NL: Torquay United v Dorking Wanderers 7:45pm 9th Nov 22

Crucial how the players have recovered both physically and mentally.
This is another very important fixture in our attempt to climb away from the drop zone and Im pretty sure GJ will make the players very aware of that.
DM struggled from the off on a very heavy pitch, especially on Bristows side, against a beast of a winger in Nathaniel Mendez-Laing who I thought had the ability and power to destroy us on that side of the pitch. Thankfully he didn't have his shooting boots on but really troubled Moxey for the first half an hour. Thought Crowe did an excellent job on the left, probably his best game for us. I can understand why GJ has kept faith in him he certainly has the ability but moreimportnatly is showing signs of improvement and finding his feet at this level.
Doubt the manager will want to change things if he can help it but player and injury management have to come into the equation in the coming weeks.
If we can accrue four points from the next two games I'll be happy.

Goodness, the owner/chairman/manager seems a bit of a lad, just what football needs. I’m guessing he made his money through Chickens? 

Lots of goals to be expected, hopefully most of them going our way. 

Crowe in for Moxey, otherwise the same side - link

The cup hangover we all feared. 🙄

Painful at times but we should have had more if the ref had given a penalty at the end for a blatant foul in the box.

Stato here now, I think that's twenty five goals in the last four matches at Plainmoor, good for the casual observer but not for the diehard's heart rate.

Another entertaining high-scoring game in what was a good tempered match where both teams had the opportunity to win and perhaps Torquay can be more aggrieved despite being two goals down at the start of the second half.

I thought Dorking started well, playing it out from the back and passing the ball around well. The only thing they had to look out for was not to be dispossessed in a dangerous area and that’s exactly what happens after around 10 minutes when man of the match De Silva managed to rob the ball off their defender and a good strike from the edge of the box was fired past their keeper to take the lead.

Around the midpoint of the half we had a fantastic opportunity to go 2-0 up when I think DeSilva again on the right crossed the ball into the 6 yard box and Wearne looked all set for a tap in but somehow their keeper hurled himself back for a reaction point blank save and the chance went begging. Think we might have had 3 points if that had gone in. While Dorking probed, they didn’t seem to have too many clear-cut chances but a clearance from out of our area as we went into first half injury time came to one of their players and he was left way too much space to allow him a 30 yard shot that would’ve been easily saved by Halstead but instead was deflected into the top right hand corner and we very unluckily went into the interval all square.

We did not start well in the second half with two quickfire goals from Dorking. The first after some good play on the right saw their striker control the ball to take it past Halstead and knock into the goal. The second less than a minute of pitch time later came from a fantastic cross on the left bisecting our two defenders towards the far post for their striker to head home and Dorking out of nowhere seemed set for their first win against us.

However we are made of tougher stuff these days and slowly ramped up the pressure with Lapslie picking a very good weighted pass almost akin to that to earn Goodwin the penalty against Derby. This time DeSilva was on hand to take the ball into the area and while his shot was partially blocked by the keeper it had too much power to prevent it getting past him and into the net to make matters interesting.

As we continue to ramp up the pressure a skied ball in the area was met first by Ellis with one of his trademark back headers straight into the top left-hand corner of the net. So 3-3 with 10 minutes to go and could we get a winner? It was nice to see there was no time wasting as the match reached its climax with both teams trying to get the winner with Torquay having more and better chances.

We were perhaps unlucky not to get a penalty decision when Jarvis seemed to have been held back from a delightful De Silva cross and then in the dying seconds of the match De Silva cleverly let the ball pass him for Lapslie to latch onto and his cross was met on the edge of the 6 yard box by Jarvis but it was just a fraction too high and his header went over the crossbar, a pity because it would have been as good a finish as that last gasp equaliser against Derby.

Still we are off the bottom of the league and just need to steadily accumulate more points which this team is more than good enough to do to get us to safety.