'There are six games to go this season and I want the players and fans to enjoy every one of them' - stated Chris in his programme notes, but unfortunately his hopes on the entertainment front for this final group of matches haven't got off to a very good start. Two pieces of quality evident on the pitch at Plainmoor on Saturday afternoon; James McQuilkin's well drilled low shot for our goal, and the magnificently struck ball by young Kieran from Newton Abbot at half time, which whacked the crossbar full on, and won him a decent amount of cash.
Well that's the match report over, so what else was happening at Plainmoor yesterday ? Frankly, it was an afternoon when you needed to make your own entertainment rather than turning up expecting the 22 on the pitch to provide it for you. Fears that the stadium perimeter would be patrolled by wild-eyed zealots demanding to see the approved membership card before letting you pass proved to be unfounded. Would non card carrying fans be dragged off by members of the Tustapo to their headquarters for interrogation and enforced signing up ? 'Just whisper the password 'Toynbee' and they should let you through' was the jovial advice I'd received late on Friday evening, and I encountered no problems.
With TUST activists operating inside the ground, I headed off to my Bristow's Bench seat to peruse the programme. Stopping just short of imploring the workers of the world to seize the means of production, distribution and exchange, the columnist on page 29 stated that: 'at some point in the future, the fans will need to find a structure by which to assume ownership'.
Whether that time is now, and whether that structure is the one that TUST advocates, will be decided upon over the coming weeks, but I'm increasingly convinced that TUST supporters are pushing at an open door in demanding that any existing director lead ownership set-up must work in close cooperation with them.
(Above) Of course you recognise that tattooed arm. Now was this my attempt at a 'Guess the player competition' or just rank bad photography in chopping of an injured strikers head ?
Back to matters on the pitch, and after some fairly even opening exchanges, Torquay dominated most of the possession in the first half. Take Luke Young and Ryan Bowman out of our side, and quality wise, we're not particularly superior to Dartford. Take John Campbell out as well, which only exacerbates how much we miss Bowman, and we were struggling for conventional attacking options. Dartford with a couple of deep lying midfielders protecting their back four gave us little space, and therefore our rather experimental attack, with Toby Ajala often the furthest man forward, deserve some credit at least for the chances they did carve out. The problem was that invariably those chances were blasted skyward posing more of a threat to Paul Sturrock or Thea's clackers than to the Dartford goal.
A Dartford throw-in went back to a dawdling Darts defender whose attempts to dwell on the ball after finally getting it under control were seized upon by Ajala who dispossessed him. Toby ran into the area but his diagonal ball to Briscoe was poor, got intercepted and the chance was gone. How frustrating that Ajala is so good in possession, but that his passing, crossing and shooting, are of a lower standard. If we're looking for positives then Kadell Daniel did very well in an understrength team that's lacking in confidence. A long ball out of defence was flying towards Courtney Cameron who had a defender closing in on him; Kadell Daniel was racing forward, heading for the cavernous gap vacated down the centre by the Dartford defence that had gone AWOL; 'head it, head it, head it' we could hear Daniel imploring Courtney as the ball neared. Anything knocked on into space, and the new loan signing knew he'd be in the clear. Cameron adjusted his body position, brought the ball down with his feet, and still with his back to goal, wondered what to do with it next. Chance gone !
As the half drew towards it's close a diagonal ball was played just outside the penalty area but McQuilkin got under it and again the back row of the family stand was in most danger. That being the 43rd minute, Squire Budleigh decided to make that the last action of his first half and headed off to hospitality.
H.T Gulls 0 Darts 0
Dan from Exmouth pocketed the 50/50 money. Kieran from Newton Abbot (as mentioned) used his first attempt to test the ball and conditions, before confidently smacking his second smack into the centre of the crossbar.
We started the second half with more purpose and it was clear that Ives and Dawson were getting up field more as we needed greater numbers if a solution to getting through that congested blue defence was going to be found. High, wide, and handsome continued to be the theme until James McQuilkin came up with the novel idea of wondering what would happen if you kept your shot down ? He, his teammates, and the supporters, all seemed rather pleased with the result.
Still quite a while to go, and now Dartford needed to take the game to us if they were to salvage anything. It'll be interesting to see the replays but I've a feeling that Dawson had pushed up and was near the corner flag of Dartford's goal-line when our attack broke down and Dartford quickly countered. Although we raced back, a longish shot came through a number of bodies which Rice could only parry; he then threw himself to block once, possibly twice, but Chiedozie was there to knock it home from close range.
A fiasco clearing Bristow's Bench, whereby the later and slower you were vacating your seat, the better your chances of being able to use nearby steps to get to ground level and so leave the stadium. But this season has given us so much practice at coping with frustrations, that it was pretty much stoically accepted.
