NL: Torquay United v Aldershot 3 October 2015

Really looking forward to today under the inspirational leadership of Mr_W.

Just slightly concerned that he might try to lead the youngest and most impressionable member of the team astray after the wise old heads from Barton and Chelston have gone home for their coco.

The only dark cloud on the horizon is the prospect of having to endure ninety minutes of football before heading off in search of beer and curry.

Look on the bright side - at least Chelston will still have something to complain about even if the food and the service are spot on.

2 down before half time

Listening to commentary not one serious save by the aldershot goalie in tbis half

Too pick yourself first game in charge is not good policy oh well KN129 has got a hell of a job on his hands now,I suspect he is going to end up like Hargreaves did shortly,feel for all who paid good money too watch what sounded like a useless team going through the motions.If breed and co reckon he was top man for the job they are seriously out of there depth as well.

So it was not the start we all wanted for Nicholson and it was the same sorry story what we have come to expect this season. Yes, the commitment was decent, I thought the shape of the team looked balanced and there was some decent build up play at times. I thought we used the width of the pitch well and I liked Murombedzi on the left wing who offered a bit of flair. Nicholson himself slotted in well at left back and his experience often showed using the right option when on the ball. It's a shame his corners were typically over hit. But, and it' a huge but, we rarely looked like scoring and whereas Aldershot worked our keeper, we rarely tested their's. Crowd 1,946. around 250 from Aldershot and sponsors MoTM Hurst.

Nicholson had a warm reception and there were plenty of chants of his name from the Popside. The home crowd got well behind the team. The game was evenly matched and Torquay were looking decent in their ideas and approach play. But Speiss had to make 2 outstanding saves to keep the score level, one diving very low down,so the warning signs were there. Like previous matches, Torquay conceded from a free-kick that was beautifully curled past our 3 man wall in to Speiss's left corner. Surely Torquay needed more men in our wall? The goal lifted Aldershot and their second reminded me of a Bromley goal a couple of weeks ago. Neat passing on the edge of our area until they found room to slot the ball past Speiss without a challenge from a defender.

Torquay for the rest of the match never seriously threatened and Aldershot held comfortably with a bit more know-how. Torquay had their fair share of corners and the occasional promising position but there was no end product.

It's a huge job for Nicholson or indeed any manager. I was amazed he was given the job when surely we needed an experienced manager, now of all times. I have been impressed how Nicholson has conducted himself thus far but I'm afraid I cannot see any light at the end of the tunnel. I was so shocked when I dared look at the league table this evening as we are in huge danger of being cut off adrift in the relegation zone. Even at this stage of the season we need a huge turnaround in results and I cannot see how it is going to happen? It was quite distressing to look over to our dugout and only see a passive Kenny Veysey there. Indeed we used all our subs with like for like swaps and did not ask any questions of Aldershot. If anything, our substitutions made matters worse. There just seems so much wrong I'm afraid and our season continues to plunge.

We have the worst last-10 form in the division - 4 points from a potential 30. Last season our early season form carried us through our long mid-season poor form stretch. 3 wins and a draw in our last 4 games put a gloss on last season that flattered us TBH.

No such cushion this season. We are deep in the diddly-doo. Already there is a 7-point gap between us and Altrincham in 6th from bottom. Given our form, that is a huge gap so effectively we are already in a 5-teams-trying-to-avoid-4-relegation-places mini league. I don't have any warm feeling about it either.