FL2: Port Vale v Torquay United 28th August 2010

Listening to the Radio Devon commentary it sounded like there was about 10,000 in there!

It was about six months ago that we feebly slipped to defeat against Port Vale. There hasn't been a huge overhaul of the team that started that match, but I think that we are streets ahead in many ways.
We've become so solid at the back - Ellis has flourished with Branston as his partner, Robertson has become a real asset at right-back and Nicholson has picked-up his fitness and has overcome the limitations that saw him sidlined for much of last season.

These sort of advances do not come overnight - and certainly not by chance. I think it is very much a cumlination of the overhaul that Bucks started to give the squad when we saw Sills, Hargreaves and Todd move-on.

It's been an incredible start to the season. I hope that we manage to retain as many players as possible before the closure of the transfer window (although all it does is give a brief period before players can depart on loan deals prior to a permenant settlement).
There is no doubt that some of the key players that have got us playing at the level we are at the moment will be keenly sought by other clubs.

All of us on this site have seen poor Torquay United sides: those that don't try hard enough, don't battle, whose heads drop, shoulders droop, give up and lose games they should have won. This Torquay United side is the antithesis of that. Through the entire game yesterday, every player fought hard for the team. Every player worked hard for the team and every player remained confident that we could get the win. In my opinion, there was not a single average or poor performance from the entire side.

Sometimes we can concentrate too much on individual results: goals scored, assists, saves, clearances, tackles won etc and sometimes we miss the teamwork and running that is put in. This is not a game for individuals and the best sides are those where the team is greater than the sum of its individual players.

Yesterday I felt that Wayne Carlisle was our least effective player: he didn’t get forward enough, his crossing was weak and he was far too conservative when he did get a chance to attack their defenders. He wasn’t bad going forward, but he wasn’t great. But what epitomised his performance for me was when, in the first half, he threw himself in front of a shot to block it. This guy is almost 31 (old for a footballer), he’s just come off surgery and he is literally throwing himself in front of a shot to prevent a goal. Carlisle’s defensive work was excellent, just as his attacking work was disappointing; and that is fairly representative of the team. Any player who disappointed in one aspect of his game exceeded expectations in another.

We started off very quick out of the blocks, attacking almost constantly from the kick-off and soon went into a 2-0 lead which should have been 3-0 as Benyon was the victim of a strange offside decision; as he and the rest of our team were the victims of some strange refereeing decisions all day. Vale came back with a brilliant 30-yard screamer to take our record away and piled on the pressure for the last 10 minutes of the second half.

All first half I’d been particularly impressed by the way The Gulls played in pairs: we’re used to the link along the touchlines but it really was as if Nicho/Danny, Zebs/Benyon, Ellis/Pickler and Wroe/Manse knew exactly where each other were going to be without even looking. Wroe and Manse were also making triangles with each pair alongside them. I felt that relationship wasn’t quit as strong between Wayno and Robbo, but that’s no criticism as I’m sure it will improve when Carlisle plays more games. This ability to find each other blind extended into the second half and it was only as bodies, and consequently minds, tired that mistakes occurred: on one occasion Nicho played it into Wroe who immediately clipped it back along the touchline for Nicho’s run, which Nicho had failed to make. Angry words were said, which impressed me as proof that standards are high.

As expected, Vale came out in the second half with renewed intent, Adams having given them a rocket, and our game plan changed. We no longer attacked in numbers, but appeared content to sit back in midfield and disrupt everything Vale tried. Obviously Vale succeeded in making more chances but when they invariably turned towards the long-ball game, Pickler and Ellis were reading everything that came their way and clearing it. The Vale fans were queuing to leave with about 10 mins to go, aware they weren’t going to score and that the game was lost. We weren’t anywhere near as confident and I was nervous until about 30 seconds after the final whistle! Certainly the Marshall miss and Ellis goal-line clearance as described by NickGull was the point when I was certain they’d scored: one second the ball was heading for the net, the next it was rebounding away from the penalty area and although my eyes had clocked every moment of the process, my brain seemed unable to compute!

Apart from the usual MotM nominees already stated, and there’s no argument from me on any of them, I feel I have to single out three players for particular praise. I felt Elliot Benyon ran his socks off today and was a constant thorn in the side of the Vale defence, always hassling and pressing them to prevent them getting an incisive ball or pass away. His link-up play in the first half was impressive and as his forward effectiveness waned, he replaced it with sheer hard work. He might not have had the physical strength to challenge for many balls but that didn’t stop him trying. Not a MotM performance but for sheer hard work and effort he should get big marks. Also, Lee Mansell was simply brilliant at breaking up a lot the Vale moves in their infancy. Always darting around midfield, sticking his boot in where the ball was and generally upsetting the composure of the Vale midfield, he and Benyon were a major factor in keeping the pressure off our defence in the second half and keen students of the game will appreciate that we have players who will keep going even when things don’t appear to be going their way.

I’m not sure how to describe Eunan O’Kane. He clearly wasn’t a major contributor to the game as a whole but in the last half an hour was a constant menace. He was given a free role in midfield and invariably picked the ball up where you least expected him to but, rather than passing the ball long, he’d run at the Vale defence to tire them and drain them of their confidence. He should have scored just after he came on and maybe again at the very end of the game, but for me his running and vision were a major reason why we were able to hold out in the last 30 minutes against a very strong team who would have been desperate to win the game.

In the first half we were a very strong attacking team and in the second we were an irritatingly strong defensive team. We didn’t play the tiki-taka that was described last week, although we still tried to pass our way out of trouble throughout the game rather than hoof it, but we were hard-working and epitomised everything Arsene Wenger hates in the likes of Stoke and Blackburn. It wasn’t pretty for long periods but it was effective and nobody should mistake that for a poor performance.

We were fantastic, in the Northampton away rather than Rochdale home context.

As has already been said, it's all about opinions and they are nothing if not subjective.

But we are top of the league with four wins out of four, we've gone to a very strong Port Vale side and beaten them convincingly, yet you mark three players with 5/10 and another four with 6-10.

In your opinion 7/11ths of our team were average or worse!

I don't understand how you have set up the performance indicators for your ratings but I am stunned that you can say any of the side who came away with such a magnificent result yesterday were anything less than good, nevermind average; and I'd rate all of them at least very good.

Fair enough! I went with 2 neutrals who had never seen TUFC before. I had told them about the non stop Benyon in the car before the game. They were both wondering when he was going to be brought on!

Its all about opinions and I like Benyon, but for long periods yesterday I didn't think he was his usual self.

But surely context is everything? What would be the point of me coming on here to report, for example, that Gulls were rubbish yesterday, could easily have lost by three clear goals and will be lucky to avoid relegation unless we sell some of the rubbish who played yesterday and buy some decent players?

It would be inaccurate and give the entirely wrong impression of what actually happened. Those who weren't there rely on those who were to give a fairly sensible report of what happened and giving three players 5/10 is not that.

Maybe warwickgull would have been better off not giving individual scores, or maybe he would have been better off leaving it longer than 5 mins before posting his report, letting it all settle in his mind, debating bits and piece in the pub or wherever.

But if he is going to judge the team as harshly and critically in future, I wonder what intrinsic value or benefit his report will offer to this site.

And that is my humble and subjective opinion!

How did Danny do? Worth a starting place or impact sub?