Torquay United V Stevanage 4th October 2008

I have to agree with Capitalgulls disagreement with the marks given to Dsane. I wouldn’t have given him that many.

Also, judging by those that have commented on Dsane’s performance, i seem to think the consensus was that he did not have a very good game.

Its not the 3 marks that were a disgrace, it was Dsane who was the disgrace. For me he committed 3 cardinal sins of football.

1. First of all, and unforgivably, he pulled out of one or two challenges that he was favourite to win the ball. He turned at least two 70-30 balls in his favour into 30-70 balls by not wanting to get stuck in. Fans don’t like it when people are seen to not be committed and there were several shouts to that effect from the crowd.

2. Ball watching. I thought that was supposed to be eradicated from the under kids football?? Again several times he was caught ball watching and waiting for the ball to come to him, which resulted in us losing possession. Twice this happened when we were attacking and they resulted in counter attacks for Stevenage.

3. Poor control. Once again i counted at least 3 occasions when his ball control let him down. Lost possession etc. He also struggled to get past his man.

4. Better make that 4, his shooting was woeful. Someone correct me if i am wrong, but did he not have about 5 ‘shots’, only 1 of which (from 2 yards) hit the target. 1 of which ended up in the garden behind the away end. Even he put his shirt over his head. His failure to score and his failure to convert so many of the one on ones he finds himself in leads me to question his goal scoring ability. I think he averages about 1 goal every 7 or 8 games. He never looks like he is going to score.

To me he played with the attitude of someone who realises his time is coming to an end at Plainmoor. He showed a distinct lack of passion and hunger, unlike Hargreaves, Mansell, in fact everybody else. This is quite understandable given the way he was unceremoniously dumped onto the transfer list, however, i can not forgive a player who is not prepared to give his all for the club, no matter what his situation.

The ‘out of position’ excuse is a bit lame. All 10 outfield players should be expected to control the ball, not wimp out of tackles, be committed and look like they WANT to play for Torquay.
His performance did not impress anybody stood near me and there were a few who shouted “that’s why you are on the transfer list”, when on several occasions he failed to make an effort to get the ball.

His off the field attitude isn’t much better, allegedly. Not turning up for a meeting with the guy who spent a lot of money on sponsoring him. Which with all the credit crunch posts on here makes him look even worse for not turning up.

Surely Carayol would have been a better option Yesterday? Or Stevens, or Hodges. For me Dsane was the only disappointment in an otherwise fantastic performance from us. That is 2 games in a row where we have dominated the game, against opposition who are regarded as potential promotion hopefuls. I do feel that we are right back in the race for promotion and would like to think that other teams are now looking at us and what we are doing as opposed to the other way around.