POSFL1: Torquay v Shrewsbury 14 May 2011 (17:45)

god those intellectually challenged birdbrains that ran on the pitch were cringeworthy,i am surprised any of them managed it,they looked incapable of putting one foot in front of another.Anyway considering our opportunity to thank the lads at plainmoor was rudely interrupted,i will say it on here,well played lads,go up there and catch them on the counter attack and finish the job off

All we need to do is get a big rope like they did at Rotherham...that'll stop the scroats running on the pitch!

I would recommend a water cannon and some rubber bullets to deal with these little scrotes. But for me it was a smallish blemish on an impeccable performance. To be fair to the little scrotes, the stewards made a token effort to stop them and there were some daft old prats leaping around on the pitch having drunken eureka moments. Idiots are never far away I always find.

I was happy to go through to half time with a 2-0 lead as I thought we were by far the better side. The only slight disapointment is that we didn't add to this in the second half, especially as some commentators nearer than I was said that the effort cleared off the line was close to going in, and the delightful one two between Zebs and Billy Kee deserved a better finish. The Tomlin turn and curling shot deserved a goal but I thought their keeper was excellent. Mansell had a good game against their dangerous looking winger Wright. O'Kane gave his best ever display in the middle of the park, but I suppose against a Shrewsbury like midfield it's easier to play without ball winners, although Euuuunan did nick quite a few balls off the toes of their midfield with his creative ability a good pass can turn defence into attack very quickly. Both he and Didier Deschamps Lathrope put enough pressure on their midfield. Did Nicky Wroe make one forward pass in the entire game? As for Tomlin. Can we keep him please?

So we take a two nil win to Shrewsbury. Apparently only one other team has blown a 2 goal lead from the first leg of a play off semi final and that was us in 1994 at Deepdale. But even if Shrewsbury throw everything at us I'm pretty confident we have enough speed and guile to hit them on the counter attack and I can't see us not scoring. The only couple of concerns I have is that we'll get a ref who'll not judge the Matt Harrold/Chris Robertson UFC clash quite so equally, especially if they get a large crowd. The only other concern is Bevan but I'm sure the big man won't let us down. I think Bucks will switch O'Kane to the right wing and move Oastler into midfield to sit in front off the back four. Tomlin, who was rightly man of the match yesterday, and Zebroski will give them enough to think about.

I spent a good 20 minutes after the game queuing for a ticking for the away leg. Joe Oaster drove out past us in a Dodge Calibre with a personalised number plate, Danny Stevens and brother drove out in a Ford Fiesta (a few Smart Car comments were heard!) and most disappointingly our highest paid player, Chris Zebroski, drove out in a Fiat Punto. Not even a Grande Punto. Poor Zebs. He must have some points on his licence and the insurance must be sky high! One of my travelling companions standing much further down the queue reported that he had a group of 17-18 year chav idiots in front of him telling everyone that Lee Mansell had told them to "get off the f**king pitch" at the end of the game. Words that are probably better than sex to these young moronic twonks.

Pitch invasions.
I think its about time that the authorities realised that they are not going to stop them unless you can afford a solid ring of security around the perimeter of the pitch. Not practical in all honesty so maybe its time allow them but under control so the players and official get proper space and protection at the end of the game. It happens at every ground on the last day and it has become a tradition for fans to do so. Watching the fast response team trying to catch the idiots is quite entertainig though!
Its a bit like cannabis, against the law, tolerated to a point but your never going to stop it so at least prepare properly amd keep it under control.
All the announcements that its against the law etc do no good , we see it every year the majority are young chavs looking for their moment of fame for whatever reason but yesterday I saw older men and women running like across the pitch like demented chickens with no heads.
The limited security can never stop it unless you are properly prepared with ropes etc but being prepared is in itself condoning it but I truly believe that legalising it will be safer and the only way to go.

It seems that their skipper Sharps is probably going to miss the 2nd leg.........a real bonus for us, his replacement Canavan looked out of his depth and gifted us the 1st goal when he was caught the wrong side from a routine ball down the channel and then far too easily out-muscled by Tomlin, leaving him a simple chance to set up Zeb.

It wouldn't be us if it wasn't nervous as hell next Friday, they are going to put us under pressure and may well score early - however I'm sure we're going to score too, we've put 8 past that defence already this season and we are often at our best, counter attacking away from home.

Agree with Chris, Oastler to come back in to help with the ariel bombardment and O'kane to right midfield in place of Kee, who can come off the bench later, as he does.......and drill one in from 20 yards.

I agree with your predictions as to how we might line-up for the second leg, Chris. I would expect that Kee (definitely will never be a winger but was slightly better out there yesterday) will take a place on the bench and we will pack the midfield a bit more. I think that still gives us something going forward and will still give the Shrews something to think about.

One thing that took me back to the days of the Late, Great Cyril Knowles was leaving 3 or 4 players up on the halfway line when we were defending a corner. I recall that was always a criticism (I probably did as well!!) that nearly the entire team would be in the 18 yard box and just Benyon would be left up-front.

I can't image that it is unheard of to overturn a 2-0 first leg loss in the play-offs - I can recall Yeovil doing it at Nottingham Forest (and I have the memory of a sieve!). I would be happy for one of our resident statisticians to review all the modern play-off results to give me a little more confidence that it would be very unlikely for us to capitulate next week!!!

I quite agree with you. A Muzzy Carayol type player would've seen us carry a lot more threat. It's the one thing we've missed a bit this season is a truly rapid down either flank, although Zebs has done a good job. But even without this method of attack yesterday we still created good chances and probably should've won 3 or 4 nil at the very least. Still I'm pretty confident we'll go through, unless we get the same ref we got at Northampton and we'll conceed free kick after free kick with Matt Harrold backing into Robbo and Robbo getting sent off.