FL2:Torquay Utd v Barnet 13 Nov 2010

Not wrong DTG. At the risk of being ripped to shreds I left with over 10 minutes to go. Cold and fed up and had decided that if I stayed for another 5 hours I would not get value for my entry fee! Whilst I would have been delighted had we scored and I had missed the winning goal it really was just not going to happen. Don't know really why people get so excited about people who leave early, it certainly worked for me today ... I'm home now in the warm whereas I don't normally get back until nearly 6pm.

Awful! ...and what the hell was that music about?

Outfought and out thought just about sums up this one.
For whatever reason we were outplayed by a side who cant buy a point and in the end we were fortunate to come away with a point ourselves. On today's evidence will be joining Barnet in the bottom half sooner rather than later. Guilty of hoofing it high to Kee who didn't win a single aerial ball, all afternoon our midfield were impotent and hardly won a second ball all afternoon. In any case we didn't have other outlets that were reliable.
Whether it was a mental thing I just dont know as the players started the match as if they only had to turn up and the points would be theirs. As anticipated Zebroski was sorely missed his work rate and general get "in your face" play would have given the very poor midfield a reliable outlet at least. The writing was on the wall early as Ellis in his own half and Kabba closing him down allowed his opponent to easily rob him of the ball where he had a straight run on goal . We should have been a goal down then but somehow managed to conjure up our only piece of quality play in the entire 90 with a slick move to open the scoring. Perhaps I was wrong then and we would go on gain some confidence and slaughter them. How wrong can you be It was the Bees who raised their game won all the second balls , passed it well and over ran our midfield time after time. And every time they attacked our nervy defence you felt the feeling they would eventually get something fortunately we survived with a rather desperate point in the end not deserved in my honest opinion. The bottom side had 9 corners to our 4 and had most of the possession and looked more threatening with the ball.
The pattern was set once again in the opening exchanges and when that happens its difficult to change things as the mind set is wrong from the start and how many times have we seen that this season particularly at home? Nicky Wroe was back to his absolute worst, Ellis recovered from his early mistake to play reasonably well and Okane although showing flashes of quality by at least trying to pass and create tended to give the ball away in bad areas. Billy Kee has become a bit an enigma already he didn't win a ball in the air all afternoon had occasional good touches but generally was pretty ineffective in the time he was on. Bevan seemed to pick up another strain of some description ( what does he keep doing to himself?) and couldn't kick as for the rest it was all worst than average and probably the worst display I have witnessed for a long while. As for the official in the middle he was a bit of a joke really - a tetchy little man who wanted to be the center of attention and gave us nothing all afternoon, mind you we didn't deserve much in reality. Poor crowd again and dwindling by the week and on this display even a die hard like me wonders why he wasted a dry early winters Saturday afternoon watching that! The side desperately needs some inspiration from somewhere or we will be sliding down the ladder pretty pronto a marginally better side would have slaughtered us.
So there you go DTG just as you thought an easy victory they just didn't stand a chance!!

Our goal was an absolute cracker. It all started going wrong when they played that bleddy music though.

The two minute silence at the start of the game was impeccably respected (so to at Stoke before they beat Liverpool 2 nil).

Our opening goal would have graced any Premiership game with the ball bought out defence to O'Kane would sped forward down the left week before putting a killer cross for Benyon to score and put us 1 nil up. Not sure in all the excitement that music was put on after we scored - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE,PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE,PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE,PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE never EVER do that again.

Barnet to their credit got themselves back into the game after an all too often mistake by O'Kane (who up to that point had played superbly) and a foul (never in a million years ref - more about Oliver Hardy later) let to a corner and an equaliser by Barnet.

We couldn't and all through the match keep tabs on Steve Kabba and the lively (but prone to doing a 'Tom Daley') left winger Marshall (?).

Bevan seemed rooted to his spot, he didn't seem 'happy'.

HT 1 - 1

Second half started when Stan Laurel put his flag up for something which even the ref didn't know why and the poor popside Lino seemed to go downhill fast along with his 'chum' in the middle. Tony Pullis things he's hard done by.

Barnet seemed up for it in the second half and apart from a 'wonder goal' by Kee judged to be a foul by a Torquay player for 'Powderpuff' touch on a Barnet Player we didn't seemd to test their 'keeper.

O'Kane who is a player to watch and certainly one for the future had a poor game and was subbed with Stevens for Rose and Hemmings which seemed to do the trick with the lively Rose in action within seconds.

Thought we had a good shout for a penalty but the lino obviously thought that when the ball hits a defenders hand in the box it must mean play on.

Gritton when he came on had his shirt pulled in the box, but the Popside lino who was at this time doing an award impression of Ray Charles didn't (or didn't want to) give the penalty.

It seemed that all 50/50 decisions went against us and their were loud (and surely embarrassing cheers) when any decision went our way.

By this time Nico was taking the goal kicks and Barnet will be the happiest of the two teams (their first away point I believe since the end of September).

As much as I like Gritton (who had some of the popside shouting for him to come on) he hasn't done much and I'm sure he'll go back - who we will get on loan in his place (with out low crowds) is anybodys guess.

Crowd 2257 (or so) - I predicted 2300, anyone closer? With MOM Benyon.

Certainly two points lost and after the performance more worrying more supporters surely lost after todays luck laster performance.

Ratings

Bevan 6 (Calf Strain?)
Nico 6 (has this habit of stopping the ball before crossing, giving the defender time to close him down rather than crossing first time)
Ellis 5.5 (Slow start and needs more heading practice)
Branston 7
Robbo 5.5
O'Kane 5.5 (bright start but not his day)
Wroe 5
Mansell 6
Stevens 6
Benyon 6 (Did an ward winning impression of Alan Connell on more than one occasion)
Kee 6 (What a goal that would have been)

Rose 6
Hemmings 4 (good running but poor end product)
Gritton 5 (unlikely to be booked but didn't do much else)

One of the worst games I've seen for years.
I thought Petef's report was spot-on.
We score a terrific goal from a move started by Stevens
who releases O'Kane - a great cross in for Benyon to score.
Minutes later we leave their player unmarked at a corner and it's 1-1.
The goal seems to drain any self-confidence we have and for most of the game we are second best to everything - they are quicker to the ball all over the field and they seem to win all the important 50-50s and second balls. Kabba has a terrific game finding space between our midfield and back 4 bringing others around him into the attack and Marshall's sheer pace on the left wing
scares us everytime he receives an out ball.
So we drop deeper, Wroe disappears. Mansell double-covers.
Our lack of pace moving the ball is shown up with every lump forward. Kee and Benyon are marked by two tall central defenders and can win nothing in the air
- but we insist on the same tactic even though every time the ball
is hoofed forward it only results in us osing control of the ball and
enables Barnet to collect and regroup.
It's Macclesfield and Aldershot all over again.

We've played best this season when we move the ball at speed
but Benyon and Kee are workers not speed merchants
- the problem I see with Kee is that he always take the pace OFF the ball and he needs a second touch.

I thought Rose should have come on for Kee at half time and played up front because he has electric speed and great control and his instinct is to run at defenders not flick or spin the ball
square which we do time and time again.
We simply ran out of ideas once Barnet were back in the game.
Without our talisman Zebroski we struggled.

Wasn’t impressed with the officials either Aussie but that shouldn’t detract from a well below average performance today. However, if the prolonged drive through Kingskerswell turns referees against us, where the hell did the popside linno come from? Yes it was poor but IMO; Key did OK without winning a header all afternoon, Stevens looked like he was a boy playing against men, Bevan clearly has an Injury problem that needs to be sorted, Nico is Nico (not Gareth Bale) and we now know how important a player Zebroski is.

Pretty much a damp squib and with performances like that you can see why we have a better points tally and goal difference away from home. With a front four of Benyon, Kee, Stevens and O'Kane our aerial threat was negligible and it was only on the rare occasion that a good passing move was put together that a good goal was scored!

It was a pity that O'Kane did not score from a header shortly after as things would probably have been very different. However, the goal conceded was very soft in that their man was unmarked and got to the ball first about three or four yards in front of the post and not much more than a yard from the bye line. A well executed goal but with little margin of error and it wouldn't have taken much to put him off!

I thought Branston did well in defence and at least this was one area of the field where we seemed to win our fair share of headers. Overall a bad day at the office compounded by some poor officiating yet again.