Torquay United V Chipstead FA Cup Qualifying Round

Crawley go out 3-0 at home to Havant and Waterlooville and Evesham win 2-0 at home to Rushden and Diamonds. A date with Exeter on the box would be lovely.

What an Interesting day I have had and I was given another side about the issues concerning the Youth sponsor pulling out. I will do a post on that a little later but like they say there are always two sides to a story.

As you may know I'm outside the popside at around 1.45pm as I like to be nearly the first in and get my spot, sad but true. Not today I just made the kick Off. I had four new tyres put On the car six weeks ago and today my brother In law, a top car mechanic, took my car to Totnes to service It for me and was taking It into the tyre place as The front wheel balance was just out, giving a very slight wobble at 70mph.

They rebalanced it and service all done, I set Off at 1.15pm, got on the ring road hit 60mph and the wheels were shaking like mad, so called into the Paignton branch Of the tyre co, who did It again for me and could not believe how far out they were. So mad rush to the ground had to park some distance away, but at least I did not have to go three hours without a f*g(I know I must give up the dirty habit)

Not to much atmosphere In the ground today and I thought for 20 Min's we were sloppy with our passing, while Chipstead were trying to play a passing game and their No 11 was Often getting the ball wide and he looked a good player.

First goal I thought Carayol looked like he didn't want to pass with his right foot,he was out wide coming In toward the box but he did and Thompson planted It into the net.

Desane I felt should have scored not long after that and we seemed to be just playing In gear two.The second goal came about as they failed to clear the ball In the box and Thompson was there to get his second.

They pulled one back in the second half a free kick some way out that took a defection and flew In past Bevan, who looked good at most Of what he done. There was a big bust up half way through the second half. It started will their No4 and Mansell On the edge Of our box,It resulted In the no 4 kicking Mansell who had his back to the player.Sills then put himself between the no 4 and Mansell, there was some barging going on and Sills hit the no4, he responded with a clear head butt on Sills.

The SHORT ref missed It all, gave them a talking too, but the linesman On the other side called over the ref In the end and this resulted In a yellow card for Chips no4.At two one you just wondered If they would get a second, but to wards the end we could have scored five Of six goals as we took them apart at ease.

All In all a good afternoon, want to post also later about some Of the singing that I feel needs to stop, but more On that later.

I've counted the following BSP sides who have gone out of the cup today (some of them to lower status opposition) and that in the current financial climate is an absolute disaster for them!

Crawley 0 - Havant & Waterlooville 3
Evesham 2 - Rushden 0
Kettering 3 - Burton 0
Team Bath1 - Salisbury0
Weymouth 1 - AFC Hornchurch 2

and Histon, Lewes, Stevenage, Woking, Ebbsfleet, York, Mansfield and Wrexham all face replays.................that's 13 out of twenty four clubs failed to win!

A comfortable win in the end but there was an uncomfortable spell at 2-1 in the second half. Crowd 1,800, about 50 from Chipstead, sponsors MOTM Thompson.

Torquay took the game to Chipstead and Thompson finished well from a Mansell cross to make it 1-0, and there appeared to be some gaping gaps in the Chipstead defence. For a few minutes you felt the game might be a stroll for Torquay, but the game evened out. Chipstead did have a decent far post header just wide but did not really threaten apart from that in the first half. Thompson again finished from close range to make it 2-0 just before half-time.

Second half Torquay continued to control the game and passed the ball pretty well on most occasions but did not get the third goal. Then there was a niggly spell and play was stopped for a few minutes as the (very short) referee consulted his assistant for an incident involving Hargreaves and one of their players. For a while it was feared Hargreaves might get sent off as there seemed to be a bit of a scuffle, but luckily he got away with it. From the resultant free-kick, about 30 yards out, a well taken shot was deflected in off one of their players. Chipstead went wild celebrating and 2-1 was perhaps fair at that stage.

There followed a worrying part the game. Bevan twice missed his punch and was lucky to get away with it. Chipstead made a couple of substitutions and went for broke, and Torquay were no longer imposing themselves. Later on, one of Chipstead'sr defenders went down with cramp and was struggling and gaps were appearing at the back. Surprising Torquay had made no substitutions, and left it until the last 5 minutes when it was 4-1. Hargreaves and Wroe were not having one of their better games and it looked obvious to most we needed to freshen things up when we were struggling at 2-1.

The last few minutes with Chipstead seriously stretched and tired, Torquay and in particular Carayol on the right wing had loads of space. The third and fourth goals were really carbon copies. From a good strong run by Carayol on the right, he slotted the ball neatly for Sills to score from close range. Nice football to watch.

At the end there was a really nice touch summing up the magic of the FA Cup. Chipstead were given a tremendous ovation from all remaining Torquay fans for their valiant efforts. In particular, their close shaven and stocky (some would say fat) goalkeeper who exchanged some really good natured banter with Torquay fans during match, had the biggest cheer. Good heart-warming stuff and well done to Chipstead. Benyon and youth player Charran came on only for the last 5 minutes.

As for today's performance, on the whole it was a decent professional performance. I was surprised substitutions were not made earlier to freshen things up at 2-1. Without Robertson or Ellis in defence, I am a little worried about our lack of height in central defence that might get exploited, and Bevan missed his punch twice today which was a little worrying. Apart from that we looked solid enough. Thompson again proved he can finish and justified his selection. Poor old Dsane, on the left-wing, again proved he could not finish. His build-up play was good on the whole, apart from some mis-control of the ball, but his finishing again left a lot to be desired, particularly a close range effort he somehow did not convert.

Sills had an ineffective game but made up for it with his 2 late goals. Carayol showed some nice tricks on the right-wing and was well involved in the game. His crossing was not always up-to-scratch.

So job done and our extra quality and fitness showed in the end.

swangull are you saying It was Mansell who put the ball In the box for Thompson to score the first goal ???If so after my other mistake, I'm Off to specsavers On monday

Will we get Joe's report and did he get into the ground. I only ask because a little bird told me at the match, that our Joe was trying to get In the kids gate and was refused. They said you could not miss his hair and they are sure they have not mistaken the Identity Of the one and only Joe Barlow