Post by rjdgull on May 7, 2012 9:07:17 GMT
Well, this was the week that we finally didn't achieve the automatic promotion that was looking so promising only a month ago! 
This week's winner certainly saw the writing on the wall and has written many strong arguments that made it difficult to choose and by all means scroll back through his posts. However, I have gone for the match thread with a horror first half where our defence went missing but rather Saturday than the play offs.
Many congratulations to James who is once again Poster of the Week!
If what you want to read is faux-positivity and superficial hope, don't read on any further, because you won't get any of that here. I'm going to be honest and say what I think
We were rubbish. Utterly spineless. The first half was one of the worst half performances I've ever seen from a Gulls team - an outside observer would probably have assumed that we were the team battling relegation, not Hereford. We started off hoofing it up to Rene, which was never going to work - he was totally isolated, and the ball was just being pinged straight back at us. Then when we tried passing it on the floor, we couldn't string two passes together. And then every time Hereford came forward they looked like scoring - the first was a gift, Mansell idiotically conceded the penalty (which was a definite penalty) and for the third, Ellis headed the ball back into play to a Hereford player just before it was going to go out for a goal kick. We also missed some easy chances that we were gifted. It was terrible, in every single area
The second half was marginally better but that does ignore the fact that we probably missed just as many chances as in the first half. We weren't quite misplacing passes but we didn't make the most of our pressure. Jarvis made a difference. Atieno did OK as usual. Howe and Lathrope were clearly just being rested. We had a good spell at the start of the second half but after we scored the second, we faded and didn't do an awful lot, though Ellis missed another easy chance - perhaps the news from Accy made a difference to how we played after that point. Hereford put 10 behind the ball as expected and also wasted quite a bit of time, especially Bartlett who was being a complete arse with every goal kick. I'm not too sorry to see them go, especially after the comments on their forum at the start of the year when I suggested they would go down on my blog
The game was there for the taking. They were no great shakes once we stopped handing them the initiative on a plate. And I'm sure had we not thrown it away and at least kept it at a competitive scoreline, there would have been a lot more pressure on Crawley, who in the first half struggled to keep Accrington at bay. Like at Oxford and Wimbledon and against Crewe, this is our making. We have wasted a glorious opportunity to get promoted this year
There is an elephant in the room here and that is that certain players in the team haven't been performing and haven't been good enough of late. Today some didn't even look interested for the first 45. Morris in particular was atrocious, and, let's face it, he hasn't been good enough this year - I've defended him on a few occasions, and given him plenty of chances, but he's done sod all for us this year, and we have struggled since he replaced Bodin in the side. Stevens was totally anonymous and even in the second half when we needed to get forward he refused to take people on. Ellis was poor defensively and struggled even more up front - playing him as an auxiliary striker doesn't work at all, and just made us look like we'd run out of ideas and got desperate. He would be no great loss if he did go in the summer. Oastler generally looked out of his depth and I'm concerned that he's looked more exposed as the season's gone on
On the plus side, the usual figures put in a good shift - Saah was good, Manse tried hard, Howe tried his best, Nicho whipped in a few good balls etc. Bobby was blameless. I'm sure you know. Jarvis should now be pushing for a start as well. But it was just so disheartening and humiliating that on the last day of the season, when we needed a win, we totally collapsed under the pressure. Again. Honestly, I'd rather have a rubbish year and stay up on the last day showing character than miss out on promotion by disappearing in the crucial matches
Today was the first time in years that I lost my cool and had a go at the players - after the 3rd goal and again at half time. The boos rang around the temporary stand at half time. And I don't have a problem with that, because it was wholly deserved - some people may say you shouldn't barrack your own players, but I felt totally embarrassed and humiliated to be a Torquay fan at half time. It was horrible. Before the game I thought it couldn't get much worse than last week, and yet it did. This is the worst I've felt since the FA Trophy Final, another big match where certain players disappeared when they were needed the most, after which I felt it was a complete waste of time going if I wasn't going to see a team that wasn't going to turn up. I feel the same today
Sometimes you just lose faith in the ability of your team to perform. As far as I can see, there's no way we'll get anything from the play-offs at this rate, even if we are playing the weaker of the 3 other sides, and even if we do get to Wembley, why should I bother going if I know we're going bottle it just as we have pretty much every time before? There's clearly a mental issue there at the moment and it needs sorting out
This week's winner certainly saw the writing on the wall and has written many strong arguments that made it difficult to choose and by all means scroll back through his posts. However, I have gone for the match thread with a horror first half where our defence went missing but rather Saturday than the play offs.Many congratulations to James who is once again Poster of the Week!
We were rubbish. Utterly spineless. The first half was one of the worst half performances I've ever seen from a Gulls team - an outside observer would probably have assumed that we were the team battling relegation, not Hereford. We started off hoofing it up to Rene, which was never going to work - he was totally isolated, and the ball was just being pinged straight back at us. Then when we tried passing it on the floor, we couldn't string two passes together. And then every time Hereford came forward they looked like scoring - the first was a gift, Mansell idiotically conceded the penalty (which was a definite penalty) and for the third, Ellis headed the ball back into play to a Hereford player just before it was going to go out for a goal kick. We also missed some easy chances that we were gifted. It was terrible, in every single area
The second half was marginally better but that does ignore the fact that we probably missed just as many chances as in the first half. We weren't quite misplacing passes but we didn't make the most of our pressure. Jarvis made a difference. Atieno did OK as usual. Howe and Lathrope were clearly just being rested. We had a good spell at the start of the second half but after we scored the second, we faded and didn't do an awful lot, though Ellis missed another easy chance - perhaps the news from Accy made a difference to how we played after that point. Hereford put 10 behind the ball as expected and also wasted quite a bit of time, especially Bartlett who was being a complete arse with every goal kick. I'm not too sorry to see them go, especially after the comments on their forum at the start of the year when I suggested they would go down on my blog
The game was there for the taking. They were no great shakes once we stopped handing them the initiative on a plate. And I'm sure had we not thrown it away and at least kept it at a competitive scoreline, there would have been a lot more pressure on Crawley, who in the first half struggled to keep Accrington at bay. Like at Oxford and Wimbledon and against Crewe, this is our making. We have wasted a glorious opportunity to get promoted this year
There is an elephant in the room here and that is that certain players in the team haven't been performing and haven't been good enough of late. Today some didn't even look interested for the first 45. Morris in particular was atrocious, and, let's face it, he hasn't been good enough this year - I've defended him on a few occasions, and given him plenty of chances, but he's done sod all for us this year, and we have struggled since he replaced Bodin in the side. Stevens was totally anonymous and even in the second half when we needed to get forward he refused to take people on. Ellis was poor defensively and struggled even more up front - playing him as an auxiliary striker doesn't work at all, and just made us look like we'd run out of ideas and got desperate. He would be no great loss if he did go in the summer. Oastler generally looked out of his depth and I'm concerned that he's looked more exposed as the season's gone on
On the plus side, the usual figures put in a good shift - Saah was good, Manse tried hard, Howe tried his best, Nicho whipped in a few good balls etc. Bobby was blameless. I'm sure you know. Jarvis should now be pushing for a start as well. But it was just so disheartening and humiliating that on the last day of the season, when we needed a win, we totally collapsed under the pressure. Again. Honestly, I'd rather have a rubbish year and stay up on the last day showing character than miss out on promotion by disappearing in the crucial matches
Today was the first time in years that I lost my cool and had a go at the players - after the 3rd goal and again at half time. The boos rang around the temporary stand at half time. And I don't have a problem with that, because it was wholly deserved - some people may say you shouldn't barrack your own players, but I felt totally embarrassed and humiliated to be a Torquay fan at half time. It was horrible. Before the game I thought it couldn't get much worse than last week, and yet it did. This is the worst I've felt since the FA Trophy Final, another big match where certain players disappeared when they were needed the most, after which I felt it was a complete waste of time going if I wasn't going to see a team that wasn't going to turn up. I feel the same today
Sometimes you just lose faith in the ability of your team to perform. As far as I can see, there's no way we'll get anything from the play-offs at this rate, even if we are playing the weaker of the 3 other sides, and even if we do get to Wembley, why should I bother going if I know we're going bottle it just as we have pretty much every time before? There's clearly a mental issue there at the moment and it needs sorting out
