NLS: Torquay United v Chelmsford City 3pm 09/09/23

Probably the best result and performance of the season so far on Tuesday and need to build on and repeat that showing against a side just below us in the table.

link - TUFC a match preview

It is going to be very hot. A day for letting the ball do the work.

For the first time this season, every player justified his inclusion on Tuesday.

Would expect us to be unchanged.

Would be good to have Craske and Collins available to strengthen the bench.

Could be my ideal bench of a utility defender, a winger and two strikers.

We will need to use our substitutions wisely as the heat will tell on some more than others.

Well that was a spectacle for the non-aligned watcher. We could and should have been home and dry in the first 30 minutes or so as a very debatable offside plus a post stopped us from scoring. The other lot then had their chances but Halstead again earned his money and the MOM award with some good saves as the half wore on.

We continued in the same vein in the second period and had a chance almost from the restart. Then came a McGavin screamer when the ball sat up nicely for him at the edge of area. We couldn't nail things home though and, despite Chelmsford not being as penetrative in this period, we gave away an equaliser late on. By this time Chelmsford were puffing and, again, injury time saw us win it with an exquisite header from one of their defenders as we continued to press.

I thought that the ref was way out of his depth and Ash in particular can feel aggrieved with some of his perverse decisions.

Certainly an entertaining game where we could have been comfortably out of sight in the first 20 minutes but due to uncharacteristic misses and a dodgy offside decision the game ended up neck and neck with some defensive frailties exposed and Halstead once again had to come to the rescue and eventually we needed a very lucky injury time goal to take all three points!

I thought Stobbs on the right wing had a good game, particularly for the first half an hour, he made space in the first minute to send a cross in which Ash just couldn’t get on the end of. Halstead saved well at the other end after the Chelmsford striker was left free in the area before Ash had a great opportunity with a one-on-one chance that that keeper was able to save. He seem to make up for a few minutes later, getting on the end of a Stobbs cross for well a deserved goal but then flagged offside, a decision, I would really like to see again. Even FlashScore was showing that we were a goal up for the rest of the half!

Jarvis then had a couple of opportunities, after running onto a through ball he tried to unselfishly pass to Ash but it was just cut out by the defender with the goal wide open and then his shot hit the post. A bit later on Stobbs was able to cut inside and his shot from a slight angle, well in the area was blazed over when he should have done better. We were not without mishaps at the other end but somehow we went into the break scoreless after a frenetic first half with chances galore.

The second half seemed a bit less frenetic, possibly as the heat impacted on the pace of the game. We took a well deserved lead in my opinion after a corner was cleared straight to McGavin who controlled a lovely volley from outside of the area, hitting it straight into the right hand side of the goal, leaveing their keeper no chance. However, it was the sort of game with a chance that we needed a two-goal cushion to win the game and sat back a bit and started to live a little dangerously with Chelmsford hitting the bar from one shot as well as having number of other chances not on target. This eventually came to bite us onthe arse, when after a corner was semi cleared by Ash, he was dispossessed from just outside the area and this time the shot found its way into the bottom right corner of our goal with just a few minutes of normal time remaining.

Gary time has certainly made a comeback this season and but on this occasion, there was a massive slice of luck where a free kick from Jenkins Davies was backheaded by their defender and it just crept into the inside of the far post for a very lucky winner. I thought Jenkins Davies had a good game and seems to be more comfortable in a slightly wider role and has grown into the side. The Chelmsford players seemed to become increasingly bad tempered and their captain was perhaps lucky to remain on the pitch.

At the end of the day, a win is a win and we are just one point off the top of the table but will need to take our chances better if we are to continue to overcome the better teams in this league.

At the start of the season we all knew that being a so-called professional team would help us over the line occasionally, what we didn’t know, was that we’d need it for every single game! 

Still, as they say onwards and upwards…well at least until you know what comes along! 🙄

Good point, think I agree with 90% of what you said as well! 😂👍