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Post by Swanny on Sept 17, 2011 18:30:23 GMT
As it turned out another amazing come-back when all seemed lost. An absolutely shocking first half performance particularly by our defence and our keeper Olejnik, unusually for him, was also unconvincing. Rotherham looked sharper and quicker and should have been out of sight. Yet somehow Torquay went in at half-time just 2-3 down so there was still hope. Crowd 2,330, 240 from Rotherham, sponsors MOTM Nicholson. Personally I would have given it to Howe or Bodin.
Torquay's habit of having a nightmare start continued today. After just 3 minutes we let in a rather soft goal. A shot came off a defender and looped towards Olejnik as our defence stopped to look for offside. Olejnik did not get to the ball soon enough and the ball rebounded off him. Grabban from close range but from a tight angle then planted the ball into an empty net. It all looked rather easy and worse was to come on 10 minutes. Over came a Rotherham corner to the back post, Olejnik stayed on his line, and an unmarked Cresswell headed in. It was alarming to watch our defence ripped apart with no leadership from anyone in defence including our keeper. Do they talk to eachother?
Not for the first time this season Torquay unexpectedly got a goal back when all seemed lost. A brilliant one-two between Bodin and O'Kane put Bodin through and Bodin buried his shot expertly giving the keeper no chance. In fact Bodin was our only real shining light in the first half and our only real threat. Poor old Howe hardly got a touch and Mcphee was having one of those games when he did little right.
Rotherham made it three from a cross on our right when you felt Oastler could have done more to close him down. Grabban in the centre of the goal clipped the ball in with a defender on him. Again the defending looked too slack and I was fearing a hammering. On 42 minutes Nicholson through sheer persistence gave us hope again and ran on and finally headed the ball over their keeper I believe. When the half-time whistle blew somehow Torquay were 2-3 down but still in the match. Such was Torquay's lack-lustre performance and Rotherham's quality the game should have been beyind Torquay.
Amazingly after 47 minutes Torquay equalised and what a goal it was! Howe used his strength to shrug off a defender and was clear on goal against their keeper. Howe delightfully chipped the keeper in perfect timing as the keepr committed himself. This was a different Torquay this half and there were some good flowing moves and Howe in particular was outstanding putting himself about. Torquay's running off the ball was also impressive when we were attacking. Rotherham still threatened on the break but our defence coped better and Saah in particular was much more commanding.
I think it is fair to say that Torquay had the better of the secong half and there was a controversial moment when Torquay were robbed. Howe intellingently passed the ball to Bodin on the edge of the penalty area in the clear. A defender went to Bodin and clearly brought Bodin down as the defender was beaten by Bodin's turn. At the very least the defender should have been red carded and I believe it should have been a penalty as Bodin was right on the edge of the penalty area. A free-kick was given and the defender was yellow carded. Torquay were on top and looked the likeliest to score.
Atieno came on for McPhee who had contibuted little. Bodin nearly scored near the end as his shot crashed off the bottom of the post and Atieno blasted the rebound well over. After 3 minutes of added time the final whistle blew.
It was a superb come-back from Torquay against one of the best teams in the division and in the end we deserved a share of the spoils. It was a crazy game and tremendous entertainment. Our performance ranged from the ridiculous to the sublime! Our season has rather been like that so far, hasn't it?
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Post by loyalgull on Sept 17, 2011 18:42:11 GMT
the result was about right on a day of great entertainment mixed with extremely good play mixed in with absolutely horrendous defending,our defence was laughable at times and even our goalie looked iffy.But oh so typical torquay,just as you think a scunthorpe like 8-1 scoreline will happen we start to play,and when we did we were superb.For the life of me i cant understand how most of our games have the same pattern,dire first half,encouraging second half.From a player observation,howe was very good,saah and mcphee very poor,mcphee has done very little since his return,he just doesnt do the business imho,but hey another cracking game and we are up there battling
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Post by Ditmar van Nostrilboy on Sept 17, 2011 18:44:54 GMT
"A defender went to Bodin and clearly brought Bodin down as the defender was beaten by Bodin's turn. At the very least the defender should have been red carded and I believe it should have been a penalty as Bodin was right on the edge of the penalty area."
Right in front of me Swan and looked outside the area to me. There was another defender goal side of the ball by the penaly spot i think as well.
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Post by jmgull on Sept 17, 2011 20:58:02 GMT
Yep....no red card for me either, however unjust it seemed, their was another defender in the vicinity who probably wouldn't have stopped Bodin getting his shot away but was there nonetheless, deffo outside the box too. Ref got it right, sadly just a cynical but very professional foul.
Their third goal was definitely "shinned" over Olejnik - sublime my arse!
From what I've seen of us this season, we look a top 6 side attacking-wise, the splendid passing game allows us to attack with numbers and real style.......defensively though a bottom 6 side, I guess we're destined to finish somewhere in between.
The entertainment was so good today, I nearly forgot how much I'm really, really hating the view from the family stand.
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rjdgull
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Post by rjdgull on Sept 17, 2011 21:39:51 GMT
Some good reports there and 10 goals this week has certainly made for some great entertainment but like Jon I would take a 1-0 win and the warm afterglow of victory. I did struggle to pick the exact formation we started with but it did look something like how we finished against Cheltenham with O'Kane in the hole, McPhee and Howe up front with Bodin on the left. It did mean that most of our attacks came from the left as Oastler did not have much support on the right. The first goal was slightly fortunately in that a shot from the edge of the area ricocheted off a Torquay player and as Olejnik and a Torquay player came out together, the ball spilled out near the by line on the edge of the six yard box and Grabban was able to slot into the empty net from a very narrow angle. Shortly after a deep cross from a corner to the far post was headed in unchallenged and it was just as well Mansell didn't use his arm to keep it out! Again Bodin, was able to pull one back relatively quickly with a good shot into the bottom left hand corner of the goal and although we started to threaten, we were still looking fairly loose at the back and needed to get to half time still in touching distance. However, some good skill and play by their winger got the half yard to get the cross in (as opposed to Joe being completely skinned) which was finished by a lovely flick using the pace of the ball. However, as on Tuesday, we only went in one down after Nicholson charging forward got clear and was able to head in his own shot after it rebounded off the keeper. The second half started well with a hoofed clearance from Nicholson falling nicely for Howe who was able to use his strength to get beyond the defender and then kept his cool well to slot the ball past their keeper and suddenly Rotherham knew that they were in a match. Although that was the last goal scored, the game remained open with both teams going for the win and was played in a decent spirit with no time wasting involved!  The referee was a little fussy at times but remained consistent. I thought the Bodin penalty was just out of the area and the second defender running back came into play after he cut inside so a yellow wasn't a bad decision. Nice to see Pringle, coming on as a substitute and I was glad that a former player didn't score against us for successive matches as he had his chances. Bodin almost won it for us after the ball was crossed to him in a good position but with the keeper beaten it hit the post and unfortunately it came to Atieno as opposed to cool Howe who promptly scored a magnificent drop goal perhaps with his mind on proceedings in New Zealand. So once again, for the third time at home this season, we have had to come from behind to salvage the draw. In all three of those matches, we had chances to go on and win and we certainly seem to play better as the match goes on. Whether Ling delivers one heck of a half time talk is debatable but I think the type of football we play probably suits us more as the match opens up with bigger teams seemingly out muscling us in the early stages. Maybe the answer, is to play more defensively in the first half with say only one up front as no one has really nailed down a position alongside Howe? |
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chelstongull
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Post by chelstongull on Sept 18, 2011 9:10:33 GMT
The second half started well with a hoofed clearance from Nicholson falling nicely for Howe I thought it was a sublime 30 yard precision pass myself. Good to see him swing his foot, miss the ball, fall on his arse and Dopey the lino blew for a foul. |
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Post by aussie on Sept 18, 2011 10:05:11 GMT
The second half started well with a hoofed clearance from Nicholson falling nicely for Howe I thought it was a sublime 30 yard precision pass myself. Good to see him swing his foot, miss the ball, fall on his arse and Dopey the lino blew for a foul. Apparently the Lino got some aweful but deserved stick for his performance! |
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Post by aussie on Sept 18, 2011 10:09:02 GMT
Yep....no red card for me either, however unjust it seemed, their was another defender in the vicinity who probably wouldn't have stopped Bodin getting his shot away but was there nonetheless, deffo outside the box too. Ref got it right, sadly just a cynical but very professional foul. Their third goal was definitely "shinned" over Olejnik - sublime my arse! From what I've seen of us this season, we look a top 6 side attacking-wise, the splendid passing game allows us to attack with numbers and real style.......defensively though a bottom 6 side, I guess we're destined to finish somewhere in between. The entertainment was so good today, I nearly forgot how much I'm really, really hating the view from the family stand. I was pretty much in line with this incident and it was just outside the box, the only other defender near it was in line not goal side and there is not a hope in hell he could have stopped Bodin thus the foul in my opinion being committed by the last defender who deffo stopped a goal scoring opportunity, RED CARD!!!! |
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petef
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Post by petef on Sept 18, 2011 11:05:33 GMT
Yep....no red card for me either, however unjust it seemed, their was another defender in the vicinity who probably wouldn't have stopped Bodin getting his shot away but was there nonetheless, deffo outside the box too. Ref got it right, sadly just a cynical but very professional foul. Their third goal was definitely "shinned" over Olejnik - sublime my arse! From what I've seen of us this season, we look a top 6 side attacking-wise, the splendid passing game allows us to attack with numbers and real style.......defensively though a bottom 6 side, I guess we're destined to finish somewhere in between. The entertainment was so good today, I nearly forgot how much I'm really, really hating the view from the family stand. I was pretty much in line with this incident and it was just outside the box, the only other defender near it was in line not goal side and there is not a hope in hell he could have stopped Bodin thus the foul in my opinion being committed by the last defender who deffo stopped a goal scoring opportunity, RED CARD!!!! Proffessional foul in principle he should have gone last defender or not.  |
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petef
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Post by petef on Sept 18, 2011 11:12:08 GMT
Yep....no red card for me either, however unjust it seemed, their was another defender in the vicinity who probably wouldn't have stopped Bodin getting his shot away but was there nonetheless, deffo outside the box too. Ref got it right, sadly just a cynical but very professional foul. Their third goal was definitely "shinned" over Olejnik - sublime my arse! From what I've seen of us this season, we look a top 6 side attacking-wise, the splendid passing game allows us to attack with numbers and real style.......defensively though a bottom 6 side, I guess we're destined to finish somewhere in between. The entertainment was so good today, I nearly forgot how much I'm really, really hating the view from the family stand. Apologies once again It was a stessful afternoon- corrected. |
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Post by aussie on Sept 18, 2011 11:34:07 GMT
I was pretty much in line with this incident and it was just outside the box, the only other defender near it was in line not goal side and there is not a hope in hell he could have stopped Bodin thus the foul in my opinion being committed by the last defender who deffo stopped a goal scoring opportunity, RED CARD!!!! Proffessional foul in principle he should have gone last defender or not. Pro-foul is a matter of opinion really, the Ref can`t have seen it as a pro-foul although I think it was for sure! Either way he should have been given his marching orders! |
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jj
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Post by jj on Sept 18, 2011 11:58:54 GMT
Just a quick reply to swangull, I agree with your choice (or one of them) my MoM would have been R Howe, his first touch is great and distribution good also.
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rjdgull
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Post by rjdgull on Sept 18, 2011 13:10:25 GMT
The second half started well with a hoofed clearance from Nicholson falling nicely for Howe I thought it was a sublime 30 yard precision pass myself. Good to see him swing his foot, miss the ball, fall on his arse and Dopey the lino blew for a foul. You could well be right as I was sitting in the family stand and your perspective would have been better than mine!  However, my recollection was he cleared a cross from the edge of the area using the outside of the foot and wasn't even looking up the field but then I was a long way away!  |
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Post by rjdgull on Sept 18, 2011 13:40:47 GMT
Rotherham fans were not too impressed with Howe. Here is one quote: "Cresswell got ripped inside out by an overweight sumo wrestler with the turning circle of the QE2." Several other comments in a similar vein but like it or not he was one of the better players on the pitch!  |
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Post by Father Jack on Sept 18, 2011 14:01:03 GMT
Very shakey defense in the first half again.
1st goal? Its all very well standing there with your arm in the air appealing for offside (which he certainly looked like) but play to the feckin whistle.
2nd goal was a free header from Cresswell, both Robbo and Saah seemed to be marking their no 9.
3rd goal was a (lucky?) flick off the outside of the boot from the man with the goatee, looping over Bobbys head.
I did think at the time Bobby could have done a bit more with the first 2 goals but not much about the 3rd.
Bit worrying that goals 1 and 3 started from the right back position where Joe had a very torrid time. Whether its because the opposition were too good for him or the formation played gave him little support is open to personal preference.
Billy the Bod certainly looks to have both pace and the technique to go with it, and Renee certainly makes a good holdup man, he was certainly my MoM yesterday and showed excellent composure to outmuscle Cresswell to latch onto the long clearance from Nico and sold the keeper before tapping in at the near post. Atieno was presumably trying to make an impression when he came on but trying to out jump your team mates when theyre in a better position to win possession is not the way to impress anyone I suspect.
Yes it's another point gained but as someone already said, 1 win out of 5 at home isnt going to do much to increase the attendance, no matter how entertaining the draw may be for a neutral.
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The referee was a little fussy at times but remained consistent. I thought the Bodin penalty was just out of the area and the second defender running back came into play after he cut inside so a yellow wasn't a bad decision.
