to be a professional footballer and then as you go through school the best players there might have trials with Torquay, Exeter or Plymouth. At Coombeshead we had Toby Redwood (a year or two above me) who went on to play for Exeter, Greg Wilson (a seriously good striker) who I believe had a trial at Torquay, Ross Bellotti (a couple years below me) who played for Exeter and Sean Maloney (a year below me) who was on YTS forms at Torquay. I think Knowles Hill at the same time had most of the Buckland under 14 side including Anthony Lynch and Jason James (he was more or less a fully grown bloke at 14!!).

Sadly none of the above ever went on to really carve out a professional career but it just goes to show that if you're good enough to still be at a professional football club at Jake's age then the perception is that you're good enough to be considered as a professional footballer. Just how far you progress is down to how hard you want to work or how ambitous you are as a player.

You could open the whole Matt Le Tissier debate about how unambitious a player can be and still have a fantastic career. 444 games and 162 goals (including about 20-30 absolute crackers) for Southampton and yet I'm sure that if he'd signed for Man Utd or Liverpool then he would've had more than the 8 England caps to show for it.