FAT: Torquay United v Halifax 11 January 2020

Looks like Kalala won’t be playing tomorrow as playing for Fulham under 23s tonight against Stoke

I too would expect the two new men to go straight in along with Lewis and Cameron in a back four that looks less unbalanced than we have been used to.

Trophy should be the time to rotate keepers, but I would be keen to give Covolan the chance to build a rapport with the new men. I would make MacDonald wait until Tavistock.

I would play Andrews wide left, but am 50/50 between Whitfield in the hole or Keating up front. If Whitfield, would also be 50/50 between Keating and Nemane for wide right.

We are allowed seven on the bench but expect just five fit players - MacDonald, Cundy, Niate, Nemane/Keating and Koszela.

Interesting to see if we pad the bench out with unfit players or kids or not bother. One who will not be on the bench is Lewington - Dave Thomas seems to have forgotten that he is cup-tied.

Of course, the Trophy is less important than the league or the FA Cup, but it could provide a nice boost if we end up stuck in mid-table as seems most likely although it is not impossible we could either be in a relegation scrap or a play-off chase.

The Hargreaves season saw us start off looking like title chasers, have a bad patch and end up mid-table. That looks our closest marker to this season. We got to the semis then, although there was a load of moaning and whining about it on one site. Not sure if that was "too billy big balls for the Trophy" or an illogical pathological hatred of Chris Hargreaves.

When Nico skillfully rebuilt the rubbish he inherited into a side that could avoid relegation, he ended up with so many cup-tied players that he could barely scrape 14 bodies (including a few local freebies) together for Trophy games, but got us to the quarter finals anyway - and the spirit that engendered led to the great escape.

Football is about getting a winning habit, and it is vital to us that we use today to start do that. The confidence a win brings is more valuable to us than progress in the competition per se.

That was quite frustrating as we were the better side today and deserved to win but perhaps the failure to score in the first half when we were pretty dominant was our ultimate downfall. Nevertheless, we went out to a lucky deflected goal for Halifax and did not get the same luck at the other end.

On the plus side, both of our new signings did well and particularly Warren who took control of the defence and restricted Halifax to very few chances. They had a shot which deflected just over the bar in the first half but cannot remember too many opportunities for them otherwise in the first period.

In the second half I think they scored from their first meaningful attack where they were just given a bit too much time and space on the edge of the box and the cross to their forward was deflected in. Their second which followed shortly after started when Reid gave the ball away in midfield and a shot from outside the area took a deflection to see the ball nestle in the corner of the net.

We actually had numerous chances in the game. CLE scores after a clever touch by Whitfield to come into the area and some good footwork of his own created space to slot the ball home. In the final quarter Halifax had a goal line clearance from a corner and then Nemane shot narrowly wide. If I am being picky, we sometimes tried a more difficult pass in windy conditions when a simpler one was on.

All in all, play like that and we will win more than we lose. Lewis did surprisingly well as right wing back and put an effort in during the second half. Nemane had a good game and was named MOTM. Reid picked up the captain’s armband after both Hall and Cameron were subbed. 29 away fans in a crowd of 1309.

Thanks for the summary Rob I hope there were encouraging signs today not at all bothered were out of this competition though.
Galling to concede while on top again we seem to be doing this a lot these days.
Need to get this season safe and out of the way. It's been a pretty disappointing one after an encouraging start but when we're safe it will be time to lay some early foundations for a better challenge next season.

Five more league wins from the remaining sixteen matches and I think we will all be able to relax a bit and the sooner we achieve that goal the better.

Johnson post match feedback - generally happy with the performance if not the result....