FL2: Barnet v Torquay - 6th Nov 2012

Many thanks for your match report geddingtongull and you have nothing you need to apologise for. If I had gone out on a cold Tuesday night and watched the team put in a good performance and maybe were unlucky not to win, then the said posts might have angered me.

Those posts were not unexpected for a number of reasons, the main one being so many fans were looking for the right result after Saturdays FA Cup exit. So much has been made these last few days that we are in 7th place in the league. Some will argue that makes us the 7th best team to date in this division. If that is true then it has to be accepted that Barnet are most certainly the worst.

All our league position tells me is we are the team that has amassed the 7th highest number of points so far this season. It is not an indication about how good we are and where we might end up at the end of the season. Football being what it is some game the best team out on the pitch loses the game and other times they can win when they were the poorest out of the two teams on the night.

While it’s very pleasing to learn we played much better and deserved to win the match, the record books will show we lost the first round FA cup match to a non league side then just three days later lost to the bottom team in the division.

Before the game I was reading on here that we have played poorly at times but were still getting some results, but that could not keep happening and we would get found out in the end. When we got some reports from those at the game it seemed a case of playing well and maybe not getting what we deserved on the night.

My mark of a good team is one that has consistency and that does seem to be something we are lacking right now. On our day we can beat the very best and then lose to a team we should be beating off the park. Even the very best teams slip up from time to time and get beaten by a team they would not have expected to lose too, but over the course of the season, they win far more than they lose. The best teams grind out those results when they are not playing well, but they do not have to do that too often because they most play at their very best.

I’m no football manager and I do not know how to get two or more good performances out of the players on the trot, but that has to be something that does need to be worked on and I’m sure Martin Ling is capable of getting that to happen.

Anyone reading the TFF over the last few days for the first time could be forgiven for thinking the home fans are a bunch of moaning old gits, while the away fans are a far more positive bunch. I personally think that would be an unfair assumption to make one would only need to go and read the match day threads for the great come back against Aldershot and or fine home win against the league leaders to know that.

The concerns raised against the size of our squad are fair in my opinion and we are looking even more thread bear as we look to this Saturday’s game against Oxford. A hard place to go and win when you have a big squad of players to choose from, even harder if you are struggling to put out your best eleven. I happen to think so many things in life come down to timing and maybe the time is now right to try and bring on one or two decent loan players. We can’t afford one more injury or suspension at this time that I do know.

I do feel a bit for Bodin, I have only seen him place the once and I was very impressed with him. The game against Oxford could have a fairy tale ending for him and we look to him to try and come up with some goals for us. Such fairy tale stories have happened in the past and I so wish it would happen for him this Saturday afternoon.

Its one of those sorts of games we could win, being able to play better against teams we might be expected to lose against, is something we are well accustomed to being a Torquay United fan.

I think its going to be one of those up and down sort of season and the mood here on the TFF will change from week to week. At the end of the day we all only want our team to do well, but at times when we are disappointed, maybe we need to try and react in a better and more positive way.

Life is never easy being a football fan at times and even harder on occasions being a Torquay United one, but we are a good club with some of the best fans in the land and of that we can always be very proud.

I am indeed saying my Cambridge fan friend said last night's game was one of the worst he'd ever seen

However, I take that with a pinch of salt as he doesn't like Ling. But he has provided some interesting perspective from that side. In particular he has taken objection to the way Ling has talked about Cambridge since leaving, about how he was "too big" for them

I couldn't bring myself to post a match report last night simply for the fact that I was utterly gob-smacked that we didn't win the match by an absolute landslide. I can only have respect for our players for not letting their heads go down and compete so well for the full 90 minutes. We bossed midfield, rarely let Barnet have a sniff on goal and created a plethora of chances... but the ball just wouldn't cross the line.

As for the Tank's booking, did anyone else think that Kamdjo just ran into Rene and then dropped to the ground? Rene hardly seemed to notice what had happened then got booked. This despite being pushed, pulled, climbed on etc by Barnet's centre-halves all evening and none of the officials batting an eyelid.

I would imagine that any historian would be looking for all the real facts that could be found, so that a very accurate picture of some past event could be formed. Both Jon and yourself have played such a big part in making our history room such a special place with all the finds you have both come up with. Our programmes room is also a great source if information that can give us a better idea of events in the clubs history.

I tend to look at all the posts made on the TFF or any other forum for that matter, as history being made and written down for others to discover in years to come. It’s the reason I gave great thought to how the forum was laid out with such rooms as the match day room, past season’s room etc.

I fully understand the point you are making Nick as far as emotion is concerned, but I look at it in a slightly different way. You have talked about your match day experience and what it entails, for example meeting up with people you know etc, so for you it’s much more than just the match itself.

The way I look at our match day threads for example is like this. If we are lucky we will get some pre-match posts and they might be about members expectations for the game, or who they think the manager should start with. Thankfully we do not get too many posts made during the game itself, some are always welcome as there will always be someone popping onto to the site to try and get any updates on the match. Too many and you end up with posts like, “we just won a throw-in.” I find it frustrating having to scroll through 100’s of posts just to try and find something worthwhile to read about the match.

Most of the posts made for an hour or so after each match (longer for away games) will be made by fans who were not at the match themselves. They can be often written with none or very little knowledge of how the game really went and mostly based just on the final score. Therefore they are just pure reactions to the score line and they happen because of the game itself and the result and for me they then form a part of the whole match day.

Next comes the match reports written by those who where there and then the views are often more balanced as the writers were able to take all the events of the match into consideration.

I think what I’m trying to say and maybe not doing a very good job of it is this. Every post on the match day threads tell a real story of the match day. I sometimes think it is always best to wait awhile before posting if we know our emotions are running high. But its there and then we have something to say and often will do so, only to later see things in a different light.

As always Dave you are spot on with your posts.

I realise that especially for away games it is very difficult unless you are there to realise what is exactly happening.

If I had just seen last nights result I may well have voiced a few harsh words, but probably to myself or my poor wife who often has to put with my ramblings and moans.

I suppose what got to me was the very personal attacks on the manager and players such as Billy Bodin.

For whatever reason we have a small squad. On course we would all like to see more players especially where we have little back up in the event of injuries or suspensions.

I would rather have our squad than the likes of Davids or others in the Barnet team who were falling down at every consevable moment.

As this is an Internet message board for football supporters there's no obvious harm in collecting the full range of opinions. Equally I wouldn't want this site to be logged as a "true record". It's a snapshot of the diverse opinions of a relatively small number of supporters. We'll probably never know how representative it is of a much wider group of people. In that way it's probably like a lot of other things in life: not to be under-estimated nor over-estimated.

But, if you wanted a relatively accurate picture of the season drawn from this site, you'd probably follow the well-trodden path of excluding the extremes at both ends of the scale.

In this case we're talking about the tendency amongst some individuals to nearly always criticise the manager (or, at least, to do so relatively soon). We may also take a large pinch of salt with some of the more extreme expectations. For instance, I recall hearing somebody calling for Leroy's head when he didn't get us promoted in 2003. That wouldn't make a serious history of mine, not even footnote 459.

By the same measure you might not take too much notice of the people who see never see any wrong even when we're twenty points clear at the bottom.

So my point is that you usually need to filter out what you read when you attempt an explanation or some sort of historical record. That's why, in a similar way, I'm struggling to get a handle on recent home games. But I know to discount certain opinions at both ends. That leaves me with a "mixed bag" impression.

Which is probably par for the course and to be anticipated. Apologies if that sounds rather dull. At least it doesn't endanger my blood pressure.

Don't know if my "barndoor" remark is consdiered a personal attack on Billy Bodin, BUT its clear to see his confidence is shot away !!! Bless his cottons but he aint a natural goal scorer however will bag a few in a season.

The reports indicate we played well but I still think we are a striker short, a sniffer, a goal hanger, going back years but a guy that does sod all for 89 mins but is there when it matters, example being Tommy Tynan for half a season, way back when oh the memories flood back, remember Dean Sturridge, Jason Roberts,

So we are skint, but surely a loanee is NOT out of the question Somewhere there must be kid who wants to play regular league football If Hernandez isnt featuring for MUFC we will have him !!!