FL2: Torquay Utd v Macclesfield 25th Sept 2010

Look, characters like Larcombe lose all credibility because they only comment through hindsight....................did we hear him saying "don't pick Senda" before the game; did we feck! Is he in a position to judge the player's fitness? Is he buggery! ~ and did he even see the player's performance for himself? No he bloody didn't!

"Meerkat" is a manifestation of Terry Larcombe's inborn pessimism; and abusive, negative nature; any fool can see that. Treat him with the contempt he deserves!

What was your assessment of his fitness John?

Sorry to be a bit thick coming from south of Kerswell Arch, are we now saying that we can't comment on the Manager's line up and formations unless we have the relevant FIFA Coaching badges and have an insite into the various players fitness?

Apologies once again but I'm off to North Huish (we can trace my Mothers mother back to this village) tomorrow to apply for the vacant position of Village Idiot.

Me, I would like to see Macklin start as he gives a bit of pace down the wing and gives that little extra protection in defence.

What ever players he picks, what ever formation he picks and in whatever league we ply our trade in the words of the great Prog Rock giants Emerson, Lake and Palmer "I'll be there" for as many games as God see's fit.

Watching Spooks at the moment, will try and expand tomorrow with a bit of luck.

Joint post of the week so far.

I am not convinced that Senda instead of Charnock was totally because of the "two left footers" issue. I reckon that if we had been away to a top team, we would have gone with the more solid option of Robbo right back and Charnock in for Ellis.

It was obvious that Macclesfield would be there to be broken down, so it made sense to go for an attacking right back. I don't think that Robbo would have been dropped if Ellis had been fit, but Ellis being out gave the option to move Robbo to the centre and bring in someone who offers more going forward.

The issue of how to compete against a five man midfield is a problem. In a game against a weaker side, I would have liked to see Senda push up to give the fifth midfielder and Zebs staying right up front (giving a sort of 3-5-2 shape) rather than Zebs pulling wide to give a sort of 4-5-1 shape.

O'Kane showed loads of quality again, but where to play him at home is an issue. Away from home, I think he sits very comfortably in a 4-2-3-1 formation - but that isn't best suited to a game at home to Macclesfield. Pushing one full back up to give a 3-5-2 (if Robbo is at right back, you could push up Nicho on the left) would allow Eunan the free role he revels in without leaving us too thin up front.

It was to be expected that Senda would not last 90 minutes and replacing his overlapping brief with a pure defender in Charnock would have smacked of shutting up shop and settling for a point. Carlisle was a more obvious straight replacement - given that the brief was to push on and get forward.

The one change I would not have made was Gritts for O'Kane. On the face of it, bringing on a second striker for a midfielder looked sensible to force the game, but Eunan was the player most likely to unpick a stubborn defence and his removal really reduced the subtlety and flexibility of our attacking options.

Carlisle should have pushed on from right back to liberate Zebs to play centrally, with O'Kane free to feed Carlisle and Macklin wide and Benyon and Zebs through the middle. As it was, Zebs wasn't needed inside as Gritts and Benyon were there, so he was in the area Carlisle should have been pushing into and we lacked creativity in the centre.

That is all just my opinion though - and it is worth b***ar all. I couldn't trap a bag of cement.

Not sure about Ellis for tonight... I gather it's touch and go and he may not be ready until Saturday.