NL: Torquay United v Forest Green 3pm 26th December 2015

Given the injury problems that still bedevil us, King Kev put together a reasonable starting eleven for this Boxing Day encounter. Crowd favourite Exodus found a place on the bench, sat alongside Louis Briscoe who had his turkey sandwiches wrapped in tinfoil carefully balanced on his lap. The Good Shepherd was nowhere to be seen, and, it was rumoured, had been advised to find another flock to watch.

According to many observers, Shep's commitment to the cause during last Saturday's game at Chester, wasn't all it might have been. Sympathy was in short supply, and an 'He's made his Murombedzi, so he can lie in it', attitude to his exclusion from the match day squad was very much the order of the day.

Cox's slackers have had to be tolerated by King Kev far more than is ideal, due to the well documented hurdles placed in the way of recruiting reasonable replacements.

Our watches ticked past the 15 second mark, still with no goals conceded. All the proof required to underline that Kev and Robbie had tightened up the Gulls defence since the last outing.

The long wind assisted punts downfield from FGR keeper Arnold caused a few first half problems. Three in a row we made a hash of getting a firm defensive head on. Nathan Smith's noggin helped one on for a corner to FGR. The resulting flag kick was partially cleared, but fell to Marsh-Brown who was positioned centrally just outside the 18 yard box. He hit a lovely controlled volley over the heads of those in the crowded penalty area, and which then dipped into the corner of the net to give our Gloucestershire visitors the lead.

The concern then was how many of the home supporters would start losing the battle with their 'inner Brucie' ? But while these personal struggles were being fought out in the stands, Kev's brave battlers were in the process of responding in the best way possible, by going up the other end and quickly equalising.

And then a lovely cross from Cap'n Courtney 15 minutes later, enabled Marsh to double his tally with a firm close range header that gave us a half time scoreline of

Gulls 2 Veggies 1.

The C.E.O, his casual dress including what appeared to be the top half of a blue and yellow romper suit, announced 50/50 ticket number 01603 would provide a £225 Christmas bonus for some lucky spectator.

Browsing the programme, I read the Chairman's comments. He used his column to  mention the groundshare agreement with Truro and inform us that the deal 'will allow us to carry out extensive drainage work on the pitch during the summer' 

Then turning the page to see what The C.E.O has to say we learn that the Truro deal will allow us 'to carry out extensive drainage work on the pitch over the summer'


At least those at the top are clearly singing from the same hymn sheet !

Goals galore on Page 13, as Phil Lee had a moan: 'There was a time when the goals in all four divisions had a distinctive and unique appearance allowing the eagle-eyed fan to be able to correctly identify the ground in question simply from the shape of it's goals.

The rich array of stanchion types and netting have given way to the generic box-type goal nets which always used to be synonymous with games played in Europe. Where this drive for bland generic conformity has come from is a mystery.

Was there a directive from the Premier league instructing clubs to fall in line a stop, and install these type of goals. Even the iconic goals at Wembley vanished at the start of Euro96, to be replaced by the dreaded 'box' of net !'

The second half hadn't been under way long before Dan Lavercombe was called into action. Kurtis Guthrie had space close in, controlled the ball well, and fired it on target but Dan saved well, knocking the shot away for a corner.

Heading toward the 70th minute and Big Jon Parkin was substituted, calling time on his afternoon battle with Ben Gerring.

Twinkle toes Briscoe hadn't been on long before he tied the FGR defence in knots, and deserved the goal himself, but when the ball fell to Durrell Berry, it was the full back who accurately slotted it into the net to further increase our lead.

Berry had endured a torrid afternoon against the skilful and speedy Elliott Frear. Combining with the blonde haired Marcus Kelly behind him, FGR's left side looked particularly strong. Berry stuck to his task with perseverance and will surely face few better opponents during the season than Frear. That Berry had the determination and energy to get up field to support the attack as late into the game as the 83rd minute, is a tribute to his whole hearted display, and it was good to see his name on the scoresheet.


King Kev used the goal celebration time to communicate with the bench and organise his own substitution. My 'Man Of The Match' Dan Butler, dropping back into Kev's left back slot, while Josh Carmichael's fresh legs brought new energy to midfield for the closing minutes.

Andre Wright coolly rounded the keeper to slot home a 4th for us, and persuade the FGR fans behind that goal that they really would be better off heading for the exits than watching the final minutes of this particular Boxing Day Massacre.