Tim Sills… Lets discuss!

He's certainly not 'crap with his feet', but he does lack pace, and I feel this has been/will be his biggest limiting factor in the higher league.

How big a factor this might be will obviously depend on who he's partnered with and what sort of partnership they get going. A quick co-striker could mean any lack of pace will not be a problem.

There is no doubt that Sills is a good striker at BSP level. But i think his role might have to be a bit more clever in Div 2. Can't fault his effort or commitment, but he is a bit of a "one trick pony". As soon as the other teams suss this out they will cut the supply. So if we're relying on Tim to get the goals i think we might be disappointed. Sure he will hit double figures, but i think we need to use him differently for this league. We need another double figure striker to cause problems.

Before the groupies get started. Sills is a great target man who will get goals. We need to play to his strengths and develop other strategies to complement him. Is Benyon the man or Green or someone else? I don't know, but then again i'm not paid to work it out.

yes tim sills has been succsefull at bsp level with us and aldershot,and largly failed in the football league with oxford and hereford.

their are reason's for that ,my view is as we all know tim is a certain type of player and you have to build your team game plan to a point , to suit tim sills ,yep feed him and he will score.

dave's says he is a 1 trick pony ,i totaly dissagree ,a part of his game rarely mentioned is his first touch on the ball is pretty good ,he also has a good short passing ablity around the penalty area.

watch back his goal at wembley ,you will see carlisle pick up the ball out wide ,benyon/stevens in the box no sign of tim sills.
how far did he run to get in that position ? how quick did he get their?

that goal along with other proves that is quite clever in his approach ,and while i 100 % agree he does not have natural pace ,his goal at wembley proves he is no carthorse either.

would tim sills have scored goals for aldershot in the league yes ,will he score goals for torquay in the league yes ,why ? becuase we play to his strenghts ,prediction 15 + goals for tim sills

p.s iam almost positive that blair sturrock wont be with next season,so benyon or a.n other ?

One the problems that Sills might have encountered when moving to Oxford and Hereford is that he went straight-in to those clubs and it probably took a while for him to adjust - by which time he has played a number of games and the moron supporters get on his back, further damaging his confidence.
I would bet that if he had got into the leage with Aldershot the season before he joined Oxford (who were on a dreadful run when he signed for them - he couldn't have joined at a worse time!) he would have scored a good number of goals and wouldn't have returned to the BSP until the tail-end of his career.

I reckon we'll get at least 15 goals from Sills - and a lot more in all-round contribution besides.

Tim Sills is not unlike a lot of other lower division strikers in that if his supply lines are cut off, his goals will dry up.

His modest pace doesn't allow him to create many of his own opportunities and his ratio of successful strikes on goal to attempts is not that great.

So what DOES Sills bring to the table?

Well, in my opinion; his retention of the ball and distribution allowing others to come into play are second to none at the level we have been playing. His aerial power is above average and not reliant on "wingers" to cut the ball back from the bye line as the way we play he gets plenty of good angled in crosses from the fullbacks and wide midfield players; and his "bouncebackability" allows him to stick at the task in hand for the whole ninety minutes when sometimes things appear to be not in his favour.

How he fares at the higher level should not be pre-judged on his experiences at Hereford and Oxford, for rather than playing in a struggling side he will now be a component part of an already accomplished and successful squad that once it gets it's feet and pace of the new experience should acquit itself fairly well.

I don't particularly recall the pace of League 2 central defenders being significantly impressive in all the years that I have watched this level of football, but what I DO anticipate are less mistakes and positional errors being made, thus restricting Sills' opportunities to strike on goal.

With that in mind he will need to apply himself and seek to improve his goals per strike ratios to even reach double figures, but who's to say he won't do that?

Only Tim Sills can answer that question, but a regular and intelligent striking partner would do him a whole lot of good, as would a speedy and reliable provider on the flank.

Do those players already exist on the club's books or is the manager looking to bring such players in? That is the million dollar question!

I don't think anyone can disagree with the sentiments posted above. Personally, i think Tim is potentially a 20 goal a season striker at league 2 level as he has proved in the BSP. When you think he went for long periods without scoring in the last two seasons, with a little bit more composure with the ball at his feet, he will achieve this no worries. I think teams will come at us more next season and we all know that this will suit our style better than trying to get past the proverbial team bus. He'll also get better service and we'll probably see a lot more goals of the Wembley kind. He's very good at finding the extra yard of space when breaking into the box.

There is little doubt that Sills will be a more effective front man next season with a decent quality partner with whom he gets an opportunity to form a decent partnership.
Those of us that watch the majority of our Torquay fixtures at Plainmoor may perhaps not recognise Sills as a player that holds the ball up well (retention) as noted by Merse. At home he is a player who brings others into play with his ability to win the ball in the air. Away from home he perhaps demonstrates more ability to retain possession himself and I thought he did show this at home quite superbly in the first play off game against Histon at Plainmoor. Perhaps it was the injury and mask or perhaps it was a tactical instruction from PB BUT there was no doubt that on that night Sills showed the ability to control the ball well off his chest and upper body, holding off players and retaining possession himself. I suspect he may need to do more of that next season.
Let us also not forget his contribution defensively at set pieces. Both in the play off semi final 2nd leg and in the final Sills was actively defending in his own penalty box and doing so very effectively.
Anyone who has a copy of the play off final recorded at home just get it out and wind it forward to just before our second goal. We are defending a free kick. The ball comes in and we clear, but look who is on the edge of our 6 yard box, possibly our deepest defending player at that set piece, yes it is that man Sills. We break and the ball moves down the right hand side. Sills makes up all of that ground from our own 6 yard box to just inside the Cambridge 18 yard box before connecting with that perfect cross and delivering a fantastic header to seal the game after running something like 90 yards.
As Merse so rightly says, a speedy and reliable provider will help no end and he will have to improve his goal to strike ratio, but I am fairly confident that he can adapt and he will no doubt want to prove to the doubters that he can indeed cut it in the Football League.