NL: Torquay v Altrincham 3pm 21/08/21

My first look at the squad today in a genuinely competitive match that will be hard fought as most teams will be up for any challenges on the first day of the season and will want to get something from the game.

Are we stronger or weaker than last term? We wont be able to make a judgement on that for a little while but lets all hope stronger.

Optimistic as usual and decent weather despite the forecast.

I fully understand the desire to move to cashless. Covid has just accelerated this trend by a few years.

I cannot for the life of me see the logic in stopping selling tickets an hour before kickoff.

That does not help with Covid in any way. It just pisses off customers and potential customers. Very few businesses can afford to piss off customers. We certainly can't!

Daft that the food concession is cash only, but that is a separate franchise so they make their own arrangements and their own rules. It does make a mockery of the health and safety argument when people are handling cash and handling food!

Two down in 19 minutes. Oh well there is always next season! We should throw all our resources into winning the FA Trophy this year 😉⚽️

A dreadful performance and result to start the season and I have no complaints about the score line. Torquay looked too open at the back, we were very workmanlike going forward and had no cutting edge up front. Our goal only came from a hastily sliced kick from an Alty defender that went in! A friend of mine remarked that our team consists of either has-beens or youngsters who are not used to this level. I feel there is some truth in that. In Wright and Holman, we have no pace up front and you feel their best days are behind them. I don't understand how Wright was made sponsors MOTM? The crowd was a decent 2,599 and there was a decent atmosphere back at Plainmoor.

Torquay started brightly enough and Rogers on the right wing showed plenty of promise on the ball. However from Alty's first meaningful attack they scored. A cross came over and their attacker had far too much space take his time in controlling the ball and putting it away. He clearly controlled it with his hand at one stage and I expected the goal to be disallowed. The referee or his assistant didn't spot it and the goal stood. Five minutes later O'Connoll tried to usher the ball out of play and got robbed. The ball was crossed and again our defence was wide open and it was an easy finish. Our keeper Halstead first two touches were picking the ball out of the net!

Torquay's early promise disintegrated and to be quite frank Torquay huffed and puffed for the rest of the game. There was little evidence of any pace or flair to open up the opposition. Torquay did rally towards the end of the first half but corners were typically dreadful going behind everyone out of play and players at times seemed on a different wavelength to each other with moves breaking down. Alty had a couple of decent chances early in the second half and Halstead actually made a save.

Torquay made a double substitution and it was good to see Hall come on. Soon after Torquay scored thanks to a comical own goal. Torquay pushed forward but looked vulnerable at the back. Halstead saved a 1-on-1 but later on Alty made space for themselves and struck the ball sweetly to finish the game off. No complaints from me, they fully deserved their win. As for ourselves, it does not bode well for the season. We desperately lacked the flair, pace and quality we had last season and let's hope Lemonheigh-Evans and Andrews return soon. The truth is it will be difficult to replace those who left the club like Cameron, Nemane and Whitfield and that showed today. From today's performance I am not convinced we have enough quality to mount any sort of promotion challenge. Yes, it's early days and the team needs to gel but there were worrying signs today.

With so many new faces not expecting a fast start to the season. Hopefully good enough for top 7.

Cameron and unused sub Nemane next week. Expecting a pummelling, but hoping to be surprised. I saw Jake Bugg at Travelling Feast last week. And he was rubbish. Unfortunately he won’t be playing for them.