FL2: Rochdale v Torquay United 12th Sept 2009

DT and Julian called it a "Toothless Display".

If that was the case Phil, then the players will have to accept their part in the defeat, any manager can only wind up players so much before they go out onto the pitch and can't always do that much from the dugout, can they?

There can be no excuses about travel arrangements, if players want to win matches, they need to put in the effort for the full 90 minutes and not just try and have a go in the second half.

Playing away in this league has never been any different, you need to cut out the fannying around and stay alert to the fact that you have to stand your corner, look the opposition in the eye and fight tooth and nail to gain a foothold in the game. Now look at Benyon, Stevens and Sills; are they the type of street fighting scrappers who look like they could do that? Not in my opinion they're not. It's almost as if we have to go back to basics and start again as we did when Bucks first came in and operated with Lee Phillips in his side.

Now I'm not advocating Phillips, he's neither mobile nor skilled enough for this level; but we do need someone who will assert themselves and set the stall out that once won, the ball is going to be retained up front. You won't get that with angelic little pretty boys like Benyon and Stevens and to be honest here, Sills looks far too intelligent to throw himself heart and soul to throw himself the fray in the fine traditions of Steve Cooper and in a manner that these players are not fit to lace his boots in.

The manager can adjust and tinker and get away with the lack of pace of people like Nicholson and Carlisle and get the best out of their strongest assets like distribution and accuracy of pass by constantly adjusting their roles, fine tuning if you like. But he cannot and will never turn Benyon Stevens and Sills into the types we need in this league.......................not in my opinion anyway.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if he did in fact try to use Sills as a counterweight in a deal to bring in what is needed, and am wracking my brains to think of someone in the Conference (for I think that is the highest level that Sills can flourish) who could step up to the plate; and more importantly who's club would be prepared to do a deal.

Any suggestions?

As we all know.......confidence is a massive thing in football, it seems we are very low on it at the moment, not suprising after a run of defeats. You can tell by our lack of creativity which leads to lack of goals that some of the players dont have the confidence to try and add that spark which wins games in this tight league.............too much hesitation, playing the easy ball, lack of pace or really lack of speed of thought are far too present at the moment. Until we stand up and realise that we are in this league on merit then results will continue to dissapoint.
Bucks has quite rightly been "talking up" the situation over the last few games, he has to.....of course, he's no fool and he knows that results and performances are in the main, not good enough.
Slagging the players off might satisfy some of our more impatient fans......in the long run it tends to do more damage than good.

The answer to me........would be that we've got to get our experienced, more physical players in the side as soon as possible and start grinding some results out.......starting next week at home to the equally struggling Grimsby.

Sills and Rendell up front.....Benyon on the bench, Carayol or Williams in for Stevens, Hargreaves back for Thompson......a loanee in defence if mansell and Charnock are still unfit next week........get some crosses into the box and start pressurising other teams more than we're currently doing.

When you're struggling......its back to basics, and you battle like hell for points.

I cannot comment on the game as I was not there!
But, it seems to me to be patently clear that some playing personnel changes need to be considered. Get all the players out on loan back (including Green) and give ALL the squad a chance. I just heard a report on the radio about Capello - he can have differences of opinion with players but will still use them to further the cause of his team.

These seems to be a growing inevitability about our results nowadays. All too familiar with days gone by - but at least then we could blame it on the evil Mike Bateson or one of the many inadequate Managers / Head Coaches that he employed.

Judging by the first month I'm afraid it appears that this season is going to be a bit of a struggle. Many of us were romantic enough to want the likes of Nicholson, Todd, Hargreaves and Sills to be given a chance at the higher level - maybe with one or two we could get by, but we can't operate with the back bone of our squad struggling to make the grade. This is the third promotion that I have enjoyed as a Gulls fan and on each occasion, for whatever reason, the club has sat back and failed to prepare a squad fit to tackle the step up. All very frustrating, but hardly a suprise - despite the squad in general and Manager failing to make the grade so far some of the more nieive amonst us prefer to highlight the presence in the side of Benyon and Stevens in the side. I really wish our problems were that easy to solve - the truth is that Benyon and Carlisle are about the only plusses so far in this season. Whilst he is still clearly developing, Stevens too has been at the heart of many of our more creative spells this season. Blaming the usual suspects will not improve this squad - the deficiencies go far deeper.

Although we are now only two points off the relegation zone, I don't think we should panic yet. I believe we have played some of the stronger teams in the league - our next four games are against Grimsby, Macclesfield, Aldershot and Bury. Three of these teams have had wretched starts. We found out so much about Paul Buckle and the squad after last season, maybe this season will be the same. This was always going to be a tough season and anyone who thought we could do what City did was living in cloud cuckoo land. to finish anywhere approaching mid-table would be a great achievment with this squad.

Four defeats in a row doesn't make for good reading. Perhaps we've come to the that stage where Mr Buckle is starting to think "right, I've given them their chance to prove themselves, now lets go to plan B". Perhaps the funding necessary to achieve this plan B to bring in new players was the extra assurance he asked the board to give him before signing a new contract. So that'll be the loan market then........

Speaking of Lee Phillips, I went to see AFC Wimbledon V Cambridge today and he came on for about 4 or 5 minutes. He did the usual running around like a semi castrated Rhino on Red Bull but was unable to add anything extra after replacing the increasingly portly and hirsute Danny Crow.

It was interesting to see the difference between the two sides. The AFC Wimbledon players seemed to want an extra touch on the ball and wanted an extra second or two before passing the ball. It reminded me a little of our performance at Dagenham. I thought we eradicated that at Burton. Fortunately for Wimbledon, Cambridge's attacking threat didn't match their excellent organisation and solidity at the back. Players of interest were the tireless Danny Kedwell who put up a decent fight against the impressive Wayne Hatswell and his fellow centre half Brian Saah (picked up on a free from Leyton Orient). Ex Torquay target Brent Johnson picked up the man of the match from the home supporters. Last season's leading goalscorer for Wimbledon, Jon Main, has seemingly fallen out of favour after just scoring 3 penalties this year. General consensus is that he's not good enough for the BSP. Also impressive were Jai Reason and the skillful Chris Holroyd (schooled at Crewe Alexandra) who scored a hat-trick last week against Forest Green.

The Tim Sills situation is an interesting one. Does he really have relatively less pace than Niall Quinn once had when he was so effective at Man City and Sunderland? Or is it because our style of play isn't bringing the best out of him, or is it really a case of not having the type of player to supply him with a level of service which he needs to be a potent threat at this level?

I see that both Mark Ellis and Steve Adams played from the start today which would suggest that their loan deals might be extended further under new boss Dave Hockaday.