Torquay United V Cambridge 6th December 2008

Dave, Get yourself to the game.

Come & stand with me & chipnicker 2. I will buy you a coffee and you can have a vent.

Dont let them/it bother you, you have done nothing wrong, you and your family have been through a lot more than something as small and petty as this. You got through that with more strength than many of us could ever imagine we possesed, so OFF TO PLAINMOOR with you.

I take 1 sugar, mini chips will have have water.

Agree entirely Dave we as supporters should only be concerned about what happens on the pitch after all that's all we ever used to do and be be interested in- that is until we all became internet savy. Unfortunately modern technology allows us to spout whatever we like to the world with little or no concern about the consequences. Whilst I love forums they do have ther pitfalls and this episode more than highlights a very obvious one.
We can simply write a headline and bable on regardless be it truth fact or pure fiction.
Personaly I feel this episode to be extremely iresponsible and even if SG does know every single fact of the matter he claims he does it his NOT his business and not in the interest of the football club to divulge his chosen snipets to all and sundry.
So why did he do it?

A decent match by two strong teams who showed they will both be challenging for promotion this season. A fully committed and spirited display by the Gulls and had enough clear chances in the second half to win the game. Crowd 2,310, about 150 from Cambridge, sponsors MOTM Wroe who I totally agreed with. I thought the home crowd played their part today with plenty of good rousing chanting which at times spread to all 3 home sides.

First half was watchable, both defences were strong and there were hardly any clear chances. Torquay did probe well and spread the ball around well most of the time but Cambridge were clearly a hard nut to crack. Cambridge had the clearest chance thanks to our own Steve Woods who miscontrolled the ball into the path of a Cambridge striker clean through. Luckily his first touch let him down and the ball ran to safety. Danny Stevens did some good stuff on the left wing often beating his man but his final ball was disappointing at times. I did not notice Carlisle much on the right wing making his first start for several weeks. Torquay's threat was mainly from crosses or set-pieces but the ball just did not fall right in the box, and Cambridge clearly knew how to defend.

Second half Torquay upped their game and clear chances finally came their way. The main highlights were from a corner where Sills beat his man and headed against the crossbar. From the rebound we nearly scored twice, both times the ball then fell to a yellow shirt whose shot was cleared off the line twice. Wroe privided the high-light of the match from the half-way line. Sensing the Cambridge keeper well off his line his tremendous shot was only just tipped over from the back-pedalling keeper. That nearly brought the house down !

There were mainly waves of Torquay attacks playing good football at a high tempo. Stevens had a decent shot well parried and from the rebound shot badly wide. Another excellent build up involving Wroe finding Carlisle on the right. His cross found Benyon who passed to Sills with a little more space in the penalty area, but Sills shot was disappointingly wide. A fine move but a poor finish.

Torquay made 2 subs, Carayol for Stevens and Green for Benyon. Neither substitute really made his mark. Towards the end Cambridge became more dangerous and there were a few dangerous moments. However we defended very well and again Bevan was assured when needed.

In summary a good, watchable game between two decent teams that Torquay desereved to win with several good second half chances. But we had to settle for a draw in the end.

Cheers Swangull, that ties pretty much with the radio commentary which was very good today.

Did you notice anyone on the Popside with the hand of the bloke behind him up his arse, but with his own hand up the arse of the bloke in front who was moving his lips in sync with the voice of the bloke right at the back? (err,I think that's what I mean )

Sounds like a good performance today. Again a low attendence, I was going for the 3,000 mark...

It's a shame that Burton, Histon, Kidderminster, Crawley and Wrexham all won today. That's seven points behind Burton with a game in hand and two points behind Histon who themselves got two games in hand.

I can see the current top-9 challenging for a promotion/play-off spot this season.

I think that Swangull sums the match up very well. The only things to add in my opinion was the understandable lack of match sharpness by Wayne Carlisle who I think could have been substituted instead of Danny S. Another day we could have scored three or even four goals in the second half display but 'lady luck' was not with us.
I thought that the referee was possibly the worst that i have seen at Plainmoor this season. He gave probably 85% of decisions in favour of Cambridge and constantly gave them against Tim Sills when it was Tim fouled by the Cambridge number 20. Even Paul Buckle applauded the Pop sides rendition of 'You don't know what you're doing'!!
A gutsy performance in the second half but if we can only get 2300 against a top side like Cambridge, then wrap up warm because next Saturday against Bath, there will be such huge gaps in the crowd that the wind will come howling through!!!

I think if we had had a monkey on the pitch with a whistle, he would have made more correct decisions than the 'gentleman' we had there today Dave!!!