FA CUP RD 1 Torquay Utd V Cheltenham 7th Nov 2009

Another entertaining game but the performance didn't match last weeks. I would like to see Benyon's disallowed goal again as I didn't see it as offside. I am sure that Sills was onside when he headed for goal and Benyon was behind him at the time before stepping in to fire home the rebound off the keeper.

Thought there were a few below par performances from our more consistant players today - Wayne did well at times, his shot against the post in particular, but misplaced numerous passes. Hargreaves and Sills both had quiet games but Thomson looks like a good find. He made several good, long runs but needs to learn when to release the ball - I am sure this will come with time. He made one sublime flick of an awkward bouncing ball under pressure in the centre circle to send Rendell free just before he went off.

And Rendell himself deserves a mention for his brief appearance and the turn and shot from long range which would have been among the best goals I have seen at Plainmoor in 30+ years if it had not clipped the inside of the post and ricocheted across the goal mouth.

A real pleasure to meet Barton Downs for a chat at half-time and share our experiences of life in Sheffield and Exeter (!). Also his friend, Phil (does he post on here, Nick?).

As petef says....we never really hit top gear today, but to be fair we won in a bit of a canter in the end as Cheltenham were/ are a poor side.

An entertaining enough game nonetheless, which could have had a damn site more goals in it, as both defences were leaky to say the least.
We did get better in the 2nd half and tried to stretch their defence by keeping our wide men right on the touchline......it was just a shame that our delivery in to the box was generally very poor today....Carlisle and Nicho both guilty on several occasions, we would have got a hatful else.
Allsopp won every header for them and Sills won most for us......having gone down to 10 men Cheltenham were forced to go ariel but did not have the firepower up front to feed off Allsopps knockdowns.

Two confident penalties and a fine third to seal the victory earnt Wroe a deserved MOM....i thought he had a good game overall today.
Thomson has pace to burn and he ran at the defence at every opportunity.....if we can get some end product out of this lad more often, then we would have a hell of a player on our hands as it is, he scares the hell out of defences.
Carlisle had a great shot that hit the post from 25 yards...early in the second half and Rendell, who i thought looked good (and more of a threat) when he came on for Benyon, half way through the 2nd half, went even closer when, from nothing, he chipped the ball up over his shoulder and vollied (a la Justin Fashanu for Norwich) from 35 yards, only to see the ball hit the inside of the post and go to safety.......would have brough the house down and probably been goal of the round......really unlucky.

Into the hat for Round 2........18k banked, which is a bonus as it was a poor crowd of just 2370 with just (an equally poor) 200 or so from Cheltenham....and we're still on a nice unbeaten run too, it seems that this season is starting to turn around a bit now, long may it continue!

So, can we make it a 14th straight FA cup home draw? thankfully its just an even money chance..........to have predicted it beforehand though is an 18000/1 shot .

I firstly want to say a big thank you to Terry for letting the TFF have full use of the matchday sponsors lounge and seating, it made my matchday experience wonderful, also thanks to my fellow members who at such short notice, supported the TFF and I hope you all enjoyed the experience as much as I did.

Not a lover of watching games from behind the goal, but I had a lovely padded seat up nice and high and just for a while I felt I was merse sat there, he is right about how you can get a better view of how the game is being played, so my report should be all the better for it.

At the very start of the game our box was under a bit of pressure and we just about did enough to get the ball cleared, but I felt we were in danger of going behind and that proved to be the case.

But just before that Thomson went on a great run, but his shot was very poor and went well wide of the goal. The opening goal was a simple one and we should have done better to stop it being scored.

The Cheltenham winger took the ball to the edge of the box and chipped the ball in for a simple header by Lewis pass Bevan and into the left hand side of the goal. Bevan looked like a keeper who has not played for a while; he lacked any confidence and failed too many times by not coming off his line and commanding his box.

We were a bit guilty of giving the Cheltenham players too much space and were also guilty of giving the ball away to cheaply at times and you could have been forgiven thinking we might lose this game, as at this early stage of the game Cheltenham looked the better team.

We nearly got a goal back very quickly, Sills had his header saved by the Cheltenham keeper who pushed the ball into the path of Benyon who put the ball back into the net, but was ruled off-side.

But we were level just four minutes after Cheltenham took the lead, Wroe who rightly won man of the match was out on the right hand side of the pitch near the halfway line, looked up and spotted Benyon making a good run down the middle and close to the Cheltenham box. He played a great ball and Benyon got in front of the defender and was clearly brought down in the box.

Up steps Nicky Wroe who hit the ball bang down the middle, which gave the diving keeper no chance at all. Just how would the game go now I wondered and I soon had the answer as the ref gave us a second penalty.

The ball had been floated to the back post and Hargreaves headed the ball back in the mix, Benyon was there to fire in a shot that got blocked on the line, it can only have been given for handball, but I could not tell from where I was sitting.

This time Wroe put the spot kick to the keepers left, the keeper guessed the right way and got a hand on the ball, but the ball went in off the left hand post and we were in front. It was Cheltenham’s number three who was judged to have handled the ball and was shown the red card.

He made a fool of himself as he slowly walked down the pitch and not off it and got the boo’s he deserved, luckily for us the delay in taking the second spot kick, did not effect Nicky Wroe.

Robertson was up to his usual tricks and could have so easily gave away a penalty himself, he wants to get hold of players far to much and clearly pushed a Cheltenham player in our box, but the ref gave nothing.

We were not looking like the team who had eleven men and just before the break Cheltenham could have scored and gone in all square at halftime. The forward won yet another easy header in our box and the ball only just missed the goal as it grazed Bevans far post.

Our last chance of the half saw a very good move and Carlisle send in a good ball that Hargreaves headed over the Cheltenham crossbar.

The second half saw us create so many chances and we could have won be five gaols in the end, but a mixture of weak shooting and poor decision making in the box failed to give us what our second half display deserved.

Wroe laid the ball back to Bevan who hit the ball first time out wide to Thomson, he found Benyon with his pass who was excellent on the ball, made the space to get his shot away, but it just lacked any power and was saved with ease.

Thomson was getting more of the ball and causing problems with his running, mostly sending in good crosses or playing a neat pass, the only poor pass he made was inside the box. Hargreaves played the ball to Carlisle who was in acres of space, he sent the ball into the box but it was behind Sills, but the ball ended up at Thomson’s feet. He maybe could have had a shot, but played a weak pass that was easily cleared away from danger.

Robertson came close to getting us a third goal, another good bit of play by Thomson and a good pass to Robertson who hit a sweet volley that just went wide. Carlisle then went very close, he carried the ball in toward the box from out on the right, made it look like he was just going to cross the ball, but instead hit a good shot that hit the right hand post.

Wroe wanted a hat trick for sure and a good move by Thomson and Benyon saw a very good chance for that to happen, but the shot was not that powerful and was saved by the keeper. He did not have to wait too long to get his third after that, what a great run Thomson went on down the middle of the pitch. As he reached the area he had three players around him, but he still somehow got the ball back to Wroe who hit it perfectly this time and gave the keeper no chance what so ever.


Benyon was sent to get his dressing sorted out as it looked like his wound was bleeding, but Bucks decided to keep him off and sent on Rendell and things really suited his style of play. He showed some great first touches, played some good passes and after yet another good run and ball in by Thomson, Rendell headed at goal and I thought it was going in but the keeper pushed it passed the post, but it would not have counted had it gone in as Rendell was given off-side. Wroe wanted four and Rendell played the ball to Sills who then played it to Wroe who hit another good shot that the keeper did well to save.

Bevan had hardly anything to do in the second half but had to come out with a good save near the end, pushing the ball over his crossbar. One last chance for us to make it four saw a great shot by Rendell that had the keeper beaten, but the ball hit the post and stayed out.

I think we played a bit better last week, but we won and are in the hat for round two, £18.000 richer and the chance of a bigger payday and even glory still to come.Well done lads, well done TUFC and well done Terry.




































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Was todays disappointing crowd influenced by no show season ticket holders?

What the photos really showed:

Pinnacle photo 1: Someone needs to wake that pair up, theres a game on! ;D
Pinnacle photo 2: Shall we dance? or Give us a Kiss! ;D
Pinnacle photo 3: Ref, you're a @@@@@@ (actually the ref wasnt that bad so got to
disagree with you on that one!, he gave us two penalties, so he cant
be a @@@@@@)

Good reports everyone, and in the end the result was right, and theres some dosh in the kitty! Next up Exeter City at home perhaps or Plymouth, followed by Arsenal just after Christmas or the New Year! Way Hay!!

I really enjoyed today's game - someone commented that it was disjointed - and in some ways I agree, but we dug-in and took the game to Cheltenham and in the end won fairly comfortably - even though it could have gone the other way on a different day.

I thought the singer before the match was excellent - I did wonder how it would be received (even if I read good reviews last week) but yes, she had a great voice and I do believe that Plainmoor was enjoying Puccini!
Anyway - the match, Thomson gave a taste of things to come from him - blistering acceleration and tight control saw him open up their team like Moses and the Red Sea.
Sadly, it was a piece of static defending that should have seen the danger eliminated well before their shortest player on the pitch headed past Bevan - it felt that Bevs was static, but maybe that was harsh. I'll be looking carefully at the replay.
For the first penalty I felt that defender was lucky to stay on the pitch - it was nicely put away by Wroe.
I couldn't quite see the second penalty incident clearly from in front of the press-box, but if the referee & linesman did then that was good enough for me - and that surely meant that if there was a handball on the line then it was bound to see a red card. I thought that we were going to have another Antonio Rattin from 66 (and all that), such was the length of time it took him to leave the field - I thought that given he seemed so disgusted he sneaked around the other side of the penalty area and intended to play-on!!!
I noticed that he was in the Grandstand at half time looking for somewhere to sit after having first go on the Radox - he said loudly and rather grumpily that "it's the referee's fault". Bless.

I was concerned at the freedom with which Cheltenham seemed to waltz through to our penalty area and the way that Bevan was left exposed on several occaisions. However, we did the same to them on many occaisions and I felt that we could have added a third before half-time.

I was expecting that the man advantage to tell in the second half - and for much of the time, so it proved. Cheltenham worked hard in the first 45 but Josh Low (who I thought was their most dangerous player) was going to be forced from his makeshift defensive position and while it might cause us more problems, it would allow Thomson to go forward with less opposition.

Carlisle's shot that hit the post would have been an absolute cracker and no more than he deserved with his industrious performance. He is a joy to watch when he is in this form.
A couple of years ago the arrival of Barry Hayles form the bench would have been a real concern - but he clearly didn't have the pace and power that he did when he belatedly began his league caree. It was no surprise that Thomson (who had been getting the fans on their feet all match with some of his runs) tore the Cheltenham team apart and this gave Wroe a chance to finish the game off. Instead of taking the "Johnny Wilkinson" approach of leaning back and getting his foot under the ball before hitting the roof, his shot was excellent and finished the game and he might have had a 4th not long after.
Rendell's shot from about 30 yards would have been remembered for years to come - a wicked shot on the turn that had their keeper beaten.
In the end their keeper made several excellent saves to stop us running-up a hatful more - however, we did look vulnerable at times. However, compare this display with some of the dreadful performances we saw earlier in the season and this was another huge improvement.

MOTM for me was Wroe - although Thomson was not have been far behind. Wroe gave an intelligent and all action display that he seemed to have failed to produce for some time. If he played like he did today I'm sure he would be around for the same amount of time as Thomson would be - ie probably gone in January!!!!

Good stuff. Bring on Round 2!

**EDIT** I usually start-off with a quick couple of lines about our opponents. We've faced some fairly ordinairy teams this season that were just a little more organised and savvy and they have come away with the points. I thought Cheltenham were nowhere near most of these teams but I also I genuinely believe that we are now better equipped to face teams at this level through the experience of the last few months.
I think that the next few months are going to be a real struggle for our "local rivals" up the M5 and I would be confident that we will at least finish above them.