NL: Torquay United v Wrexham 5:30pm 29th April 2023

Ye of little faith! 🤨

I’m predicting a 1:0 win for us, with our goal coming from a 90th minute corner…ok, I’ll take my medication now. 🤒

Still think it’s the best option and when I get off the bus in town, I might go to the pub 🍺

Will we go out with a bang or a whimper?

Oh well, a decent effort today that at least made the day interesting. With Maidenhead getting well beaten there was still just that tiny glimmer of hope when Tprquay were winning 1-0. The Torquay Popsiders still seem to believe as it urged the team on. As usual the Yellow army did its bit to support the team. It was a great moment when Nouble put us ahead at close range and for a good part of the second half Torquay were the better team. Wrexham's eqialiser was from a breakaway and they had a spare man to score from close range from a cross. Halstead performed heroics all game, especially with a penalty save and a string of top saves in the first half.

Torquay got themselves into some decent positions but often lacked that killer pass or shot. Wrexham played some lovely slick football at times and Torquay did well to stay in the game. It was a gutsy performance from Torquay and unlike many games this season we did not give any silly goals and looked relatively solid.

I tried to gauge the reaction of Johnson and Downes at the end. They applauded the fans at the end with the players and Downes came particularly close to the Popside. He looked quite emotional. There seemed to be no farewell so if I am guessing I would not be surprised to see them both next season. Or put it another way I think they will stay unless our owners have other plans which I somehow doubt. Anyway, hopefully we will find out in the next week.

It was still sad at the final whistle even though we knew relegation was coming for weeks. "One more minute in the National League" the Wrexham fans were singing in added time and this was sadly true for us as well! We can only dream about trying to get back in the National League while they head off into the sunset. We left ourselves far too much to do to recover from an appalling season for the majority of it. Today also confirmed that goal difference can play a part and all those heavy defeats made the escape even more impossible. We got what we deserved, end of!

Well, we went down with all guns blazing and I'm still proudly wearing my TU shirt as I type this.

One little aside, hats off to their keeper Foster who took time out just before the second half started to allow youngsters from the Family Stand to take selfies with him. Well done that man.

I can't add any more as the pain is taking over.

Yes, for that twenty minutes or so between the goals in the second half we were given more false hope.  

Looking back over a few recent games, it might be said that Asa (who played his heart out yesterday for the whole match) cost us dear.  His misplaced pass led to Maidenhead scoring their goal against us in the 3 - 1 win up there (that's a swing of two goals relatively) and then that penalty last week cost us two points. Put that together with us hanging on for another ten minutes yesterday and we'd have been ok.

That leads me to yesterday's ref.  Nouble, who had a good second half yesterday, was clearly fouled just outside the box by the goal line on the right.  The ref bottled the decision and they broke away to equalise.

Fine margins at the end of the season when we were scrabbling for points but the damage was done before and after Christmas so Asa can keep his head held high.