FL2: Torquay United v Bournemouth 5th Sept 2009

Pretty harsh score-line in the end against a decent Bornemouth who will probably be challenging for promotion this season. Crowd 3,881, officially it was announced there were 1,100+ from Bournemouth so it was a pretty average turn-out from the home crowd. Saying that the Popside were in good voice helped along with a drummer, as were the rest of today's home support. Sponsors MOTM Benyon, a little surprising I would say. Danny Stevens was our livliest player today.

There's not much to report about the first half. It was a decent enough match to watch and in many respects Torqauy played well. But any sign of an opening was typically squandered with poor shooting or crossing. Danny Stevens looked Torquay's best hope of making things happen. We coped well at the back. 2 players went off injured both limping off. First Charnock got replaced by Hodges at centreback and later Thompson replaced Hargreaves in midfield. I thought Hodges did a tidy job in defence and distributes the ball well. Thompson today was a bit hit and miss. So 0-0 at half-time in a game that was becoming a stalemate.

Bournemouth changed that in the 49th. minute. A dangerous looking breakaway down their left, a decent cross and headed home at close range. Bournemouth's fans finally found their voice and Bournemouth had their best spell of the match. I could not really see Torquay coming back but I thought they showed great character in doing so. First Stevens had a rasping shot handled in the penalty area, but a penalty was not given. Shortly afterwards a fine dribble and cross by Stevens on the left was beautifully glanced home by Todd who beat the keeper to the ball.

This gave Torquay confidence and they looked most likely to win the match. An amazing looping header by Sills beat the keeper and bounced onto the crossbar and over. Both teams were going for the winner. Unfortunately from a Bournemouth raid down the right, the ball was crossed and headed home.

So disappointing to lose and again the extra quality in league 2 is making a difference in our results. After showing so much character in coming back in the match this was a harsh lesson.

Ho hum. That familiar sinking feeling at the end of a match again!
It was a real shame as I thought at times we played very well and were vastly improved from the Barnet defeat of two weeks ago. Nil points is nil points though, the small crumb of comfort being that Bournemouth (like Dagenham and Barnet) will have ambitions to be towards the top end of League 2 and I wouldn't really disagree with that based on today.

Like Barnet, Bournemouth seemed to be a very organised team with a decent blend of pace going forward and were solid at the back.
Connell was very powderpuff in his 45 minutes and when Fletcher came-on I thought that they showed more intent in their build-ups and it was no suprise that he converted one of the rare chances that Bournemouth had after we equalised to win the match.

We were unfortunate to lose Charnock (who moved very gingerly from the pitch) and Hargreaves - not because of the performances of their replacements (Hodges had a decent game IMO), but it had an impact on Bucks' ability to change the game in the second half . Perhaps we might have seen the introduction of Rendell (or perhaps Williams) earlier.

After a penalty shout that infuriated the players in the Bournemouth area who that felt it should have been a penalty for handball, they seemed to raise their game and when we did equalise, I genuinely believed that we ramped-up the tempo and looked like we might have finished Alex Rowe's reign as Chairman with fitting farewell triumph.

Sadly Sills looked very out of sorts - it certainly wasn't a case of long-balls or hanging crosses going in his direction to "do his thing" and eventually converting one of the numerous chances that might have come his way when he is up against the bruising defenders from Droylesden, Northwich or Altrincham.
His opponents at this level have a yard more pace and are a yard quicker with their thinking than their BSP counterparts and I thought for much of the game he looked very stranded - although he had a fine header loop onto the Bar with Jalal beaten which could have seen us notch 3 points in a game that could have gone either way.

Plenty of positives from the game today - although sadly more harsh lessons that need to be learned.
There was a lot of quality in our play and Benyon was threatening in attack.

Great to see some travelling supporters swell the coffers in what was a good friendly atmosphere from 4 sides of the ground - but was 2,700 home fans much of an increase on the Barnet match?

Finally - the referee. Hopeless huff-and-puffers that make mind baffling decisions and have a negative effect on the flow of the game would be a regular description for last season's officials (and in my opinion fitting words after another dismal display from Wroe today) but the ref today (Darren Sheldrake?) was very good. Clear and well communicated decision making, he let the game flow and I felt read it well.

Onwards to Rochdale next week with a few of the players with a point to prove. I would be very surprised if Bucks didn't shuffle the pack with his starting strikers.

I agree with most of that Capital BUT, yes you knew there would be a but, Scott had the ball in both hands while ball was on the ground and it was kicked out off his hands, I think you`ll find that is a foul on the keeper. When the keeper has two hands on the ball possession is considered his and to kick the ball from his hands constitutes a foul! He did have a shocker today, he did not control his eighteen let alone his six, had no voice to control his defenders. He needs a rest and some recovery time, his kicking isn`t was it can be by a mile, his achiles problem needs sorting yesterday! It`s clear to anyone that has seen him play well that something is bothering him big time!

...and how we laughed when Connell was caught offside as well!! If we could have raised a glass to absent friends we would have

If I was that loser's manager I'd give him his own lino's flag to carry and tell him to just put it up each time he got the ball.

What with deliberately putting the ball into touch in an FA Cup Tie, constantly being off side and that embarrassing and cringe worthy episode when he chased after Birmingham players for their autographs; was I glad to see the back of him!

A very disappointing result and I can’t remember when I left after a game when my face felt so long and I personally felt so disappointed. I was to soon have a smile put back on my face as the lovely Sally gave me a big hug and planted a sweet kiss on my cheek, what a doll she is.

Rewind the clock just under two hours and once again I got the great feeling that Plainmoor was a proper football ground again, playing in a proper league, its so good to see our away end filled and one thing I will say is, that no one can lay any blame on the fans for this result.

The drummer and the singing for most of the first half made one of the best first half atmospheres at Plainmoor for some time, only a shame they let themselves down with the c song still and the song they aimed at Wroe while the lads were warming up. I can’t really see the point of singing “ You should have left it for stevens” not sure Wroe enjoyed it.

Tufc01 walked past at half time and said we should have been winning, while I will concede we had the better of the first half we failed to create one decent chance. Hargreaves clearly was telling Nico to hit it long into the space between the defenders, but the balls never really gave Benyon any chance at all.

The thing is during the first half I thought Bournemouth did not look that good a team and if only we gave Benyon more of a chance and also not hit the few crosses we did put into the box so long, we maybe could have created a few chances and gone in at half time winning the game.

As swangull said there really was not a lot to write about in the first half, Charnock was judged to have pushed his man just after the game had started, it really was a soft free kick, but the shot from the free kick was soft and gave Bevan no problems at all.

Bournemouth won a corner on 12 minutes sent in a good ball into the box , but I think it was Ryan Garry who headed it wide of our goal. Then on 14 minutes we lost Charnock, he seemed to stretch to clear the ball out into touch and went straight down holding his leg.

On came Hodges and he had a very solid game, when did he last get any action? He won headers and mostly played good passes out from the back, maybe we should be using him more and he does have some real quality in my view.

On 20 minutes Benyon took the ball well and laid it out to Stevens, he send in another cross that was far too long, but Carlisle did try his best to get on the end of it. That is what was missing in the first half, the killer ball or the pin point cross.

Benyon continued to work hard and was brought down not far out from the Bournemouth area, we packed their box, but Nico who played well and did put in some great crosses, played this one in behind all our players and another opportunity was wasted.

Carlisle played a great ball to Benyon that dropped just in front of the running Benyon, he passed it out to Stevens, who then cut inside the box, but his right foot shot went sailing high over the bar. Two minutes later Wroe fancied his chances from 30 yards out, the ball just skinned across the grass and wide of the post, but the keeper had it well covered anyway. Robertson had a good game and made a great clearing header from a ball sent into our box by Feeney

Benyon looked like he was going to get in on goal and get a shot away on the 35 minute mark. Nico floated up a ball that Sills flicked down with his head to Benyon who was on the edge of the box, he cleverly flicked the ball up past one player, but the ball would not come down right and it was cleared.

Then on 40 minutes Hargreaves went off and on came Thompson and I was pleased in a way as I really wanted to see a repeat of their performance together in a few pre season games. Thompson did get stuck in and win a few balls, did make the odd good pass, but also gave it away a few times, I know he is a better player than he looked at times today.

Connell was poor for Bournemouth and maybe deserved to get booked on the stroke of half time, a very slight nudge in his back in our box, saw him fall to the floor trying to con the ref into giving him a penalty. So that was the first half and while we had more of the ball and the game, just failed to do anything with it in the areas we should have.

The second half saw Fletcher start instead of Connell, but Pitman in his first piece of action after the restart got a yellow card for a foul on Toddy in our box and then his second saw him rise and win what looked like a simple header into the far corner of our net.

The goal came about because of the problem you do get with a small player like Danny Stevens, don’t get me wrong he should have won the man of the match, but in some situations his size can cost us.

He had the ball at his feet on the edge of their box and was so easily muscled off the ball, the player then ran toward the half way line and passed the ball to their winger Feeney, who just ran down the line and sent in the cross that Pitman scored from.

For a while after that Bournemouth started playing a bit of football, were passing it around so much better than they had done. They were also working very hard closing our players down when they had the ball and gave us very little space to play in.

Stevens was still playing well and Nico played a great ball to him, he ran across toward the box and it looked like his shot was blocked by a hand inside the box, the ball ended up being cleared at the far post.


We were working hard and we got our deserved reward when Toddy scored and got us back on level terms. My eyes were only on Stevens who was out wide toward the corner flag, it looked like it would be hard to get in a cross, but he did and I don’t know where Toddy came from, but he got to the ball before the keeper and glanced it past him into the net.

Bevan got very lucky after this and I do feel a goal should have been given to Bournemouth, he went down as he made a save near his post and dropped the ball, the Bournemouth player just put the lose ball into the net, but the ref decided it had been kicked out of Bevans hands, I’m not so sure.

Sills was another player who gave is all during the whole game was so unlucky not to score from a great Tim Sills header, the ball sadly crashed against the crossbar and over .Then we saw another maybe soft goal as the ball was played into our box from the right hand side and Fletcher had what looked like an easy header past Bevan into the same corner as their first goal.

Robertson had a half decent chance for us late on, but his header was poor and Rendell who had come on with only 7 or 8 minutes left to play, headed the one chance he got down into the ground and wide of the post.

We need to start playing the ball to our forwards feet and also work getting in shorter crosses, as I said a disappointing result, but the team showed good sprit and plenty of effort, just need to show some more quality and we will be just fine.

I`m glad you find that funny mate, I don`t read Sky text, or post on it, hope your happy with yourself cause I`m not! What have I done to you too deserve that? I also wouldn`t lamp you for that, just want to know why you would do that, it`s not something I would do to a friend! When you say " when we were encouraged to make up a few letters! " exactly who were the `we` you refer too, making up letters like that under some elses name is illegal by the way!