FL2: Torquay United v Bradford City 30th Jan 2010

You been talking to "the little people" again Brian?

I'm not name dropping merse. He was sat in the directors box and as i walked past (head down)i asked him if he thought Mr East had a good game? he said yes.

Sat down and he was still taller than me.

Merse, the fact is you weren't there today and in my opinion Benyon was excellent today, .. given the role he was asked to perform by the Manager today.

He was played as a "target man" and gave their (much bigger than him) centre half (Rehmann) all sorts of problems with his movement and his ability to turn his man. He played an excellent through ball to Rendell (who also played very well in a deeper role) early in the second half but unfortunately Rendell dragged his shot wide when he really should have scored ... but that is the story of how things are going for us at the moment sadly.

Of course you are free to blame whoever you want for this afternoon's result .. but I would suggest that it would be hugely unfair to blame young Elliott as not only did he work his socks off but he also caused them a lot of problems.

Edit ... sorry I didn't realise that Frobisher had posted much the same above!

You maybe but I am not included. One of the best referees in the league and I thought he got most things right. Nobody gets everything right!!

I haven't "blamed Young Elliott" for us losing, I have made a point about my feelings whenever both he and Stevens start together. Another point I'll make is that he has failed to score in either of the last two games and in both of those games he was put in the same position advanced of Rendell. Now whether he is in that position to be in a better position from which to score, or to make space for Rendell I am not party to.

If the manager believes he can offer a better option in that position than Zebroski that his his perogative, but if it's incorporated, again in my opinion; it sacrifices the best potential we have to be a scoring entity; he must be severely lacking in the reliability of certain other players to do the flank playing job satisfactorily.

I read a lot about the "unreliability" of Thomson to do his bit defensively before the Barnet game, but on the night he certainly did OK in my opinion. Others may have been impressed with Elliott's performance on Tuesday, but in my opinion both Rendell and Thomson struggled to "read" him or maybe he struggled to "read" Thomson so much so that a host of balls perfectly played in to a player in that advanced position went to waste.

It's the same with Thompson, frequently moaned about and a target for the "Boo Boys" amongst the fans, but up at Barnet he did the "ratting" job of Hargreaves just as well as the "Old Man" himself and with a lot more mobility....................are people expecting him to be another "Wroe"? because if they are, we just aren't going to play with two creative men at the expense of a ball winner.

I'll tell you something else for nothing................if I was a manager and half my squad were of the same negative, divisive and petulant nature of some of the posters on here and some of the "fans" amongst the Yellow Army; I would have them out on their arses forthwith.

I'm not an apologist for the manager, nor am I defending the appalling return of one point from fifteen....................it's pathetic and if it carries on much longer his position as manager will be untenable as manager's jobs always are in those circumstances. But by all accounts performances at Bournemouth, Chesterfield and Barnet and at home today have been quite acceptable with the two key failures to kill off games and ensure those performances nett the rewards they deserve being down to players out on the pitch and to my way of seeing it the acquisition of Branston is a clear sign of his dissatisfaction in that direction as well of course in his efforts to get a reliable goalscorer in.

But please, don't use Sills, Hargreaves, and Nicholson as sticks with which to beat the manager. In this age of high speed, athletic football no side can carry a "passenger" who struggles to match the pace of the game....................and (heroes that they have been) these three all fall into that category as anyone making a sensible and emotionless observation can see.

Merse I was not at the Barnet game so don't know the thinking behind Benyon playing more advanced than Rendell. I do know because I paid a great deal of attention today to everything Bucks was saying to the players, that as Bucks knew the Bradford defenders were very slow, he wanted balls played in behind them or into the channels and Benyon had the most pace out of the two of them to get on the end of such balls.

It worked and the views around me were simply that Bucks had worked out the weakness in the Bradford team, no Benyon did not score, but then he created enough chances for others to do so and goal scorers have to be providers as well remember.