NL: Torquay United v Boreham Wood 3pm 20th August 2022
Aug 20, 2022 17:49:08 GMT
petef, rjdgull, and 1 more like this
Post by Swanny on Aug 20, 2022 17:49:08 GMT
This was the first time I have seen the Gulls this season and I have come away from the match pretty deflated and concerned. When you cannot score goals, the last thing you need to do is concede early and we did just that. With Boreham Wood's first attempt on 3 minutes a shot from outside the box was mis-hit and went along the ground in a diagonal direction. It feel to an unmarked player who slotted the ball home from close range. Torquay vainly appealed for offside but I suspect the goalscorer timed his run well.
After just a few minutes of viewing I was very concerned what I was seeing. I thought Torquay's players looked like a bunch of naive youngsters and there was little quality on show. Torquay's main weapon was our long throws hoping that the ball would fall kindly in the box for us. In fact Torquay have 2 long throw specialists, Moxey and Hanson one for the left and the other for the right. Oh well, at least we did not have to wait for one of them to run to the opposite side of the pitch. I'm afraid it looked like a throwback to Paul Cox's team who were just reliant on set pieces and percentages. Boreham Wood looked like a cohesive unit and we looked disjointed with no real identity.
Quite frankly the 3-5-2 does not seem to be working. Our wingbacks are not proper wingbacks, there was no real pace in the team or flair on show to unlock the opposition. Yes the team worked hard and improved in the second and Borehan Wood's keeper showed that he is probably the best keeper in the league with a string of top saves. At least the second half proved that Torquay can create chances. At the other end Halstead continued his outstanding form with 3 or 4 decent saves. Thank goodness for Halstead this season otherwise Torquay will be bottom of the league and getting hammered. Halstead's distribution is also excellent, something that MacDonald was suspect on.
Moxey was voted sponsors MOTM and there was a minutes applause before the match for the poor young Torquay fan who lost his life.
So where do we go from here? It is a young newly formed team and my fear is that if we keep losing and cannot score their confidence will drain away and we will be in a relegation scrap. Some players like McGavin and Goodwin showed glimpses that they have some quality. The team clearly needs time to gel and then it is debatable if they are good enough. As we know full well it is a very tough league packed with streetwise teams and we are a long way from that. We really need to watch out and somehow get our act together. I expected better from a Gary Johnson team so let's hope he can sort things out.
After just a few minutes of viewing I was very concerned what I was seeing. I thought Torquay's players looked like a bunch of naive youngsters and there was little quality on show. Torquay's main weapon was our long throws hoping that the ball would fall kindly in the box for us. In fact Torquay have 2 long throw specialists, Moxey and Hanson one for the left and the other for the right. Oh well, at least we did not have to wait for one of them to run to the opposite side of the pitch. I'm afraid it looked like a throwback to Paul Cox's team who were just reliant on set pieces and percentages. Boreham Wood looked like a cohesive unit and we looked disjointed with no real identity.
Quite frankly the 3-5-2 does not seem to be working. Our wingbacks are not proper wingbacks, there was no real pace in the team or flair on show to unlock the opposition. Yes the team worked hard and improved in the second and Borehan Wood's keeper showed that he is probably the best keeper in the league with a string of top saves. At least the second half proved that Torquay can create chances. At the other end Halstead continued his outstanding form with 3 or 4 decent saves. Thank goodness for Halstead this season otherwise Torquay will be bottom of the league and getting hammered. Halstead's distribution is also excellent, something that MacDonald was suspect on.
Moxey was voted sponsors MOTM and there was a minutes applause before the match for the poor young Torquay fan who lost his life.
So where do we go from here? It is a young newly formed team and my fear is that if we keep losing and cannot score their confidence will drain away and we will be in a relegation scrap. Some players like McGavin and Goodwin showed glimpses that they have some quality. The team clearly needs time to gel and then it is debatable if they are good enough. As we know full well it is a very tough league packed with streetwise teams and we are a long way from that. We really need to watch out and somehow get our act together. I expected better from a Gary Johnson team so let's hope he can sort things out.
