NLS: Torquay United v Dover 3pm 20 January 2024

Looking forward to the curry. Not looking forward to the match.

Dover are the worst team in the league.

Home win nailed on surely.

Bath and St Albans games are off and Hemel are at Yeovil, so a point would almost certainly move us up into the playoff places.

Great point Gaffer. Would have won if it wasn’t for the ref, Gaffer. But in the playoffs and with games in hand. You must be delighted that you have proved you are the best in the business Gaffer. The right kind of supporters never doubted you Gaffer.

Will we have 16 fit bodies? Depends how you define fit.

From Saturday, we will probably have Archer in and Ofori-Acheampong out. We should not have Chastey in the squad - the current situation is not one to throw a school kid into.

I think that Lapslie and Ash are first in the queue to return. Neither will be match fit, but could be on the bench to get a twenty minute run.

Maybe Hall and Lapslie could share ninety minutes at a push. If so, I would have them sitting in front of the back four. Protecting the centre backs, organising things, winning the ball and playing it simple. Johnson would have them racing around box to box until they knacker themselves.

I would try to get two up front somehow. Playing one up top only works if you have a target man. Ash not ready to start so Collins the obvious first choice, but Johnson will play him anywhere but up front.

Neither Foyo nor Archer the ideal partner, but that is all we have. That means width on the left coming from Jenkins Davies drifting left in a 4-4-2 and/or the left back overlapping - making it nearly a 3-5-2.

I haven’t named that left back as it is a toss-up between Martin and Harris. I have made it very clear that I am no fan of Martin but unfortunately Harris has regressed so massively during his time here that there is now little to choose between the two.

Would love to see us look like a team that knows what it is doing and deservingly wins convincingly. I expect it will be similar to the Eastbourne game. Eastbourne were almost bad enough to contrive to lose to us. Can Dover take dreadfulness a step further and actually manage to lose to us?

Hall and Ash will not last 90 minutes - especially if we play them as box to box midfielder and lone striker respectively. I suspect we will with Archer wide left and McGavin pretending to be Pirlo. Have long suspected Collins has health issues. Can he timeshare with Ash while Lapslie timeshares with Hall? Martin may not last 90 either, so all three subs committed before we kick off!

Without anybody shining today I thought that nobody had a bad game and the only thing to remember was the goal, another blockbuster from McGavin. I was right in line with it and thank goodness the net intervened as it might have 'knocked my block off' otherwise.

Some others have posted that Martin stood out from the dross and, bearing in mind the stick that he gets from some quarters, he caught my eye too.

As is normal in this league, the ref was predictably bad save that he did book one of their players for a lunge long after the incident happened because he had waved us on with advantage and then the ball refused to go out of play.

A dull game lit up by McGavin's cracker of a goal coupled with a nice curry later in the evening.

A wins a win but not convinced with our performance or that of the Ref and the Plainmoor side lino, do these guys not have to pass any tests to officiate?

I was hoping for more of a report on the curry...