FL2: Torquay v Rotherham 1st March 2011

It was a Chris Hayes Bovril night at Maidenhead V Havant and Waterlooville this evening. Cold and very gusty. Halfway during the second half I had this notion that Summer Football could be the way forward. I'll bring the Tapenade and a bottle of chilled Rosé Dave. You bring the flatbread and spiced olives.

Me back first then? Guess not!
Ok here goes. Easy to see why Rotherham are up in the mix. Looked to be only 2 players under 6 foot? Solidly organised, with their main tactic being lumping it to their target man most of the time, with ALF playing off him. Well schooled in playing as 2 banks and happy to use their height and pace to press forward. We had slightly the better of the first half. They had the best of the 2nd half. Zebs was my MoM, once again he covered pretty much every square foot of the opposition half. He looks awkward with the ball but can make something happen with his twisting and turning. Lovely finish by O’Kane for the goal after Zebs (I think) had worked his way into the area and whipped a cross in (a post was in the way). I have to say we did find ourselves under pressure a lot more than we should have, simply because Rotherham made sure they got to pretty much every ball first when it was played out from our defence. It wasn’t that we sat back too deep with no-one up front , its because Rotherham pressed us too well and we just struggled to get the ball out to Zebs, Robinson or Kee. Rotherham obviously had a rocket at half time as they pretty much overran the midfield right from the whistle. The penalty was given against Robbo for a push presumably, despite both him and Branners being pushed and pulled pretty much every time they went up for a ball. Potter judged rightly and pulled off a cracking save, not for the only time in the match. I could see why Lathrope came on in place of O’Kane as he hardly touched the ball in the 2nd half and we really needed to break up their play somehow.Their goal came from a chip over Robertson and Branners towards the area. Robbo was closest to it and looked to be expecting Potter to come out and either clear it or collect it. Taylor nipped in to get his foot on it despite Potter shouting to Robbo to “clear it” very loudly. Potter had no chance with the shot to be honest. All hands to the pumps from then on as they really piled the pressure on. Despite a couple of scares we held on for a point against a team that don’t look out of place in the top 4.

It certainly was not a case of two points being dropped, it was more the case we were very lucky indeed to get one. When the home fans end up singing “we are supposed to be at home” followed by Attack attack attack” then you know this game went the same as our last three games.

When as the home team we are not bringing on substitutions to try and win the game, but only to try and hold on to a point, its no wonder Bucks got treated to “ you don’t know what you are doing” I’m beginning to wonder if somehow he has now lost the plot.

Yes Rotherham are a good passing side, but I think they knew before they got here, that we would end up sitting so very deep and all they had to do was pile pressure on us. Keep serving this sort of football up and we will end up thinking that tonight’s gate of 1514 was a very good one; because they will keep dropping I’m afraid.

Have to say while Danny Potter should have claimed one ball in the air because his failure to do so saw a Rotherham player just three yards out get a great heading chance to score( thankfully he had a round head and his header was very poor indeed) he made one wonder save in the first half and a great penalty save in the second half.

We could have been behind right from the kick-off, Rotherham got the ball out wide on the left hand side and a good ball got one of their players in the box. He ran along the goal line toward Potters right hand post and played the ball past Potter towards the penalty spot and thankfully Branston just got a toe on the ball before the forward could fire the ball into our net.

We did score a goal but it was ruled offside, Branston had headed the ball toward the far post where one of players (to far away in the family stand to see who it was) fired it home.

Every time Rotherham came forward they looked dangerous, but on the whole our defence coped reasonable well. Only their distribution from the back was very poor, especially Guy Branstons.

Then we took the lead, we send in a deep cross and a Rotherham defender and the goalkeeper got in eachothers way, I’m not sure if the keeper got a weak punch on the ball or the defender a weak header, but the ball went to O’Kane who hit a good first time volley to the far post and in.

Zebs was having a bit of joy going on a few runs wide on the left and played one good ball to O’Kane on the edge of the Rotherham box, but his shot was blocked by a defender. Then one of our better moments in the game when Kee and O’Kane played a great one two that put Kee in on goal. He hit a good shot and forced a fine save from the Rotherham keeper pushing the ball out with both hands and we had a man? Who took a swing at the lose ball but missed it completely when any contact would have seen the ball go over the line.

Then we saw the save of the match from Danny Potter. Will Atkinson was allowed to run right across the whole length of our six yard line as no one wanted to risk making a tackle until he got the space he wanted to fire a power driver at goal. Danny Potter made a wonderful one handed save that saw the ball then hit the crossbar and come back into play. Near the end of the half Zebs hit a good 25 yard volley that the keeper ended up making look a much better save than it really was done near his far post.

I was reasonable pleased with the first half, our players had all worked hard enough and while I felt that Rotherham were the better team, I still thought we were worth our halftime lead.


Rotherham started the second half the better team, but we tried our best to get the ball in their half and create more chances to score. But our final balls were always the wrong ones or we just took shots from to far out that were getting blocked every single time.

Then they won a penalty, not sure why as it was up the other end. Their player clearly got control the ball with his arm before going on a run into our box. He seemed to go past two players with too much ease. I saw Potter coming off his line, it looked to me the Rotherham got a shot away that Potter seemed to block low on the ground. But then the ref pointed to the spot. Did Danny Potter give away the penalty? What was strange was the ref never showed anyone a yellow card.

What another fine save Potter pulled off, the penalty was well stuck, but Potter had guessed the right way and dived full length to keep the ball out of the net.

Then we really started getting deeper and deeper and Zebs was playing up front on his own and Kee had been pushed out wide on the left hand side why? The other way round I might have lived with. The pressure started mounting on us and as our defenders were clearing the ball from our box, it was coming straight back at them.

We simply no longer had any outlets to try and take some pressure off our defence. But it was a Roberson big mistake that gifted Rotherham their equaliser. It looked a simple task for Robertson to put his foot through the ball and clear it, but he somehow mucked it up. The Rotherham got around him and into our box and scored what was a very good goal indeed.

What did we do then? Go and thy and get another goal to win the game? You have got to be joking surely; same old same old Torquay sit even deeper and invite even more pressure.

I know lets take off Robinson and Kee and replace them with two players who have hardly kicked a ball all season. What very negative substitutions done only to try and get a point, when we really needed to be trying to get all three.

You had the feeling they were going to score again right at the end of the match. They had us pinned in our half and won a few corners; we got very lucky they did not score from any off them.

I would guess a number of fans went home freezing cold wondering why they did not stay at home and watched the football on the TV and saved their money.

groundhog day again i am afraid,god we are becoming so predictable,the only saving grace is that we got a point,one we scarcely deserved come the final whistle.Rotherham are well organised and have a bit of quality about them,the total opposite to us at present.I was bewildered by PBs substitutions tonight as well,they didnt make sense,we started well,but dont we always? scored through okane then went back to our old tricks again,giving the ball away,mis-placed passing,you name it we did it.Another late late defensive cock up supplied them with their equaliser,and from then on they looked likely to be only one winner.Bitterly cold and the footy so so predictable,teams have now got the measure of us,we are easy to read and prone to errors under pressure,we will almost certainly be safe this year,but things could of been so different.a paltry crowd to witness a team just going through the motions is not going to increase bums on seats.Altogether uninspiring and very predictable,which looks like seeing us end up mid-table again,two years of nothing happening is very rare for a tufc fan indeed

I can only echo that - you needed a fresh pair of legs for Zebs who ran his heart out. Couldn't believe the grief he was getting from some of the supporters behind us in the second half.

Also Kee had a poor game last night with two 30 yard shots from the right hand side of the pitch almost hitting the corner flag on the opposite side.

I assume that Bucks doesn't rate Spears as ready for the FL. Mind you on crowds of 1500 odd we can't afford one either.

With such limited resources and poor crowds we are doing pretty well and to expect more is a little optimistic. When you consider the location , size and available resources available to Rotherham its no wonder they looked well ahead of us in football terms. With the exception of Bradford the bigger clubs in our division are doing very well and just as expected.
The problem is that there is little prospect of that situation changing and moaning about srategy players form and substitutions etc is counterproductive and easy to do in hindsight.
New Grandstand, new Center-forward on crowds of 1500 including season ticket holders I don't think so somehow.

I pretty much agree with everything you said and like you with a long journey home and the youngest with school the following day I sometimes wonder whether its worth it.

Would have also included Potter with those other 4 as his 2 saves were outstanding and meant that we at least got a point from the game.

We were surprised by how quickly Kee ran out of steam and Robinson is becoming a 45 minute man at the moment.

I also think a midfield of Mansell and Stanley is our best option with O kane and Zebroski on the flanks.

The only thing i disagree with is that I thought Rotherham were a pretty decent outfit. Their number 7, not sure what he was called?, was fast, skillful, inventive and controlled everything they did. MoM by a country mile, boy we could do with someone like that in our side.

As well as a centre forward, I believe we need a proper/decent right back and a centre half. So we will probably sign another midfielder
Branston defends well but his distribution is so poor that the ball comes back very quickly.

All the tactics, formations, substitutions, etc etc are all well and good but the thing that is costing us big time at the moment are MISTAKES. Another one last night led to their goal, the same on Saturday, the same against Cheltenham and Crawley. We need to cut out these mistakes that lead to goals before we worry about anything else.