FL2: Torquay Utd v Bradford City August 21st 2010

alunmeerkat, in a nutshell no, but when Bucks changed his mind after saying he would not now sign Wayne Carlisle even if he did regain full fitness, he stated h knew who his best two wingers were and Wayne would be more of a utility player here.

Paul Buckle I’m sure will always pick the players he feels are best to do the job required and those decisions will be based on such things as the current players own form. Danny Stevens gave a man of the match first half performance and while he did not feature so much in the second half did more than enough to justify his selection and to start the next game. Should his form drop or Bucks feels he needs a rest then Wayne will get his starting chance and as I said about Muzzy on another thread, it will be up to Wayne to play so well Bucks would struggle to leave him out of the next game.

That’s how it works in football, the player the manager thinks is his best winger dips in form and the winger on the bench comes on and plays out of his skin and keeps the place for the next game. Then the other winger might just have to be content starting on the bench and try and get his starting place back when he gets the chance again.

I can see Mark Ellis getting dropped if he does not improve some aspects of his game and if then Charnock plays well, Ellis might have to wait his chance to get back into the starting eleven. Talking of young Mark I see Bucks turned down an offer from a first division club for him and while I heard that Swansea were interested in Elliot, it seems we are not in the market to sell any of our young players at this time and if we were they would come with a high price tags.

Still feel Elliot was not at his best in yesterday’s game and I do agree Kee needs to get himself a bit fitter if he is to have a great impact in our games. Finally I was not watching the game from Mars, just trying to look over that wall on the popside to see as much of the pitch as I could. Well it’s a problem most short asses like me have.

''Pictures provided courtesy of Torquay United FC & Pinnacle Photo Agency UK. Not to be copied or reproduced.''

longeatongull

The reaction to this relatively untypical football from a Buckle team was fascinating to witness...particularly in my section of the Popside
.
I did on occasions wonder whether Leroy was making a guest appearance as team Manager for the day.

Going back to the late seventies or early eighties we were (probably rightly) informed that while the British footballing public would accept the Dutch or other continental teams with their possession football & patient build up on TV for a few matches they wouldn't want to see that style of football week in week out from their local team.

Fast & furious with the ball being pumped towards the penalty area at every opportunity ( Graham Taylor,Charles Hughes & his infamous POMO was the way we liked things) was more to our tastes.

After a very impressive opening spell Bradford had struggled to contain us as a striking force even when they had eleven men so when they had one of their defenders sent off Taylor decided to send on another defender & instead played with just one up front rather than the two strikers of earlier (before the sending off).

The free space therefore was at the back...Ellis & Branston with barely a man to mark between them. It was then relatively easy for the defence & midfielders to make the angles to knock the ball fore & back between themselves. This not only runs down the clock while you're in front, but just as importantly if you keep the ball rather than letting the opposition get hold of it they can't equalise.

But this is where the Popside split & I was trying to work out just where the dividing line was....maybe it was on age.

A couple of youngish lads stood behind me,& clearly not regulars as they were unsure of several of the players names, were enjoying the match, but midway through the second half one of them said "why's everyone so impatient?". I felt like turning around and saying "if you think this is impatient (& we were 2-0 up at the time) just imagine what it would be like if we were drawing or losing"

The more I pondered this I did wonder whether young football fans brought up on a diet of Premier League with it's foreign stars & the vast amount of continental football available on their TV via satellite stations etc are far more accepting of a patient methodical build up than their older counterparts brought up on lower league english football.

It's a natural inclination to want to build on a slender lead & to capitalise on a numerical advantage & as such we had a sizeable proportion of spectators urging the team to push forward with greater speed & urgency & another section instead nodding approvingly at the decision to keep the ball away from the opposition...even if that meant attacks weren't being mounted as often & as swiftly as we were used to seeing.

It will be interesting to see how our style of play develops. Did we take possession football to an extreme (by Buckle's standards anyway) because we had the extra man or will it be a more permanent feature ?

Whatever the answer , Saturday provided us with a good match, another fine result , and very acceptable position in the League table

Hey Alpine Joe

Love that badge and where can I get me one ?

Regards Harbourside

Yes I think he probably is, but then again thats no bad thing.

An old manager of mine was always banging on about 'you are only as strong as your bench', well if we have a fit Carlisle on the Bench along with Potter, Gritton (at the moment, then Kee), Charnock, O'kane, Lathrope, Macklin, etc, then we have a strong bench.

Besides a strong bench keeps the players in the team on their toes as they fight to hold onto their place and also gives very strong options when changes need to be made.

I am a massive Carlisle fan and my heart would say that Carlisle would be in over Stevens every time, however realistically Stevens is quicker and probably more skillful, he also beats his man more often than Carlisle.

Ideally Danny would start run his socks off for an hour, torment the left back and when he is tired after doing so much running (as he was yesterday) bring on Wayne.

Cheers Budleigh n Alpine I'll give it a go tommoz

Regards Harbourside

ps Marty Wilde and The Wildcats in 64 the town hall ..... I was born too late, bet it was a blinding gig tho x