FL2: Torquay United v Northampton 31st Oct 2009

Your mate Benyon was a constant threat yesterday but his 3 star performance meant that 40% of his game was missing? Not from where I was sat. Lenny Goodman must have dished out these marks

Whilst i applaud Benyon fully for his effort yesterday (though they all gave 100% to be honest) he really only deserved 3/5 in my opinion.......and that i'm afraid is the problem with him, at this level he will only ever be a 3/5 performer at best.

Benyon ran the channels well, battled away and generally did as much as he possibly could for the cause........BUT........and this is the big BUT........apart from the offside tap-in, did he really look like scoring?
He had one other shot from 20 yards late on, that was struck weakly and the keeper fumbled it past the post for a corner.......in a game where we had loads of chances that just simply isn't enough, that is the other 40% of his game.......being a constant goal threat.
When you have a guy like Sills in the side that will win knock downs and hold the ball up.......his partner needs to be quick enough in mind to anticipate the direction of the ball and quick enough in body to get on the end of it, Elliot just doesn't get there often enough.
For all his hard work..... he is not quick enough to run away from defenders or quick enough to get to loose balls in the area, this is why he won't score enough at this level, he'll never have a lot of power because of his build so in order to make it.........he desperately needs that extra yard of pace.

If we are to start moving away from the bottom of the table we need to score more goals...........our defence is improving a bit but they're hardly water tight to be honest, Poke's excellent display earnt us the clean sheet yesterday more than the back 4 did.
I'm sure top if Buckle's list is a partner for Sills who can provide that bit of pace (or power) that we need up front to actually make us look a much more threatening side.

Elliot is a decent squad player and a useful impact sub at this level.......to start winning games regulary and scoring enough goals he needs replacing or we're in for a long old season in my opinion.

You seem to have made your mind up jmgull regardless of what he does during any game. If he can only expect 3/5 at best at least he achieved top marks from you. Far from the finished article but I thought he was one of our better players not one of the worst as the marks show but I take it that you think Rendell should be starting instead?

Once we were fully fed after the carvery we made our way through the ground to the pop side, which already looked busier than it had done all season. I was surprised that the official crowd wasn’t bigger than the 2700 or so that was announced.

Time to admit I was wrong to criticise the pre match entertainment before I had even heard it. She sang one song pre match and another at half time, which was enough for me, and she was let down by the PA system, however I did enjoy it as did the crowd who gave her a great ovation. There was the obligatory shout of “get your t*ts out” before she started and a chant from the Northampton supporters but the majority seemed to enjoy it. That said I’m still not convinced I would want that every home game.

I liked the way we started, we were at them from the off. I always like it when a team, especially the home team, take the game to their opponents right from the off. Thompson had a great run in the first couple of minutes which did him and his confidence the world of good, and more importantly it got the crowd behind him.

We hit the bar twice in a short period of time after barely 5 minutes and I felt we were unlucky not to get a least a couple of goals in the first half. I always believe that to win games you MUST score whenever you create a sustained amount of pressure. I felt we managed that really well last season, but this season we appear to struggle to put the thing in the back of the net when we create the pressure.

Poke was outstanding. Those two saves looked absolutely top drawer. I want to see them again just to see if they were as good as they looked. I can see why he was given MoM, however it must have been close, with a few others in with a shout. For me it was a toss up between Poke and Benyon.

I find it incredible that Benyon has come in for a bit of negativity on here, and as for those marks of 3/5 from the paper, that doesn’t do him justice. Did they not see Benyon chasing everything down, closing down defenders and generally being a nuisance. There was one point where he must of covered 50 yards chasing between defenders and eventually getting the ball out for a throw. This effectively shut down one of their attacks. When I played, one aspect that was always drummed into me was the ethos of ‘Defending from the front’ as this prevents as many goals as any defender stops. Benyon does this superbly. He is now much stronger at holding the ball up (though he still has room for improvement here) and he wins more free kicks in dangerous positions than anyone. Is he not our top scorer at the moment? I also thought that him and Sills worked well together.
Buckle obviously agrees as when Benyon was injured, instead of bringing on Rendell, he waited for Benyon to be patched up so that he could be sent back on.
By the way does anyone know what injury he suffered, at one point we thought he had broken his arm, however the photo’s show that it was a blood injury.

I thought Thompson had a good game, but more importantly he showed he has potential to be very good in this league. With pace to burn he is not scared to take people on. Although he tired a bit in the second half, he did enough for me to suggest he would have a decent future here if we were able to get him to stay.

Akinfenwa was impressive, as much as some of our fans gave stick even they would have to admit that he was easily their most dangerous player. Although he is as big (Fat) as anyone I have seen on a football pitch since….., ( I can’t remember) he still managed to make every ball stick. He also has a great first touch, it’s a good job his finishing was off or else it could have been a different result. Northampton looked a lot dangerous without him. An interesting thought would be to see how people would feel if he were in our squad?

A lot of credit should go to Paul Buckle as well. I thought he got to the team selection and formation spot on. Also after about an hour with no score there were some murmurings about substitutions, however I felt it was only a matter of time before we scored (admittedly not as late as we did) and the 11 guys on the pitch were doing superbly so I couldn’t see a change making any improvements.

Overall, a fully deserved and welcome 3 points.

Elliots injury was a blood injury, one of their players stood on his hand with blades( type of studs ) on and shredded his skin, he spent about half an hour after the game getting stitched back together. Their player did not do this deliberately as you saw him trying to get Elliot to keep his hand up high so the blood would not gush as fast, that is why their player had to be de-blooded as well, total accident I`m affraid, you could see how bad it was by the end of the game as the dressing on the injury was soaked in blood! Well done Ells, played great and brave as well! Except the bit when you hopped around the ground holding your wrist like a little girl, only joking, it must have f*cking wrecked!

;D i think we're miles apart in our views here mate......just ask Phillips or Zebroski who got nearly 40 between them playing off Sills in his 1st season!

To be fair ( Irish accent required ) Phillips and Zebs got 40 between them because they were in the "PUB LEAGUE", surely by now people must recognize that the "REAL LEAGUE" is a much bigger step up than we all thought! It`s a much much tougher place and faster ( ask Nico ) than the Conference, I`m confident the only argument there is me calling it a pub league as that used to upset people when we were in it! Sillsy bless him for he works his heart out is probably going to end up with about 6 or 7 this season, it was know before he came to us that he had tried to cut it in the league and just couldn`t bag them like he can in the conference, one third of the season gone and he`s got how many already, I rest my case!