Devon Bowl : Torquay v Tiverton 7.30pm - 4th November 2014

Thanks for putting this up Jon and hope to be there tonight!

Cool- will look out for you in pop / bench depending on what is open....

I'm sure a decent match report will follow but we were poor.

McDonald got stretchered off.

All 'n all very, very poor - doubly poor as I reversed into a lampost!!

great aint it lol

Thanks all of you for your reports. Sounds a bit grim with Macdonald's injury topping things off badly!
Hope you came off better than the lamppost chelstongull....

I found the penalty ball on my way to the railway station. Well, that's not quite factually correct but you get the drift.

Jon's right. The most significant part of the evening was the tactical experiment. Or at least it was until the sight of Angus MacDonald being carried off.

The idea of playing three centre-backs - with an extra man in midfield - sounded like a formation in waiting. We're being overrun in midfield and, in theory anyway, have the personnel to make another approach happen. I'm not sure how much was decided last night. Barnet away next of course.

But it was a serious experiment and a serious lineup. Who would have expected Bowman and Downes to start? With both Richards and MacDonald to boot? Cruise, Ajala and Ofori-Acheampong all on the pitch at the end.

The selection clearly wasn't a reflection on the fact that everything is hunky-dory on the playing side at Plainmoor. And, in this way, the game was well-timed: plausible opposition on a decent pitch when, in this competition, it could have been less-suitable opponents on an inferior surface.

And, with the opposition keen, this was probably as worthwhile an exercise as a reserve/development type friendly against a Football League or Conference club. Those fixtures, as we know, are in desperately short supply. Argyle, Portsmouth, Bristol City, Cheltenham and Newport are playing each other in a league cup competition soon. That'll count them out for a while. Our first-team midweek fixtures don't necessarily correlate with theirs anyway. It's a problem.

Consequently progress in the Devon St Luke's may have been useful solely to provide additional fixtures. It would have been Willand away in the next round. Then there would have been a chance of playing Buckland, Argyle or Bideford. You wouldn't be desperate to play these games but, in the circumstances, they'd be potentially useful.

Instead nothing. Instead last night proved to be another opportunity for a Torquay United team to seemingly play without much direction or confidence. Tiverton did fine; Torquay did not. The management may have learned plenty from last night; the result may have been of secondary importance. But most of those present last night probably went home less happy than when they arrived. Oh dear.