NL: Torquay United v Chesterfield 3pm 21 December 2019

rjdgull 

In what is supposed to be the Season of Goodwill, I'm hoping that all the Brexiteers among the TFF readership will rise above this type of goading from Remainiac Administrators. Let such jibes be water off a ducks back as we let the democratic voice of the British people speak for itself.

Perhaps a zero tolerance policy toward  not so subtle political references in what should be purely football threads, needs introducing ?  

link - match day and the pitch was looking ok yesterday. The next deluge is coming in around 2pm so it will be wet but match should be on.

Season of goodwill indeed...1 down after 1 minute!

I am confident GJ will get it sorted....we just need to avoid relegation this season and kick on next.

Very disappointing, it felt more like Easter than Christmas today as we were literally crucified on crosses. Conceding an early goal is generally bad news for us although it must not be forgotten that until the sending off, we were dominating play with Chesterfield defending ever deeper and it looked like we were getting back into the game.

It was a poor goal to concede early on, from a long ball the ball was won by their striker and nodded down to their winger who actually curled in a peach of a cross to the edge of the 6 yard box at the far post and their striker was able to get across Cameron and bang the ball in on about the 60 second mark.

Although we then proceeded to dominate play with Janneh getting behind the defence on occasions the only clear chance I can recall was to Lemonheigh-Evans whose shot from just inside the area sailed harmlessly pass the far post. Probably still a bit rusty but he is not far off the pace, if only Reidy was there to fire home!

With our dominance we were certainly racking up the corner count but they were defending very well and credit to Chesterfield for that. Late on in the half, yet another corner was hit to the far post and as usual was headed away and a brief counter-attack was on before we regained possession in our half but one of their defenders had gone down injured in the 6 yard box and play was stopped for treatment.

While the players were having their almost mandatory drinks and pep talk break the Bristow’s bench lino was having a long and intense chat with the referee. I was actually hoping he had spotted an infringement that could have resulted in a penalty for us but unfortunately the referee then marched to the other half called Janneh across and promptly gave him a straight red.

I can only presume that he thought he saw an elbow in the face or back of the head to warrant such a dismissal. There was no fuss at the time of the incident from the players and the linesman would have been impeded by a lot of bodies between him and the foul so one heck of a call to make that changed the entire course of the game. Could that be the last we see of Janneh.

With 10 men Johnson made some changes at half-time with Kalala and Lewington coming on for Nemane and Buse respectively. We started well but Wynter seemed to be isolated for one of their attacks and another good delivery from the left was sent to the far post where their on-coming attacker was able to have a free header into an empty part of the net. I did notice that Cameron and Niate were very close to each other on the other side of the goal and I am not sure if it was their mistake or whether Lewis should have been picking up the man on the far side?

I think we knew by then it was not going to be our day with the third goal coming straight from a corner which was headed in this time from the near post with McDonald lying flat on his back in the goal mouth, whether from a foul or a slip I don’t know but the eagle eyed linesman certainly did not pick anything up this time!

We had a couple of penalty appeals turned down, one where I think Niate was bundled over off the ball when crossed in from a corner and another where the ball was passed to Wynter charging into the box with his foot just clipped by a mistimed challenge and as he appealed the referee decided to give him a yellow for diving. Looked like clear contact to me.

Just to really drive it home, one of their players received a yellow after a spate with Niate, then went to defend and jumped up for the ball with his hand up stopping it going over him into the area with the referee very leniently giving a free kick but no second yellow for deliberate hand ball. James played well again but seem to twist his knee in a tackle, hopefully not badly but wouldn’t bet on it the way things have gone this season.

Cannot see enough to judge precisely what happened on my phone and think their player made a meal of things but certainly won’t win any appeal on that evidence! That will be it for Janneh in a Torquay shirt I suspect.

Torquay highlights

m.facebook.com/groups/700735683271580/?fref=nf
There is a slo mo on this video. May have been more forearm than elbow but clearly deliberate.