Post by rjdgull on Oct 29, 2011 21:25:26 GMT
I,am afraid to say that due to holidays and computer hubs blowing up that I have really neglected this thread and it is more of a poster of a month jobbie this time. 
Reading through one heck of a lot of threads there were two member's posts that really caught the eye and deserved to have their name in yellow! 
It is always nice when a newish member posts their thoughts, particularly on an away match thread which have been a bit lacking this year and Ben Currie spent a lot of time writing up an absolutely cracking match report and you won't read many better this season.
It is 6pm and my embryonic twitter account is a hub of activity.3 TUFC players have voiced their disgust at today's languid performance, i feel it appropriate to open them up to a mass audience as a sort of pre-cursor to the the day of misery to follow.
Eunan O'Kane wrote 'apologies to everyone who travelled to bradford to watch us today'
Kevin Nicholson wrote 'wasn't going to tweet as very angry but thanks to those who backed us today and believe me we'll work very hard to get it right!!'
Lee Mansell wrote 'Words can't describe how im feeling,thanks for the great support again, unfortunately as a group we did not turn up'
They weren't wrong.
After going to Shrewsbury two weeks prior, I wasn't going to bother with Bradford, such a lacklustre display didn't deserve my finanical and emotional torture. But after a more than satisfying performance against top of the table Morecambe my faith had been restored and i was ready again to plunge face-first into the hopeful randomness of another TUFC away day.
I went to the Bradford game last season, a match in which we played at our best for 90 glorious minutes, playing a sterile Bradford team off their own park, winning 3-0. a result which comfortably flattered the Bantams. I was not expecting the same today. I was picked up at 7.00 by two long suffering TUFC stalwarts, who haveprobably amassed more than 1000 away days between them. Asked how i was feeling, i replied with the now customary 'buzzing' however the truth was that i was not looking forward to the long journey north.
Being a TUFC fan, you have to get used to the long journeys, in some seasons the nearest away game can still be a 2 hour drive each way, which is why you need plenty of topics to discuss, being a TUFC we have all these moans and whinges in abundance. Having stopped for a pub lunch just outside Bradford, in a dreary little village called Drighlighton,we were ready for the football. Sadly at this point it absolutely started bucketing it down, this i felt could be a bad sign of what was to come.
As soon as you approach Bradford, you see the stadium straight-away, it sticks out like a collosus, sort of like a poor-mans St James Park in Newcastle, it certainly is an impressive sight and one would imagine very intimidating. however once you get inside you realise it isn't. It must be galling to be a Bradford fan, 11,000 is an impressive average attendance for league 2, but very poor for a stadium that holds 24,000. As a result you get vast areas of empy seats, the two upper tiers completely empty and serving as a bitter reminder of when their team was half decent over a decade ago. The fans who they do have don't sing either, i get the feeling this is a club stuck with a losing mentality having slowly worsened over the last 10 years.
TUFC lined up in a 4-5-1 formation, Stevens into the team in place of the injured Morris, and Howe coming back in for the absent Bodin, Daniel Leadbitter on the bench for the first time. TUFC kicked off and straight away O'Kane kicked it out of play whilst attempting a simple pass to Oastler, unfortunately this set the tone of our afternoon. From way up high this looked like a match between two ordinary teams, two teams failing to communicate properly with eachother which led to a very scrappy and mistake laden start. The only moments of note were a couple of long shots easily gathered by Olejnik.
The talking point, and as it turned out, the turning point of the game came on the half hour. The continually enigmatic Danny Stevens ran towards the Bradford area, slightly over-running it allowing the Bradford centre-back to intercept, he won the ball cleanly but followed through on Stevens after, who fell to the floor quite heavily. My first thought was that it was a good tackle and had one of our lads done it to them I would have been applauding loudly. The referee had a decent view of it though and must have deemed it to be 'excessive force' and 'studs showing' as he had no hesitation in brandishing the red card, it was out of his back pocket before he had stopped the play. Although it should obviously have given us an advantage i think it worked against us for 2 reasons.
First, it woke the crowd up. They had been silent up until then, but for 20 minutes it became a cauldron of hatred towards Stevens, The Ref, or any TUFC player who erred. I think the referee realised he had dropped a clanger here because he too lost his head for the rest of the half, drastic inconsistency seaped into his decision making no doubt under pressure from the armies of fist clenching, angst ridden fans in the stands.
Secondly it paved the arrival of Guy Branston, on as substitute to shore up the depleted defence. Here was a man with a massive point to prove, to the Bradford manager, his team-mates, to the fans who have yet to see the best of him, and of course to us, who he left for 'better things' in the summer. It seemed to me he was a mission to get the match won, he was excellent, a reminder of the cult hero status he had established in the short time he was with us. I am a big fan of the man and it was nice to see the mutual respect between him and us, he wrote a nice bit in his programme notes about us, and came over to thank us at the final whistle. He is yet to rediscover the form that earned him a place in the league 2 team of the year however, but this performance will go along way to proving to Bradford that he is capable of it.
You would think with a man advantage that we would dominate, sadly not. No doubt galvanised by the injustice of the sending off Bradford upped a gear and the left winger in particular was rampaging against Oastler, firing in a couple of dangerous crosses which yearned to be tucked away. The only goal of the game came a bit later however when a bit of a scramble in the box allowed Fagan a bit of space at the back post to finish smartly through the legs of the keeper, it was poor defensively, symptomatic of the whole lack of communication throughout the team. The goal was certainly deserved and Torquay needed to react quickly.
Until half time was probably our best spell of the game, Danny Stevens fired just over from 25 yards, Nicholson found space after a delightful 10 pass move, and shot across goal making it disappointingly too easy for the goalkeeper to save, and then Nicholson again had a 25 yard free kick well saved down low by the keeper. However we did not score in this little period and the half time whistle blew to a cacophony of boos.
The talk of half time was still mainly positive, with the exception of Shrewsbury, Lingy has normally sent the players out in the second half more determined and attack minded, so we were all pretty confident that our fortunes would change, whilst obviously chastising our boys for a woeful first half. A double substitution welcomed us as we took our seats for the second half, Macklin and Leadbitter on, Oastler and Lathrope off, a change to 4-4-2, 2 out and out wingers, two strikers, the message; to attack. I was curious to see how the new right side pairing would get on, close friends off the pitch, i hoped they had a good understanding. Against Bristol City in pre season they certainly looked exciting, and finally Macklin had been given an adequate amount of time on the pitch to make a difference, now was his chance to shine.
He didn't, none of us did. What followed was an unbelievably fustrating 45 minutes of football. We are proficient at passing the ball around the middle of the pitch, it looks professional, we can string 20 passes together easily, unfortunately it doesn't get us anywhere. The most important of those 20 passes is the final ball and with us it is severely lacking. There were times were it opened up for a shot, test the keeper, we didn't, there were times where the spare man was in acres of space and it was blatantly obvious to pass to him, we didn't. There were times were we matched and outnumbered them in the box if a cross of quality could be delivered, it couldn't. As we threw more men forward Bradford played brave and nearly caught us on the break a couple of times. In one instance a breakdown in communication left Fagan with a free run on goal and Olejnik in no-man's land, Fagan's audacious lobbed effort hitting the post and bouncing free. Minutes later on another break, the flying winger was felled as he ran through on goal, the resulting free-kick brought an impressive diving save from our goalkeeper. For all our possession and territory, it was they who created the best chances in the second half.
With the minutes ticking away, everyone was getting more impatient, the players growing increasingly fustrated that nothing was working, the fans equally irate that we couldn't fashion a chance against a man less. We won a succession of corners in the dying minutes and with a 'smash and grab' vision sprawled across my mind, Olejnik raced up to join the attack, from the ensuing scramble he nearly got on the end of something, but he was rushing around like a man possessed, he wanted it, it was nice to see that sort of passion. The referee finally put us out of our misery and as always out of duty, i stayed to applaud my team off the pitch,they probably didn't deserve it, but we all travelled the long distance together, we are a team, and we have a hell of a lot of work to do, and we will all be there next week to hopefully put it right.
And so, as i trudged the walk of shame back to the car, with my eyes on the floor, in the pouring rain, in a grim northern city, i allowed myself a few minutes quiet reflection on the performance. We could easily have won this game. The decision to go to 4-4-2 at half time with 2 wingers was definitely the right call. unfortunately certain members of the team let themselves down, didn't play to their optimum standard, or their optimum standard just isn't good enough for this level. In light of recent events i won't name names but i do think we lack quality in certain areas and would implore Lingy to delve into the loan market. As proven by Bodin, there is genuine quality out there to be approached. At the moment i would say we are carrying 3 or 4 performances, and the only consistent performers thus far have been Mansell, Nicholson and Olejnik. The quality we know other players possess has been only seen fleetingly and this inconsistency is fustrating and the difference between picking up 1 point, or 3.
I still don't think its been too bad a start from the team, we have had to play alot of good teams recently, and in some of those games we have been scratching our heads at how we didn't win. It was only the Shrewsbury match, and today were we have not turned up and given a decent account of ourselves. Today apart we can create chances, enough chances to easily win games in this division, it just didn't happen today and that is extra galling considering how poor Bradford are. They are seriously poor and it can't be much fun watching such a big club struggle in two - the £5 a head entrance fee special only added an extra 1,000 on the gate. It is at the other end of the pitch were we are struggling. We are leaking goal far too readily. I worry that Bobby Olejnik will get bored of conceding so many goals, of being generally overworked in every game he plays, we are very lucky to have such a capable keeper for this level, we need the defence to be busting a gut to protect him, much the same way that Branston did for his goalkeeper, who incidently did not have a single second half shot to save. There seems to me to be no communication about the back 4, and a cavalier approach to defending. All good teams are built on a good defence, and i am slightly worried by this considering we have a specialised defensive coach. A lot of work needed methinks, some players are taking their place in the team for granted.
I have yet to miss a league game this season, I think we are an average team, we win some, we draw some, we lose some, sometimes we play well, sometimes we don't. I think the 15th-20th area is reallistically where we will end up, and for a team with our budget that is acceptable. In spite of this bad day I will be there next week, and the week after that because we are a work in progress. Hopefully one or two parts of the machine will be working better by then. I have yet to see anything that tells me 'we are doomed' this season. But i do think its crucial to add to the squad, not only to add quality, but to give those already in the team a much needed boot up the behind. And anyway it could have been worse, we could have just been beaten 3-0 by Oxford.
From a newish member to someone we need no introduction to and his thread was very thought provoking as he looked at the ups and down of the season and how this can be repeated and then how we react to these events. Once again, Barton Downs has constructed a great post and noting how we seem to turn our results around on the approach to Halloween / Guy Fawkes night was somewhat prophetical after eight games without a win although he then concluded the opposite would happen!
BARNET (H) L 0-1
Bradford City (A) L 0-2
BOURNEMOUTH (H) L 1-2
Rochdale (A) L 1-2
GRIMSBY TOWN (H) L 0-2
Macclesfield Town (A) L 1-2
ALDERSHOT TOWN (H) D 1-1
BURY (H) D 1-1
Notts. County (A) D 2-2
MORECAMBE (H) D 2-2
Lincoln City (A) D 0-0
That’s a strange set of results: just as we’d notched up eleven games without a win we’d also gone five without defeat. Consequently there was a mixed bag of comments on TFF after that game at Lincoln (and, bloody hell, look at that club now!). Here’s a couple:
“Phew, a clean sheet! 5 points out of the last 33. Buckles really got us firing again eh? if we can get 1 point a game to the end of the season we'll be RELEGATED!!! Buckle lover spin yet again. You can't make this sh1t up!!! The Titanic band plays on. Iceberg? What Iceberg??”
"There is so much negativity around that it is good to see the team pulled together and were a credit to Paul Buckle. OK we didn't get 3 points (though we deserved them) but if we play like we did in the second half, we will turn the corner and climb the table. We must remain positive and consider that 5 games without a defeat is not a bad record.”
From memory it didn’t look good. There was improvement – four wins between the end of October and Boxing Day – before ten games without a win between 28 December (remember that desperately disappointing defeat at Bournemouth?) and drawing at Cheltenham on one of those inevitable Tuesday nights in February at Whaddon Road. I remember being pretty down-hearted that evening. Here’s a highly-selective summary of how we saw it:
“Thought the boos at half time were a bit out of order, but it's understandable when you've watched that dross.”
“I think that things are still really bleak, but at least there was a bit of spark and perspiration in the 2nd 45. It's just a shame there is no inspration.”
“It was poor, desperate stuff alright.......you can see why our manager is taking flack, there is no doubt that our side of the last two years would have made a better fist of beating a very mediocre Cheltenham side...... What we have at the moment is a team of strangers lacking confidence and not producing much quality.........toothless summed up our attacking play, second best and pedestrian in midfield, thankfully pretty solid at the back......all night long we gave the ball away needlessly, our second touch was so often a tackle.”
“Interestingly whilst listening to the game on the radio I jotted down on my phone the things that were being reported. Don't know why really because I have never done it before. Just seemed like a good idea at the time:
- ‘The quality just isn't there.’
- ‘We are physically not at the game.’
- ‘Midfield we have been dominated which means the defence has been under constant pressure.’
- ‘We need strength but I can't see it on the bench or on the pitch. If I am honest Buckle has sold the players with strength.’"
“As for Paul Buckle, managers have recovered from greater crises than this but - at this moment - whatever their differences (much debated on this forum) it's odd how the stories of Paul Buckle and Leroy Rosenior appear to be merging. How strange, in fact, that the tales of many a Torquay manager start to make for unhappy reading two-thirds of the way through the chapter (what does this say of our club?). “ – Barton Downs
“I probably annoyed Mr D with my uncharacteristically negative take on proceedings. Cheltenham were very poor and it was very disheartening to see us being able to more than match them on that score. We were absolutely awful in the first half, but just awful in the second half....We are very lucky that we have two such poor teams as Darlo and Grimsby in our league (that's not counting Cheltenham - who are also poor). We're on target for 42 points and if we keep playing like last night we will struggle to do much better than that. 50 points is usually the safety marker and I'd be amazed if we reach that - but this could be the season that some lucky team stays up with 45 or even less. Let's hope so.”
“mr buckle states on the official site that we are improving with every game.He is kidding himself and nobody else,if anything we have gone to pot,he would gain more respect if he were honest,especially amongst the fans,but it seems he wants to continue to try hoodwink us,into thinking that several wins are just around the corner.A win around the corner would be nice,i know we use 50 points as a benchmark for safety,so 21 points needed for safety,we havent got 21 points in us at present,i wish to be proved wrong,but think its going to be a slow painful couple of months,with lots of lows and very few highs i am afraid,unless drastic changes are made sharply.”
“Anyone know where 'Mo' was.....?”
Well, we won the next game against Accrington, bagged a vital win against the hapless Darlington and finished the season with an eight game unbeaten run (including five successive wins). We finished 17th on 57 points.
The autumn of 2010 – this time last year – wasn’t much better. In between beating Port Vale on 28 August and winning against Morecambe on 30 October we didn't win for nine matches. This is how it went:
Southend United (A) L 1-2
ACCRINGTON STANLEY (H) D 0-0
Stevenage (A) D 0-0
MACCLESFIELD TOWN (H) L 1-3
ALDERSHOT TOWN (H) L 0-1
Shrewsbury Town (A) D 1-1
Crewe Alexandra (A) D 3-3
BURY (H) L 3-4
Gillingham (A) D 1-1
From memory it was pretty dull at Gillingham a year ago yesterday. Again I’m being wickedly selective but here are a few observations:
“I think that a result in that manner will have done the team a world of good. Dave Thomas believed that it was our worst performance of the season but a point is a point. If we keep incrementally edge forward eventually we will get back into a run of better form at some point.....Dave Thomas was right when he said that at this level it is a results business - playing out of trouble isn't always an option - I'm sure that they will have learned a lot from today.”
“The way to hit our defence is to break hard and fast down the flank and then hit a first time ball into the area between Ellis and Branston and Bevan ~ tha area of maximum damage potential ~ Nicho's too slow on the turn to cope with that and Robbo is such a tall guy he is susceptible to being run at under good control of the ball. But hey, this is League 2 football; not the Premiership and such weaknesses exist in most sides at this level. We're not exceptional, and we're not poor either. We have a lot of young potential in the squad at the moment and that is nice to see, given the restrictive nature of the available budget for the manager;.......Don't expect promotion from OUR club just now, it's neither developed on the field for it, nor equipped for it off the field yet. Everything needs to be patiently built so that there is some substance to it...”
“Still - down to fifteenth and Buckles Friday assertion "that we are at the right end of the table on merit" is ludicrous. We are showing relegation form and are now lower in the table than Stevenage, a team choc full of non league players and if you make that comparison it does not appear that our manager is as great as some people think. We really need to start winning really must take care of Morecambe on Saturday otherwise the writing is clearly on the wall.”
Ah, Stevenage. I wonder what happened to them? We dug out of our bad run with back-to-back wins against Morecambe and Oxford. However, in all honesty, we didn’t get it together over the depths of winter and all told - from losing at Southend on 4 September to that point-deductable defeat against Hereford on 1 February - we only managed 21 points from 21 games. That’s relegation form for 45% of the season.
Consequently, on the night of the Hereford game, we were pretty pissed off:
“I think many fans will turn their back on this one in protest at our ineptitude 1500 - 1800 at most. As a season ticket holder I will be doing just that the club still have my money but after having my heart ripped out this weekend they aint having any more. “
“Bloody hell 1-3 down. Did I just hear ‘we want Buckle Out we want Buckle’ over the comm. Im sorry but Buckle out.... he's a bloody joke.”
“Much like last year we are now in a position where one or two injuries to key players will probably see us relegated, such is our lack of strength in depth.Its desperation time.”
“It is clear that we cannot possibly carry on until the end of the season with what we have at present.”
“i fully agree with the comments on here about protecting the back four and i thought stanley was shocking and didnt bring anything new to the team. i cant understand why he has been brought in when we have cover for that position in oastler and lathrope both of whom in my opinion are much better defensively, maybe its his experience rather than youth that pb wanted.”
“1680 of us hardy souls to witness this utter rubbish,many more games like this and the fans will turn on PB i have no doubt,the boos have already started,i do not get involved with this,but really do see how the natives will get restless...The attendances will take a major hammering now,and although it hurts to say it,deserved in some ways,i and others for sure are very disillusioned with the crap being served up,and PB needs to honest with us and say its shite,not offend our intelligence by saying we play well when we don’t.”
“No form. No confidence. No supporters. No money. A stripped down bare bones squad. Eight points from a playoff spot and eight points from a relegation place, which way will we go?”
“I am expecting a storming performance from Torquay United. The manager and players have pride. They know they didn't perform on Saturday and I am sure they will bust a gut to put it right. Despite the understandable doom and gloom we have still got something to play for. Let's go for it, and then all meet up at Old Trafford for the Play-Off final!!”
Good grief, who was that last lunatic? Step forward....Stefano!
And what happened next? We beat Stockport on the Saturday – thank God! – and showed promotion form for the next couple of months. Here is the rather unusual pattern of how we obtained the points needed to reach the play-offs. It illustrates how a season can consist of peaks and troughs rather than the steady accumulation of points:
------------ Played/Points/(Points per game)
Matches 1-4: *4** 12** (3)
Matches 5-13: *9** 5** (0.55)
Matches 14-18: *5** 11** (2.2)
Matches 19-25: *7** 5** (0.71)
Matches 26-41: *16** 32** (2)
Matches 42-46: *5** 4** (0.8)
--------Total: *46** 69** (1.5)
(Does not take account of the point later deducted. The asterisks are meaningless. I'm merely attempting to make it more readable).
Now forgive me for using your observations. I’ve taken the names out but you are welcome to step forward to accept responsibility. It may sound all too “wise after the event” and clever dick. But, at the time, I agreed with some of your statements and you were frequently far braver than myself in putting them forward. I guess it goes to show at least five things. Firstly, the last two seasons were a bit odd (but we pretty much got there in the end, didn’t we?). Secondly, you never know what’s around the corner. Thirdly, how often do we make up our minds about something only to be proved immediately wrong? Fourthly, football teams are prone to good and bad runs; the curve of progress isn't always straight. Fifthly, we get rather ratty after a run of crap results.
Okay, so right now, having seen all of our league games - save for Bradford - I’m not hugely optimistic. And, like Jon, I see definite similarities with the last days of Leroy both - from my vantage point anyway - in terms of performances and personnel.
But you never know.
Do you?
Reading through one heck of a lot of threads there were two member's posts that really caught the eye and deserved to have their name in yellow! 
It is always nice when a newish member posts their thoughts, particularly on an away match thread which have been a bit lacking this year and Ben Currie spent a lot of time writing up an absolutely cracking match report and you won't read many better this season.
Eunan O'Kane wrote 'apologies to everyone who travelled to bradford to watch us today'
Kevin Nicholson wrote 'wasn't going to tweet as very angry but thanks to those who backed us today and believe me we'll work very hard to get it right!!'
Lee Mansell wrote 'Words can't describe how im feeling,thanks for the great support again, unfortunately as a group we did not turn up'
They weren't wrong.
After going to Shrewsbury two weeks prior, I wasn't going to bother with Bradford, such a lacklustre display didn't deserve my finanical and emotional torture. But after a more than satisfying performance against top of the table Morecambe my faith had been restored and i was ready again to plunge face-first into the hopeful randomness of another TUFC away day.
I went to the Bradford game last season, a match in which we played at our best for 90 glorious minutes, playing a sterile Bradford team off their own park, winning 3-0. a result which comfortably flattered the Bantams. I was not expecting the same today. I was picked up at 7.00 by two long suffering TUFC stalwarts, who haveprobably amassed more than 1000 away days between them. Asked how i was feeling, i replied with the now customary 'buzzing' however the truth was that i was not looking forward to the long journey north.
Being a TUFC fan, you have to get used to the long journeys, in some seasons the nearest away game can still be a 2 hour drive each way, which is why you need plenty of topics to discuss, being a TUFC we have all these moans and whinges in abundance. Having stopped for a pub lunch just outside Bradford, in a dreary little village called Drighlighton,we were ready for the football. Sadly at this point it absolutely started bucketing it down, this i felt could be a bad sign of what was to come.
As soon as you approach Bradford, you see the stadium straight-away, it sticks out like a collosus, sort of like a poor-mans St James Park in Newcastle, it certainly is an impressive sight and one would imagine very intimidating. however once you get inside you realise it isn't. It must be galling to be a Bradford fan, 11,000 is an impressive average attendance for league 2, but very poor for a stadium that holds 24,000. As a result you get vast areas of empy seats, the two upper tiers completely empty and serving as a bitter reminder of when their team was half decent over a decade ago. The fans who they do have don't sing either, i get the feeling this is a club stuck with a losing mentality having slowly worsened over the last 10 years.
TUFC lined up in a 4-5-1 formation, Stevens into the team in place of the injured Morris, and Howe coming back in for the absent Bodin, Daniel Leadbitter on the bench for the first time. TUFC kicked off and straight away O'Kane kicked it out of play whilst attempting a simple pass to Oastler, unfortunately this set the tone of our afternoon. From way up high this looked like a match between two ordinary teams, two teams failing to communicate properly with eachother which led to a very scrappy and mistake laden start. The only moments of note were a couple of long shots easily gathered by Olejnik.
The talking point, and as it turned out, the turning point of the game came on the half hour. The continually enigmatic Danny Stevens ran towards the Bradford area, slightly over-running it allowing the Bradford centre-back to intercept, he won the ball cleanly but followed through on Stevens after, who fell to the floor quite heavily. My first thought was that it was a good tackle and had one of our lads done it to them I would have been applauding loudly. The referee had a decent view of it though and must have deemed it to be 'excessive force' and 'studs showing' as he had no hesitation in brandishing the red card, it was out of his back pocket before he had stopped the play. Although it should obviously have given us an advantage i think it worked against us for 2 reasons.
First, it woke the crowd up. They had been silent up until then, but for 20 minutes it became a cauldron of hatred towards Stevens, The Ref, or any TUFC player who erred. I think the referee realised he had dropped a clanger here because he too lost his head for the rest of the half, drastic inconsistency seaped into his decision making no doubt under pressure from the armies of fist clenching, angst ridden fans in the stands.
Secondly it paved the arrival of Guy Branston, on as substitute to shore up the depleted defence. Here was a man with a massive point to prove, to the Bradford manager, his team-mates, to the fans who have yet to see the best of him, and of course to us, who he left for 'better things' in the summer. It seemed to me he was a mission to get the match won, he was excellent, a reminder of the cult hero status he had established in the short time he was with us. I am a big fan of the man and it was nice to see the mutual respect between him and us, he wrote a nice bit in his programme notes about us, and came over to thank us at the final whistle. He is yet to rediscover the form that earned him a place in the league 2 team of the year however, but this performance will go along way to proving to Bradford that he is capable of it.
You would think with a man advantage that we would dominate, sadly not. No doubt galvanised by the injustice of the sending off Bradford upped a gear and the left winger in particular was rampaging against Oastler, firing in a couple of dangerous crosses which yearned to be tucked away. The only goal of the game came a bit later however when a bit of a scramble in the box allowed Fagan a bit of space at the back post to finish smartly through the legs of the keeper, it was poor defensively, symptomatic of the whole lack of communication throughout the team. The goal was certainly deserved and Torquay needed to react quickly.
Until half time was probably our best spell of the game, Danny Stevens fired just over from 25 yards, Nicholson found space after a delightful 10 pass move, and shot across goal making it disappointingly too easy for the goalkeeper to save, and then Nicholson again had a 25 yard free kick well saved down low by the keeper. However we did not score in this little period and the half time whistle blew to a cacophony of boos.
The talk of half time was still mainly positive, with the exception of Shrewsbury, Lingy has normally sent the players out in the second half more determined and attack minded, so we were all pretty confident that our fortunes would change, whilst obviously chastising our boys for a woeful first half. A double substitution welcomed us as we took our seats for the second half, Macklin and Leadbitter on, Oastler and Lathrope off, a change to 4-4-2, 2 out and out wingers, two strikers, the message; to attack. I was curious to see how the new right side pairing would get on, close friends off the pitch, i hoped they had a good understanding. Against Bristol City in pre season they certainly looked exciting, and finally Macklin had been given an adequate amount of time on the pitch to make a difference, now was his chance to shine.
He didn't, none of us did. What followed was an unbelievably fustrating 45 minutes of football. We are proficient at passing the ball around the middle of the pitch, it looks professional, we can string 20 passes together easily, unfortunately it doesn't get us anywhere. The most important of those 20 passes is the final ball and with us it is severely lacking. There were times were it opened up for a shot, test the keeper, we didn't, there were times where the spare man was in acres of space and it was blatantly obvious to pass to him, we didn't. There were times were we matched and outnumbered them in the box if a cross of quality could be delivered, it couldn't. As we threw more men forward Bradford played brave and nearly caught us on the break a couple of times. In one instance a breakdown in communication left Fagan with a free run on goal and Olejnik in no-man's land, Fagan's audacious lobbed effort hitting the post and bouncing free. Minutes later on another break, the flying winger was felled as he ran through on goal, the resulting free-kick brought an impressive diving save from our goalkeeper. For all our possession and territory, it was they who created the best chances in the second half.
With the minutes ticking away, everyone was getting more impatient, the players growing increasingly fustrated that nothing was working, the fans equally irate that we couldn't fashion a chance against a man less. We won a succession of corners in the dying minutes and with a 'smash and grab' vision sprawled across my mind, Olejnik raced up to join the attack, from the ensuing scramble he nearly got on the end of something, but he was rushing around like a man possessed, he wanted it, it was nice to see that sort of passion. The referee finally put us out of our misery and as always out of duty, i stayed to applaud my team off the pitch,they probably didn't deserve it, but we all travelled the long distance together, we are a team, and we have a hell of a lot of work to do, and we will all be there next week to hopefully put it right.
And so, as i trudged the walk of shame back to the car, with my eyes on the floor, in the pouring rain, in a grim northern city, i allowed myself a few minutes quiet reflection on the performance. We could easily have won this game. The decision to go to 4-4-2 at half time with 2 wingers was definitely the right call. unfortunately certain members of the team let themselves down, didn't play to their optimum standard, or their optimum standard just isn't good enough for this level. In light of recent events i won't name names but i do think we lack quality in certain areas and would implore Lingy to delve into the loan market. As proven by Bodin, there is genuine quality out there to be approached. At the moment i would say we are carrying 3 or 4 performances, and the only consistent performers thus far have been Mansell, Nicholson and Olejnik. The quality we know other players possess has been only seen fleetingly and this inconsistency is fustrating and the difference between picking up 1 point, or 3.
I still don't think its been too bad a start from the team, we have had to play alot of good teams recently, and in some of those games we have been scratching our heads at how we didn't win. It was only the Shrewsbury match, and today were we have not turned up and given a decent account of ourselves. Today apart we can create chances, enough chances to easily win games in this division, it just didn't happen today and that is extra galling considering how poor Bradford are. They are seriously poor and it can't be much fun watching such a big club struggle in two - the £5 a head entrance fee special only added an extra 1,000 on the gate. It is at the other end of the pitch were we are struggling. We are leaking goal far too readily. I worry that Bobby Olejnik will get bored of conceding so many goals, of being generally overworked in every game he plays, we are very lucky to have such a capable keeper for this level, we need the defence to be busting a gut to protect him, much the same way that Branston did for his goalkeeper, who incidently did not have a single second half shot to save. There seems to me to be no communication about the back 4, and a cavalier approach to defending. All good teams are built on a good defence, and i am slightly worried by this considering we have a specialised defensive coach. A lot of work needed methinks, some players are taking their place in the team for granted.
I have yet to miss a league game this season, I think we are an average team, we win some, we draw some, we lose some, sometimes we play well, sometimes we don't. I think the 15th-20th area is reallistically where we will end up, and for a team with our budget that is acceptable. In spite of this bad day I will be there next week, and the week after that because we are a work in progress. Hopefully one or two parts of the machine will be working better by then. I have yet to see anything that tells me 'we are doomed' this season. But i do think its crucial to add to the squad, not only to add quality, but to give those already in the team a much needed boot up the behind. And anyway it could have been worse, we could have just been beaten 3-0 by Oxford.
From a newish member to someone we need no introduction to and his thread was very thought provoking as he looked at the ups and down of the season and how this can be repeated and then how we react to these events. Once again, Barton Downs has constructed a great post and noting how we seem to turn our results around on the approach to Halloween / Guy Fawkes night was somewhat prophetical after eight games without a win although he then concluded the opposite would happen!
Oct 24, 2011 20:14:54 GMT @bartondowns said:
What is it about Torquay United and the autumn? We appear to be in habit of falling with the leaves and only managing to revive things with Halloween and Bonfire Night on the horizon. Take this from two years ago, our first season back in the league. Eleven games without a win and winless between Burton (18 August) and Northampton (31 October):BARNET (H) L 0-1
Bradford City (A) L 0-2
BOURNEMOUTH (H) L 1-2
Rochdale (A) L 1-2
GRIMSBY TOWN (H) L 0-2
Macclesfield Town (A) L 1-2
ALDERSHOT TOWN (H) D 1-1
BURY (H) D 1-1
Notts. County (A) D 2-2
MORECAMBE (H) D 2-2
Lincoln City (A) D 0-0
That’s a strange set of results: just as we’d notched up eleven games without a win we’d also gone five without defeat. Consequently there was a mixed bag of comments on TFF after that game at Lincoln (and, bloody hell, look at that club now!). Here’s a couple:
“Phew, a clean sheet! 5 points out of the last 33. Buckles really got us firing again eh? if we can get 1 point a game to the end of the season we'll be RELEGATED!!! Buckle lover spin yet again. You can't make this sh1t up!!! The Titanic band plays on. Iceberg? What Iceberg??”
"There is so much negativity around that it is good to see the team pulled together and were a credit to Paul Buckle. OK we didn't get 3 points (though we deserved them) but if we play like we did in the second half, we will turn the corner and climb the table. We must remain positive and consider that 5 games without a defeat is not a bad record.”
From memory it didn’t look good. There was improvement – four wins between the end of October and Boxing Day – before ten games without a win between 28 December (remember that desperately disappointing defeat at Bournemouth?) and drawing at Cheltenham on one of those inevitable Tuesday nights in February at Whaddon Road. I remember being pretty down-hearted that evening. Here’s a highly-selective summary of how we saw it:
“Thought the boos at half time were a bit out of order, but it's understandable when you've watched that dross.”
“I think that things are still really bleak, but at least there was a bit of spark and perspiration in the 2nd 45. It's just a shame there is no inspration.”
“It was poor, desperate stuff alright.......you can see why our manager is taking flack, there is no doubt that our side of the last two years would have made a better fist of beating a very mediocre Cheltenham side...... What we have at the moment is a team of strangers lacking confidence and not producing much quality.........toothless summed up our attacking play, second best and pedestrian in midfield, thankfully pretty solid at the back......all night long we gave the ball away needlessly, our second touch was so often a tackle.”
“Interestingly whilst listening to the game on the radio I jotted down on my phone the things that were being reported. Don't know why really because I have never done it before. Just seemed like a good idea at the time:
- ‘The quality just isn't there.’
- ‘We are physically not at the game.’
- ‘Midfield we have been dominated which means the defence has been under constant pressure.’
- ‘We need strength but I can't see it on the bench or on the pitch. If I am honest Buckle has sold the players with strength.’"
“As for Paul Buckle, managers have recovered from greater crises than this but - at this moment - whatever their differences (much debated on this forum) it's odd how the stories of Paul Buckle and Leroy Rosenior appear to be merging. How strange, in fact, that the tales of many a Torquay manager start to make for unhappy reading two-thirds of the way through the chapter (what does this say of our club?). “ – Barton Downs
“I probably annoyed Mr D with my uncharacteristically negative take on proceedings. Cheltenham were very poor and it was very disheartening to see us being able to more than match them on that score. We were absolutely awful in the first half, but just awful in the second half....We are very lucky that we have two such poor teams as Darlo and Grimsby in our league (that's not counting Cheltenham - who are also poor). We're on target for 42 points and if we keep playing like last night we will struggle to do much better than that. 50 points is usually the safety marker and I'd be amazed if we reach that - but this could be the season that some lucky team stays up with 45 or even less. Let's hope so.”
“mr buckle states on the official site that we are improving with every game.He is kidding himself and nobody else,if anything we have gone to pot,he would gain more respect if he were honest,especially amongst the fans,but it seems he wants to continue to try hoodwink us,into thinking that several wins are just around the corner.A win around the corner would be nice,i know we use 50 points as a benchmark for safety,so 21 points needed for safety,we havent got 21 points in us at present,i wish to be proved wrong,but think its going to be a slow painful couple of months,with lots of lows and very few highs i am afraid,unless drastic changes are made sharply.”
“Anyone know where 'Mo' was.....?”
Well, we won the next game against Accrington, bagged a vital win against the hapless Darlington and finished the season with an eight game unbeaten run (including five successive wins). We finished 17th on 57 points.
The autumn of 2010 – this time last year – wasn’t much better. In between beating Port Vale on 28 August and winning against Morecambe on 30 October we didn't win for nine matches. This is how it went:
Southend United (A) L 1-2
ACCRINGTON STANLEY (H) D 0-0
Stevenage (A) D 0-0
MACCLESFIELD TOWN (H) L 1-3
ALDERSHOT TOWN (H) L 0-1
Shrewsbury Town (A) D 1-1
Crewe Alexandra (A) D 3-3
BURY (H) L 3-4
Gillingham (A) D 1-1
From memory it was pretty dull at Gillingham a year ago yesterday. Again I’m being wickedly selective but here are a few observations:
“I think that a result in that manner will have done the team a world of good. Dave Thomas believed that it was our worst performance of the season but a point is a point. If we keep incrementally edge forward eventually we will get back into a run of better form at some point.....Dave Thomas was right when he said that at this level it is a results business - playing out of trouble isn't always an option - I'm sure that they will have learned a lot from today.”
“The way to hit our defence is to break hard and fast down the flank and then hit a first time ball into the area between Ellis and Branston and Bevan ~ tha area of maximum damage potential ~ Nicho's too slow on the turn to cope with that and Robbo is such a tall guy he is susceptible to being run at under good control of the ball. But hey, this is League 2 football; not the Premiership and such weaknesses exist in most sides at this level. We're not exceptional, and we're not poor either. We have a lot of young potential in the squad at the moment and that is nice to see, given the restrictive nature of the available budget for the manager;.......Don't expect promotion from OUR club just now, it's neither developed on the field for it, nor equipped for it off the field yet. Everything needs to be patiently built so that there is some substance to it...”
“Still - down to fifteenth and Buckles Friday assertion "that we are at the right end of the table on merit" is ludicrous. We are showing relegation form and are now lower in the table than Stevenage, a team choc full of non league players and if you make that comparison it does not appear that our manager is as great as some people think. We really need to start winning really must take care of Morecambe on Saturday otherwise the writing is clearly on the wall.”
Ah, Stevenage. I wonder what happened to them? We dug out of our bad run with back-to-back wins against Morecambe and Oxford. However, in all honesty, we didn’t get it together over the depths of winter and all told - from losing at Southend on 4 September to that point-deductable defeat against Hereford on 1 February - we only managed 21 points from 21 games. That’s relegation form for 45% of the season.
Consequently, on the night of the Hereford game, we were pretty pissed off:
“I think many fans will turn their back on this one in protest at our ineptitude 1500 - 1800 at most. As a season ticket holder I will be doing just that the club still have my money but after having my heart ripped out this weekend they aint having any more. “
“Bloody hell 1-3 down. Did I just hear ‘we want Buckle Out we want Buckle’ over the comm. Im sorry but Buckle out.... he's a bloody joke.”
“Much like last year we are now in a position where one or two injuries to key players will probably see us relegated, such is our lack of strength in depth.Its desperation time.”
“It is clear that we cannot possibly carry on until the end of the season with what we have at present.”
“i fully agree with the comments on here about protecting the back four and i thought stanley was shocking and didnt bring anything new to the team. i cant understand why he has been brought in when we have cover for that position in oastler and lathrope both of whom in my opinion are much better defensively, maybe its his experience rather than youth that pb wanted.”
“1680 of us hardy souls to witness this utter rubbish,many more games like this and the fans will turn on PB i have no doubt,the boos have already started,i do not get involved with this,but really do see how the natives will get restless...The attendances will take a major hammering now,and although it hurts to say it,deserved in some ways,i and others for sure are very disillusioned with the crap being served up,and PB needs to honest with us and say its shite,not offend our intelligence by saying we play well when we don’t.”
“No form. No confidence. No supporters. No money. A stripped down bare bones squad. Eight points from a playoff spot and eight points from a relegation place, which way will we go?”
“I am expecting a storming performance from Torquay United. The manager and players have pride. They know they didn't perform on Saturday and I am sure they will bust a gut to put it right. Despite the understandable doom and gloom we have still got something to play for. Let's go for it, and then all meet up at Old Trafford for the Play-Off final!!”
Good grief, who was that last lunatic? Step forward....Stefano!
And what happened next? We beat Stockport on the Saturday – thank God! – and showed promotion form for the next couple of months. Here is the rather unusual pattern of how we obtained the points needed to reach the play-offs. It illustrates how a season can consist of peaks and troughs rather than the steady accumulation of points:
------------ Played/Points/(Points per game)
Matches 1-4: *4** 12** (3)
Matches 5-13: *9** 5** (0.55)
Matches 14-18: *5** 11** (2.2)
Matches 19-25: *7** 5** (0.71)
Matches 26-41: *16** 32** (2)
Matches 42-46: *5** 4** (0.8)
--------Total: *46** 69** (1.5)
(Does not take account of the point later deducted. The asterisks are meaningless. I'm merely attempting to make it more readable).
Now forgive me for using your observations. I’ve taken the names out but you are welcome to step forward to accept responsibility. It may sound all too “wise after the event” and clever dick. But, at the time, I agreed with some of your statements and you were frequently far braver than myself in putting them forward. I guess it goes to show at least five things. Firstly, the last two seasons were a bit odd (but we pretty much got there in the end, didn’t we?). Secondly, you never know what’s around the corner. Thirdly, how often do we make up our minds about something only to be proved immediately wrong? Fourthly, football teams are prone to good and bad runs; the curve of progress isn't always straight. Fifthly, we get rather ratty after a run of crap results.
Okay, so right now, having seen all of our league games - save for Bradford - I’m not hugely optimistic. And, like Jon, I see definite similarities with the last days of Leroy both - from my vantage point anyway - in terms of performances and personnel.
But you never know.
Do you?
