There was I joking before I left for the match about the fact that the 5ft 2 in blond bombshell who was looking for me, but had not found me yet and I would have to be content with 22 pairs of men’s hairy legs instead. Little did I know then that I would be so lucky to have such a blond bombshell standing right behind me for the whole match.
Her name is Lisa and when I told her about what I had written on here only hours before and that she really was a blond bombshell, she replied she had not been called that in such a long time and she was more of a bombsite these days.
Don’t you believe that for one second fellow members, she really is such a very pretty and petite young lady with a wonderful and bubbly personality to go with her good looks. The only problem is I’m 100% sure she is already spoken for and just as the song says “Some guys have all the luck”
I got to the ground much later than normal and with only 20 minutes to go before the kick-off, I stood as always next the Rev and the delightful Mrs Wills his other half and noticed just one step behind me the lovely Lisa. I never spoke to her until the start of the second half; well she had me in fits of laughter as just after we kicked off for the second half, she shouted out in such a sweet voice “NO NO NO NO NO”
So that was the perfect opportunity to turn around and start talking to her, the end result is my match report for the second half, won’t have much detail in it, as to be honest, I don’t have a clue apart from the two goals scored in the half, what the hell happened out on the pitch. You can blame dear Lisa if you dare, but you would then have me to deal with.
The Rev told me what a cracking game I had missed on Wednesday against Exeter and went on to say just how well the team had played. I don’t think today our team played badly and sure put a number of good passing moves together at times, but the true facts are, they were completely outclassed and outplayed by an excellent Burnley side.
The gap in class was there for all to see and Burnley sure had players with so much more technical ability and as a team they were just so much better at doing everything needed to win a game, all over the pitch. Even the few times we did break through and looked likely to get in on goal, they had such great powers of recovery and got back and dealt with any danger we might have posed.
I was a bit surprised to see Martin Rise start in goal and stay on for the whole match? We saw the best and worst of him today in my opinion. He came out to smother a low ball that had little pace on it and somehow managed to let the ball out of his grasp with a Burnley player in close attendance. He did manage to turn while still on the floor and grab back hold of the ball.
He made one half decent shot low down and his kicking was mostly good, but maybe you won’t agree, but I thought he should have saved the low and very long range shot that gave Burnley their two goal lead at halftime.
Still finding it a bit hard to recognise all our players and will be glad when they start wearing shirts with their names on them. I though the pitch looked top class today and I’m sure Burnley, who are a very good passing side, enjoyed playing on our surface today.
Burnley from the very first whistle were clearly the better team and were on top for a good long period of the first half. There first goal was scored by their number six after a one two with one of his players and then just ran straight down the middle of the pitch and unleashing an unstoppable shot from the edge of the area, giving Rice no chance at all. I do feel we just let him run as far as he did and maybe we should have done a bit more to try and stop him.
We did have a few good moments in the first half and one such good move that was started by Howe, nearly ended up with him scoring. He played a shot ball to Lathrope who then played a fine ball to Nico who was in an advanced position on the left. Nico put in a good low cross that Howe got on the end of with a first time shot that went wide of the left hand post.
While I think Lathrope has improved, I don’t think he is good enough just yet to keep O’Kane out of the starting eleven and can’t myself seeing him making the starting eleven for all our games this season.
Last week I though Atenio looked a very good player and I do think he should have scored at the end of the first half after going around the Burnley keeper with a then empty net to put the ball in. On today’s evidence I would rather see Billy Kee start up front with Howe as Billy in my view has that bit more to offer.
One other noticeable thing that stood out in the first half for me was how much width the Burnley team found and how we never seemed to have wide players out there when we needed to have them. Not to sure why that was the case, maybe someone on here could come up with some answers for me.
As I said Burnley’s second goal came from a low shot a long way out, Rice dived but the ball went under him just inside the left hand post, maybe he just saw the shot a bit to late, who his view was blocked a bit, who knows.
On to the second half and one I saw very little off, well talking to Lisa was far more interesting and this was only a preseason friendly. Rice did well on a one on one situation and made a half decent save with his legs, one of his better moments for sure.
What a great powerful shot we saw from Howe from the edge of the Burnley box, it crashed up onto the underside of the crossbar and bounced down back over the line. Do like him as player and think he will do well for us, just wish he had a bit of pace. That lack of pace showed in the first half when he was put through in behind the Burnley defence, but he soon found they caught up with him and stopped him going in close and getting a shot away.
Their third goal was also a low shot from just outside the area? It beat Rice and hit the post but as he dived that way to try and make a save, he was on the ground and it looked to me as if the ball came off the post, hit the back of Rice and then went over the line.
That’s about all the action I can report on for the second half, at the end of the day the gap there is now between today’s Burnley side and the one we played in 19?? (Help me please I’m sure it was a two legged affair in the play-offs? I know I went up to the second leg up there) was there for all to see, but then I’m sure those players are earning a far bigger wage than any player now wearing a Torquay United shirt.
Nice day for a game of football and I enjoyed my time up at Plainmoor today and even got to hug that Southamptongull and I’m sure he loved it.
to our newest member, the one and only Lisa "NO "NO"
We started to look competitive but sadly Kee hobbled off with an ice pack to the knee after a late challenge but at least he wasn't stretchered off and hopefully it is not too serious.