Comparing notes with Phipsy, the Tivvy route was the right one to take.
It was a bit of a surprise to see no senior players at all in the team. Two or three slighly older heads sprinkled amongst the youngsters could well have made a lot of difference.
We lined up:
Thompson
Mace Hutchings Odofin Alexandrou
Parcell Campbell Chaney Ives
Berrow Prynn
Again, the midfield was a bit of a diamond with Campbell holding and Chaney enjoying freedom to link up with the front two.
Those who played on Friday will have seen quite a contrast in playing surfaces - assuming Arsenal would look after the Boreham Wood turf. The pitch was slopey - up and down more than end to end and the ground very bobbly. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the deciding factor in not risking the fringe first teamers - a few of whom could have done with the pitch time.
The two goals were both individual errors. Odofin was dallying on the ball and gave away possession for the first. The second was a long-range free-kick from ex-TUFC striker Jordan Charran (who had a very good game). It didn't look too dangerous but Thompson let it bounce in front of him, didn't get his body behind it and the bobbly surface did the rest. It was very nearly three soon after as Mace was judged to have felled a runner inside the box - he clearly felt the challenge was well outside. Mace was booked. The pen was blasted over the bar.
In patches, Torquay got their passing game going - but the pitch certainly did not help. Witheridge were big strong and direct and better suited to the conditions. Sometimes it did look men v boys.
It would have been interesting to see if the youngsters could get hold of the ball and dominate the second half, but we were soon down to ten men. Mace was skinned by Charran and brought him down as he went past - second yellow. In fact we were very lucky not to go down to nine men later on when Ives lunged into a challenge with studs up provoking justifiable anger from the Withy players and a long discussion betweeen ref and lino before a yellow was brandished.
On Mace's dismissal, Parcell slotted into right back and Chaney gave up the advanced role to take Parcell's place. We played comfortably enough with ten, but the man down robbed us of that impetus that might have got us back in the game.
Monty Berrow seemed to twist his leg quite badly (due to the rutted playing surface, perhaps?) and was replaced by Mouzouros. A midfielder (name?) replaced Alexandrou with Ives dropping to left back and Johnny Buckle (son of Paul) replaced Campbell late on.
Hutchings had a run into Withy's box in the last minute and was brought down but hit a weak penalty straight at the keeper.
An interesting lesson in life for the boys. Witheridge is not any easy place for such a young team to go. Unfortunately, I suspect most of them are more likely to ply their trade in future with the likes of Witheridge than with the likes of Arsenal.
Hutchings looks quality on the ball - he really does like to play football from the back. Can he do the ugly stuff so necessary in League 2? Time will tell.
The other two who stood out were Ives and Chaney who both showed a bit of quality despite the conditions. I am sure Chaney would be Ling's kind of player - not sure where he could play in a Knill team.
Knill was at the game in the dugout, although Robbie Herrera seemed to be in charge.
