PSF: Torquay United v Cardiff City 20 July 2018, 7pm

Cast iron penalty on Williams turned down and Cardiff go up the other end and score!

Keating comes on and scores with his first touch!

My first look and Impressed tonight particularly the back line / Bass looks solid and a proper prospect were lucky to have him.
Really like the trialist James Robson - busy, skillful and could cross a ball, covers plenty pf ground. I hope he is signed on that performance anyway.
There were a quite a few shoots of hope there but as we all know the NLS will be a different ball game so my feet are still very firmly on the ground.
Very encouraging though.

The usual health warning - never read too much (for good or for bad) in to pre-season friendlies.

That said, a very impressive TEAM performance from TUFC.

Gowling, Sokolik and Bawling were missing from the squad.

The only change from Tuesday's starting lineup was Hall replacing Banton. Hall payed as a holding midfielder, between and just behind Nabi and Dickson.

Reid stayed more up font and central than on Tuesday so it was a definite 5-3-2.

1. Bass

2. Wynter
4. Essuman
15.Niate
17.Cameron
3. Davis

14.Nabi
8. Hall
16.Dickson

19.Reid
9. Williams

Trialist James Roberts replaced Dickson at half-time. He initially slotted in as a like-for-like replacement. Keating came on for Williams and we changed to more of a 5-2-3 with Reid to the right and Roberts to the left of Keating. Finally, Banton replaced Reid with Roberts switching to the right side and Banton on the left.

The bench was noticeably forward-heavy so Pittman and Koszela did not get a runout nor did keeper MacDonald or local youngster Alfie Edwards.

Williams had what looked a stonewall penalty denied when he appeared to be pushed over as he beat his man inside the box. Sod's law saw Cardfiff go straight up the other end and score.

The first half was reminiscent of the Argyle game with Torquay working hard and keeping their shape to avoid being overrun.

Cardiff changed most of the team at half-time and the second half was more even. I am no expert on Cardiff, but assume that all of the subs used are still Premier League squad players - they weren't a bunch of kids.

Keating scored with his first touch. A long through ball, a one on one well finished - when many of us doubted his ability to do so.

That must have hugely boosted his confidence - and I am sure that confidence is such a huge factor in players' performance.

After that Keating ran Cardiff ragged. He chased everywhere and annoyed the hell out of their defenders. He isn't technically the best, and I still believe we need a good holdup striker to complement Williams, but we saw the promise we saw when he first arrived here - that spark that seemed to have been beaten out of him last season.

The keeper continues to impress me very much and the back three looked solid, organised and confident.

But the proof of whether we are to be top-3 genuine title challengers or hoping to scrape into the top 7 will be whether we can score the goals to turn one point into three against teams who set up to frustrate us.

It would be foolish to get too carried away but our defensive performance was as good a I have seen for a very long time - all be it a friendly.
Well organised and some top notch performances from Bass, Koue Niate and Liam Davis in particular. What impressed me most was the way we kept our shape across the back and when we did have to defend we had players prepared to put their body on the line to block. That department bodes well.
In the middle Ryan Dickson as expected looks a class above with great first touch and movement with and without the ball. Asa Hall looked a little off the pace but gradually got up to speed as the game wore on and again was positionally aware defending well and supporting when we had the ball.
What we don't yet have an answer for is whether we score plenty of goals from open play. Yes Keating got ours from open play but previous to that we didn't have many opportunities to threaten a "Premier League" defense.
We now need opposition at our level to test the forward, it would be unfair to judge any of our forwards on last nights showing and that includes the much maligned Jamie Reid. Williams did better but it was always going to be a tough hard working evening for both players with little reward. Roberts gave us something a bit different when he came on and offered plenty of "nuisance" value with his movement and good first touch.
For me Banton looked a a little lost and lacking confidence probably from his recent experiences at various struggling clubs, the sort who needs plenty of encouragement to get the best out of him. He has the ability, we all know that but an arm around the shoulder and support from the terraces and we will see a different player.
So pleased for Ruari - another who needs support and a verbal lift every now and then I hope the goal will renew his self belief as I would love to see this lad play to his full potential as I don't think we have seen the real Ruari Keating yet.
The chemistry looks promising but that's as far as I'm going to go but isn't it about time we had a team to be proud of again?