Torquay v Dover 3pm ko Saturday 7th October

And that would have helped today. Dover had obviously decided that Young is our key man and stuck his old friend Gallifuoco on him like a limpet.

The way round that would be for Young to drop deep and let the other central midfielder (Evans was "holding" behind) benefit from the space created. Unfortunately, Lathrope gets a nosebleed when he goes over the halfway line.

No surprise to see Lathrope off at half time, Young dropping deeper and McQuoid "in the hole" with Myrie-Williams on on the left wing. Gallifuoco left Young and stuck to McQuoid.

We looked less clueless, but not a lot.

Ended up in a 3-2-1-4 with McQuoid behind Pittman and Keating.

Parry constantly had his arms around Murphy or hold of his shirt and the ludicrously weak referee Allison gave him free rein to do it.

Dover looked organised and efficient but not much more than that.

We were dreadful.

Normal service is resumed.

Maybe we could have done with the fixture list sending one of the poorer sets of opponents to Plainmoor today. The chance to keep the momentum from Tuesday night going, more hope of gaining some points to narrow the gap at the bottom ?  As it was, the computer decided to send Dover our way on 7th October, and just to compound things, put Samuel Allison in charge of the whistle.

What we learned from this (as if we didn't know) is that we're some way short of the top teams such as Dover. Now if it had been us with the wind in our backs in the first half and had managed to scrape of goal, it might have different I suppose, as the new found confidence from Tuesday night would have received a further boost. In the event, Dover were wind assisted and we were a bit fortunate that they only scored one goal in the opening 45 minutes. As mentioned, Damon Lathrope played in a relatively advanced role, and Callum Evans was our deeper lying midfielder. Luke Young buzzed around and had another fine game.
Liam Davis wasn't quite on it today, but was that the third 90 minutes he's completed in 8 days ?....if so, he probably badly needs a week's break between matches. An interesting tussle was that between Rhys Murphy and the Dover defender Manny Parry. If we assume Mr.Allison's interpretation of the laws is accurate, particularly in relation to the use of the arms, then Murphy must look back on this as one of his most ineffective games ever, as Parry got the better of him on each and every occasion.

Guy Branston was in attendance to do the draw for the 50/50 and crossbar challenge. It was also good to see Official Supporters Club President Robin Stubbs out on the field warmly welcoming the 300th member to the fold. A scene far more to spectators liking compared to the bad old days when spokesmen for certain militant organisations were allowed the microphone to deliver their 'Party Politicals'. Also good to see previous Chairman Dave Phillips who also fought valiantly to keep the club out the clutches of the militants, among those out on the pitch during the break today.

We tried our best in the second half, but didn't really have much idea how to find a way through the well organised Dover ranks. No clever one-twos, no Ajala style slalom dribblers in yellow these days to take the ball past people. Was it a lack of ability or a lack of inventiveness ? either way, the Dover goalie enjoyed a fairly leisurely afternoon. A touch of luck about Dover's second as the ball came off the crossbar and possibly hit goalkeeper Dorel on the back of the neck, and so rebounded into the net. Not that a second goal wasn't a fair reflection on the gulf between the sides.

Not ever a fraction of the excitement we were treated to on Tuesday night, but a match that will have given Owers and Khul plenty of food for thought, as they plan the rest of the season.





Above - Referee Mr.Allison limbering up with his Assistants pre-match.












Above - Dover manager, Chris Kinnear, never saw his side in trouble at Plainmoor.

apparently it's still kevs fault!

Reckon Owers will be trying to unload a few before he brings any more in. The ones injured will deserve their chance to impress the manager but I cant see too many second chances. If they don't look up to it they will be loaned out or released. He has to be cold blooded and find out if those in the wings will be up to the task and ready to go. Liam Davis has certainly shown him that he is capable after a long lay off.

Players I have a question mark over and wouldn't be surprised to see shifted out at some point or at least have question marks against them.. Dasmon Lathrope - Myles Anderson - Yan Klukowski - Jennison Myrie-Williams - Jon-Paul Pittman - Sam Chaney - and this man better start to impose himself and dominate forwards as Parry did for Dover yesterday, Sean McGinty.

Owers obviously doesn't see James Gray in his plans or may be he answered back when the law was laid down who knows.

Yesterday was a dismal affair, very difficult to watch but credit to Dover who applied themselves far better than we did. We simply were not sharp enough all over. Murphy I thought battled well against one of the biggest and best central defender sat this level.
One or two were ok, Young the only one looking likely to do something to affect the game and most simply not firing at all but also with some help from an appalling referee.
The man made up his own rules for the game some of his decisions were simply flabbergasting if it were me assessing his performance I would ban him from refereeing at every level of the game.
Yet we would still have lost even without his pathetic display.

I still believe we are stronger in many areas but we looked jaded from two tough games last week and perhaps a more intense level of training.
With the league having a break next weekend for the FA cup we can maybe try test out one or two of the peripheral players or ones returning from injury.

Oh yes Aussie Its all Kevs fault for sure - Merse will never let that one drop now will he?
Time we put that behind us and look forward.
Lovely bloke who had his hands tied behind his back and all that but this is his legacy and he signed the majority of this squad but were now playing a desperate game of catch up and Owers needs to improve player quality even further. That was highly evident yesterday..