FL2: Torquay United v Hereford 26th Dec 2009

My report will only mostly contain the first half action, as I spend a great part of the second half in the room used to hold fans that are being ejected from the ground. No I had done nothing wrong, but was not very happy with the fact a fan from Hereford was removed from the ground, I will do a thread on this later.

I arrived at the ground about an hour and a half before kick-off and had a nice chat with Deno before Terry came and took him away. The ground had not long had a heavy shower of rain that flooded the goal at the family stand end. It was in the end forked away but not with out some difficulty as the ground was clearly very hard.

It was no surprise really that Bucks started with Benyon, it would have been a bit tough on Benyon to get dropped after getting his first hat trick for the club. But while he had a few good touches and made a few good passes, he was not able to retain the ball up front as well as Rendell does, but to be fair Benyon worked hard enough.

Not sure why Hargreaves was not started, for me Thompson was not in the game too much, played the odd good ball and a few very poor ones, I have seen him play much better than he did today.

A poor crowd really for a Boxing Day match and one that failed to get any real singing going and what there was more about Exeter than any singing getting behind our boys out on the pitch, its time I feel we get a drummer who can be at all our home games, as the very best atmosphere was created the last time we had one in the ground.

The big plus for us was once again the pace of Thomson, a player we are badly going to miss after January, is there not some way we can keep him? On a damp slippery pitch, his pace won us the game, along with the trickery he has that most defenders simply can’t handle.

The game kicked-off and within the first minute Benyon won a free kick just outside the box. It looked like Carlisle was just going to be touching the ball for Thomson to have a shot, but Thomson ran over the ball and left it for Wore to hit, but the shot was blocked just inside the box.

On the five minute mark Benyon laid a good ball out to the left at the feet of Thomson, we just left the defender for dead and got in a good low cross, but it was cleared away, but the signs were there that Thomson was going to play a bit part in this game.

In fact our two best players today were both are wingers and Carlisle showed once again not only the skill he has, but his real battling qualities. It was his desire to win a tackle just inside our box and close to the goal line that set up a great move on the 10 minute mark that deserved more from it. After winning the ball Carlisle played a great ball up to Benyon, he in turn laid the ball back to Wroe. The pass that Wroe made to Thomson was the pass of the match in my view. He sent it high and wide out to the left wing with such a bend on the ball and it fell perfectly for Thomson. Only Thomson on this occasion ran into the box and hit his shot well over the bar.

But at the other end Smith was having all sorts of problems with Jordan Mutch the Hereford winger just seemed to have more pace than Smith did. Smith may have felt a bit unlucky to get booked for his first real foul, but he did dive in and gave the ref little choice really not to show him the yellow card. A bit later in the first half he was close to getting a second yellow and I thought the ref was reaching in his pocket for the card. Maybe the ref changed his mind but it did mean Smith had to be more careful with his challenges. From the resulting free kick the ball came back out to the edge of our box to Marc Pugh, but he blasted his shot well over Pokes crossbar.

It was no surprise when the game was 15 minutes old. To see Thomson brought down just inside the Hereford box, he was just dancing around players to get into the box and was clearly chopped down. It was a good job Wroe put plenty of power into his spot kick, as Bartlett got his hands to the ball, but could not stop the ball from going into the net.

Our defence on the whole played well but got itself into a right mix-up and in the end just managed to clear the ball, it was picked up by Herefords no 26 Craig King who made a good run toward our box, made space for himself to fire a right foot shot just past the left hand post.

It just after this that a rubber ring landed on the pitch near Poke, he just moved it off the pitch, a Hereford fan retrieved the rubber ring and was soon on his way out of the ground, but it may well not have been him who threw it onto the pitch( more later in another thread)

Mansell did well to get a header back to Poke as if he had not of done then the Hereford player would have been on a one on one with Poke, the header was so close to Poke all he could do was take the ball on his chest and then grab hold of it.

Ten minutes before the end of the first half and another magic run by Thomson, he is worth then entrance fee all on his own, this time when he got inside the box he tried to beat the keeper at his near post, but the keeper was able to push the shot around the post.

He had two more chances before the brake, one a header just over from a hard hit cross by Carlisle and then he hit another shot that only just went over the bar. So the first half ended, while not playing our best I still felt we just edged the half and made all the chances.

It was at half time I spoke firstly with Steve 004 and then the steward who grabbed the Hereford fan and led him away, after what he had told me I expressed my views and not long into the second half was invited to the holding room to talk with the police officer who was also involved with the incident.

Therefore I was unable to see much of the second half, but did keep as best I could an eye on the game. I felt we looked much better upfront when Rendell came on and it was a stone wall penalty for me as I was so well placed to see it. He was nearly knocked off the ball just out side the area and when he got into the box he was clearly barged over from behind.

I was a long way from the save Poke made with his legs from Constantine, but it looked a top and important save from my position. We did sit far too deep near the very end of the game and Hereford could have got an equaliser. First a shot that should have had goal written all over it was blasted over the bar and then they did score only for it to be ruled off side.

Not the best game to watch for sure, but its all about getting points and I felt our players deserved to be the ones who were celebrating winning the game and collecting the three points on offer.


The goal mouth one hour before kick-off




Our Keepers warm up








A face we know well




Players from both sides warming up


























The goal used to stop the one by the family stand getting any worse gets led away




Think we should sign this guy up








No not that one, this one ;D





The Hereford santas at halftime minus one

A very well EARNED three points.

On another day that could easily have gone the other way, but credit to the team for sticking in there and battling away even though most were playing below what we have come to expect from them.

A couple of points from me;

Smith will have learnt a lot from today’s game, he was completely done over by their right winger for most of the game (who was he anyway, to good for this league) earning a deserved yellow card very early. He did very well to then get through the whole game playing against the best player I have seen in this league so far this season, without getting a second yellow. That said he had a much better second half and looks formidable when going forward.

I suspect Hargreaves was rested, rather than dropped. Bucks has been saying recently that Hargreaves can’t manage 2 games in a week, so I would have thought he was saving him for the ‘harder’ game on Monday. That said I thought Thompson did well in midfield. Thompson needs Wroe to play well when he plays with him because if Wroe is off the boil, as at Accrington, Thompson seems to struggle.

Thomson is a brilliant player, going forward, however, he has a LOT to learn. His defensive contribution is non existent. He won’t even close down 2/3 yards when he loses the ball. If he takes a leaf out of Carlisle’s book and learns to ‘defend’ he will develop into a top class player. He looks very like Walcott when he runs at people, but another thing he does need to learn is when to pass the ball and not do to much. Still I will take a pacy exciting, tricky, winger who beats people for fun any day.

Top class save from Poke when they had a one on one. Great news that he could be here for the rest of the season, lets hope that the Southampton keepers remain injury free.

Ref was shite, someone said he used to be a premiership referee, you must be kidding, surely. Should have sent off their player who tried to cut Thomson in two, dreadful, dreadful challenge.

It makes a change to not play well and win, rather than play well and lose/draw as we did earlier in the season.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see us get a result at Bournemouth on Monday.

Maybe because he is so poor Ant is the reason he has been dropped back down to league level, while I don't think any decision he made changed the outcome of the result, he got so many things wrong and lacked any consistency.

If Smith deserved his booking there were a few Hereford players who should have also gone in the book.

The referee is the sole timekeeper and instructs the fourth official just how much additional time he will play at the end of each half. The fourth official then displays that time on a the board.

In practice a referee will request his assistants to "keep their own time" just in case one of his (usually two) time pieces fails or he forgets to restart one.

The usual formula for stopping the watch and therefore adding time on is: 30 seconds for each substitution and disciplinary card and the actual elapsed time between a goal being scored and the game kicking off again. Stoppages for injury treatment on the pitch that require a stoppage in play should also be noted and time added on accordingly but it is at the referee's discretion as to how he applies this as are instances of time wasting (in his opinion) and gamesmanship (again in his opinion) deigned merely to interrupt the normal flow of the game. i.e such as removing rubber rings from goalkeepers!

Indeed it was Aussie and the goal at the family stand end must have required a great deal of forking to get all that water drained off it. The pitch on the whole was in good order considering the weather we have had lately. The only part that really needs some real attention is that goal mouth but I expect that end of the ground gets less sun than the other end.

otobe, a sign of our improvement as a team was the fact we did not play as well has we have done and yet still came got the three points.In my report I said I felt Thompson did not play that well, its a shame as I have seen him play so much better. Maybe the system of one up front and him playing in the hole behind suits him better.

I still feel we will need to find a very suitable replacement for Tomson in January, I would love to think Muzzy could be the man, but he has blown hot and cold in the time he has been here.

I expect we will see one or two faces leave when the window opens and hopefully a few new ones who Bucks believes will make us an even stronger side in the second half of the season.