Torquay United V Woking 12th August 2008

Very quick match report. Crap first half, impressive second half. Carayol deserves a start after looking quality once he came on.
Seriously though, there was only going to be one winner after the equaliser.
Bit worried about Poke being injured after the big knock in the first half and Nicholson having to take the goal kicks.

Oh yeah, quick message to Bucks, Please do not persist with this Hargreaves is a centre half nonsense. He is not, and will never be anything other that a hard working, tough tackling midfielder. If he isnt good enough to start in midfield, please do not sacrifice the defensive unit just to try and keep the 'captain' happy. Its not a sign of weakness to admit your experiment was wrong.

Back to the game, really impressed with the second half perfomance and if we can keep that up, the season mght end on a positive note.
If I had to name a first team, I would have Robbo (or Ellis/Woods) in for Hargreaves, and Stevens on the right in place of Carlisle, with Carayol on the left.
Thought that Benyon was a massive positive tonight. Wasnt sure last season, but with with the right sort of football, he could be this seasons top scorer. I was amazed at his work rate tonight, Phillips but with a football brain.

I haven't edited this picture. It was on auto level and shot at ISO-800 without flash, it gives you an idea of how bright it was.

Those floodlights were Torquay's man of the match until PB finally made the decision to bring on Carayol for the utterly hopeless Stevens.

A great decision it was of course, because until then he might have been looking at 4/5 more games, not the 12 some had suggested could see him under pressure.

After that we played with a much more effective shape, Carayol and Carlisle hugging their wings and stretching Woking's midfield, which until then had been way on top.

The first half is barely worth mentioning to be honest, and I am not at all surprised their were boos at the break. It was one of the worst 45 minutes of football I have seen at home from the Gulls. No shape, no cohesion, no talking to one another and no self-belief. The only players I would take out of that are Benyon, who ran his socks off and thoroughly deserved his MOTM award, and Thompson who had to make up for the abject Wroe and performed well in a tackling holding role.

Second half, after Carayol came on, was just a completely different team. And I mean team - first half there was too much individual crap going on.

Strong work from Benyon for the first goal, using his body well to keep off the attentions of Hutchinson and producing a finish right out of the top drawer. His flick through to Carlisle for the winner was also superbly executed as was the finish from the guy I would happily have sent back to Exeter during the first 45 minutes.

Sills bucked his ideas up after the break, despite being constantly fouled by Hutchinson at every heading attempt, and Wroe also improved...although it would have been difficult to get any worse.

Not convinced by the Hargreaves experiment yet, although he came up with a couple of excellent second half interceptions and impressed some of the neutral holidaymakers sat nearby. His tendency to hold on to opponents cost us the free-kick Woking scored from, although I am not sure how Poke let it go past - it seemed to go right over his head, but I was not at the right angle to judge it so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He made a couple of fine catches in the second half as well, and I hope the injury that stopped him kicking all of the dead balls is only minor.

Marks out of 10:
Poke 6.5
Mansell 6
Hodges - no mark
Todd 6
Hargreaves 6
Carlisle 6.5
Wroe 5
Thompson 7
Stevens 4
Benyon 8*
Sills 6.5

Subs:
Carayol 7
Nicholson 6.5

Not a great overall performance, and we will play better this season and lose, but 3 points is 3 points at the end of the day and it could be worse - we could support Stevenage or Oxford!!

Absolutely agree regards Stevens

Option 1: Off the bench as an impact player only on the right
Option 2: Right side but told not to come inside
Option 3: Not in the squad
Option 4: On the left

Hi Andy, two goals from open play and should have scored more, you see I said there was no need for concern mate ;D ;D

Hi Dave,
Interesting in that Benyon got his goal just before he was about to be substituted for Green - who was returned to the dugout pronto. Credit to the lad for taking his goal really well and from that moment on he was a different player and set up the woeful Carlisle for the second. Cannot agree with whoever it was who said Benyon ran his socks off all night. Until his goal I felt he was his usual frustrating self. But he was a new player after the ball hit the back of the net.
The first half was poor from a Torquay standpoint. Someone pointed out to me that it was hardly any wonder we were struggling when we had 3 midfielders in the back four (Mansell, Hargreaves and Hodges) and the right footed Stevens playing on the left wing.
Woking looked dangerous with each attack and yet it was Torquay who really should have taken early chances. Sills put a header over the bar when he should have hit the target, Benyon hit a half decent, on target shot low to the keepers right and Carlisle had a weak header cleared off the line. Down at our end Woking hit the post but seemed to slice through our defence at will. On one of those attacks Hodges and Poke collided low down mixed up with a Woking player who was booked for his challenge. Hodges tried to play on but was clearly struggling and was replaced by Nicholson. Poke was clearly shaken and I assume this was reflected in Nicholson taking the goal kicks in the second half. (Calling Martin Rice!!! ;D)
The Gulls were just off the pace in the first half, no sharpness. Thompson was playing very deep and Wroe was passing to anything or anyone as long as they did not wear yellow!
The Woking goal was one of those you just have to admire. A correctly given free kick as Hargreaves struggled to cope with a physical forward and ended up bringing him down with a clear foul. As sweet a free kick as you are likely to see giving Poke little chance. We did not respond that well running around like headless chickens no shape or pattern of play.
That said the booing at half time was somewhat over the top for the first game of the season at home. There was no need for that.
Second half started as the first had ended. Carlisle was having a mare and Stevens was struggling on the left. Enter Carayol. Not only did he have pace and created an outlet on the left but his tracking back was excellent as well, which I have to say surprised me. On one occasion Woking broke following a Torquay corner and Carayol, spotting the danger developing on the opposite side to his own, used his pace to get back and make a challenge on the attacker sufficiently well to hold up the play and allow us to get players back to clear the danger.

Benyon started to find his feet but should have done better when excellently evading challenges from 2 central defenders only to fail to find any kind of finish with the hard work done!
After falling in the box under a challenge asked for a penalty - but from my vantage point it looked like he went over a little too easily.
It appeared that PB was about to make the change when a piece of determination effort and skill from Benyon broke the deadlock. Holding off the defender he turned to fire a crisp shot beating the keeper and into the net from just inside the 18 Yard box. After that Benyon took on more belief in himself (let's hope that stays with him). The game was still end to end, Poke, playing with some form of injury it would appear, produced a tremendous save to tip a fierce shot over the bar, Mansell did well to challenge and clear after a rare Todd mistake, (for me Todd was a giant for most of the night) but we were looking much better. Thompson and Wroe had gained control and were both winning the ball and distributing more effectively, mainly to Carayol and Benyon. Carlisle continued to disappoint giving the ball away with poorly placed passes and scooping a decent chance over the bar. He was however finding some space and kept working hard. That effort paid off late on as a good Torquay move saw Benyon play an excellent ball perfectly into the path of Carlisle in the inside right channel and this time he finish was clinical.
Each match 6 of us have a score prediction competition. My youngest son (11) now joins in and had predicted 2-1 to the Gulls. The kitty stood at £15 (we don't get the score right often!). Quite a sum for an 11 year old. Whether he was exercising some psychic skills or whether the Gods just favoured him something must have caused Tim Sills to miss probably the easiest chance I have seen at Plainmoor since the awful Eddie Rowles ballooned one over the bar from a yard out on one Saturday night in the mid seventies. Fortunately it did not matter and we get 3 points and my lad gets £15