FL2: Hereford v Torquay 5th May 2012

It is interesting that above, Dave, you mention about our new stand being ready for next season. This was a rare away outing for me today and I was shocked how appalling Hereford's stadium is. It saddened me in fact to think with all those millions sloshing around in the Premier league that a lower league team like Hereford cannot even provide adequate facilities. After struggling to get a parking space next to the ground which was itself in a state of dis-repair with pot holes etc. I then walked around the stadium. Quite frankly the stadium has just been left to decay for decades with no sign of even a fresh lick of paint. I don't know what Hereford's plans are - are they moving or anything? Because if they are not it is very sad to see a league team in such disrepair. We had to squeeze side-ways to get through the turnstiles (and I am not particularly overweight). The away toilet was horribly small and dingy and looked more like a 2nd. world war air-raid shelter from the outside. When we sat in the covered stand in the front row, it felt like a fairground ride with our legs dangling and holding onto a metal bar. As for the uncovered temporary seating, it could not disguise the decaying stand around it.

I felt genuinely sorry for the Hereford fans today having such an awful decrepid stadium and it makes you wonder when / if they will return to the football league. It gave me no pleasure seeing their fans despondent after the game leaving the ground. We've been there and it's a horrible feeling going into the Conference non-league status. Today also made me grateful how Plainmoor is in comparison especially with the "Bristow Bench" on its way. We will finally have a neat looking stadium which helps fans, whether home or away, matchday experiences. I was shocked today and I wold not want to experience those sort of facilities again.

As for the match, well in the end the result did not matter anyway and we have got my preferred choice, Cheltenham, in the play-offs. The first 10 minutes we swamped Hereford and were fully in control. Hereford did not have to work particularly hard to score. Their first goal was a routine cross and close-range downward header and went through Bobby's legs. Torquay struggled to get into gear after this and were not really hurting Hereford. The foul by Mansell that gave away the penalty. My first impression was that it was not a penalty, I thought he got the ball - but it seems I was wrong on that? For once, Olejnik went the wrong way. At this point the Gulls were in serious trouble and we looked so lightweight in attack. Their third goal was a decent srike across Olejnik into the far corner. Torquay did have a few corners that kept getting just cleared off the line. At half-time I felt pretty embarrassed and was regretting my idea of travelling up.

Ling does have the habit of improving matters when they are going seriously wrong and on came Atieno and Jarvis for Howe and Lathrope. In the first minute of the second half the impressive Jarvis scored from close range and it was good to see the players really up for it. Even when the ball went out of play it was typically a Torquay player who rushed to get the ball. Hereford understanably were in no hurry. Torquay had Hereford under the cosh for virtually the entire second half and it was a question of whether we could do the unlikely and score four times! We gave it a good go I thought and Atieno got another goal back from close range as Hereford defenders appealed in vain for off-side. We did play well in the second half and looked a decent team and carved out plenty of chances. But in the end it was too big an ask. News filtered through about Craawly winning and so it was play-offs whatever we did anyway.

I think there is enough character and spirit in the team to give the play-offs a decent shot. We will sure give everything but you can't help but think we are carrying too many injuries in a small squad that does not give many options. I agree that someone with flair and pace like Bodin would have been very useful. For too long today, especially in the first half, we looked too pedrestrian and predictable.

But it's not unrealistic expectation - how is it unrealistic to expect one of the best teams in the league to do well? We're not a big club but the players are what matters. We had a good squad last year that was a match from being promoted. Yes, we lost a couple of good players, but we also gained some better ones. So how should we not also expect us to challenge for promotion again? It's all well and good to say "we never expected to do well", but just because those expectations are proved wrong doesn't mean we've overachieved with this set of players. Surely the genuinely unrealistic expectations were those of the members here who said we were going to struggle to stay in the league, or at least get nowhere near the play-offs

I think that to say that just because we exceeded expectations means that we've overachieved is incredibly disrespectful to the players - they deserve credit for being talented footballers instead of dismissing it as getting lucky in a few games, other teams failing, team spirit or some other way of saying they're not that good. We finished 5th on merit, and could have finished higher had we not capitulated at the end of the season. The fact is if we can keep this squad together and add a couple of back-up faces and improve in one or two areas, the chances are we'll challenge for promotion again, and that won't be a surprise. The media will predict we'll finish 16th or something but they always do, because they assume that as we're little old Torquay we won't sustain it - they haven't got a clue how League 2 works

The reason we've had a tendency to lurch from one end of the table to the other is because we keep losing key players - this year we still had O'Kane, we still had Mansell, we still had Nicholson, and we still had Lathrope. We might have lost Zebroski and Stanley but what have they done this year? We added Howe, a great striker at this level who has had a better season than the two strikers we had previously; Olejnik, the best keeper in the league, much better than Bevan; Saah, one of the best centre-backs in the league, who has had a much better season than Branston; and, for a while, Bodin, a very highly-rated young prospect and has had a better season than Robinson. We've also got a better manager - more tactically-astute and far less divisive. It should not have been a surprise that we've done well

Yes, they are League 2 players but so are all the other players in this division. It's not over-expectancy to expect a group of League 2 players to beat another group of League 2 players, is it? And we just happen to have one of the best groups of League 2 players in League 2 - the table says so. The table has said so for the last two seasons

I have been adamant from the beginning of the season that we had a very good side, one that was at least capable of getting into the play-offs - I've always had faith in the ability of our players and I've dished out a lot more praise than criticism this year. My blog articles are evidence of this. But when I posted that on here, a number of people flatly refused to believe it, especially when we went through our bad patch - I defended the team after the Southend and Gillingham defeats even though I hadn't seen them, while people who had seen them and said we were doomed to fall into a relegation battle

It's easy to say "ah well, never mind" when you never believed the players were good enough anyway and were pessimistic about our chances from the start - it's easy to win as a pessimist, because either you're right or you're wrong and happy. To me, that's not fair on the players, because that's saying they're not good enough twice over in one sentence - it's saying you didn't believe they were good enough to go up to start with, and they still aren't good enough to go up now, despite all the evidence to the contrary. They're clearly better than even some of the more "positive" members here think

My posts might appear on the surface to be negative here, but that's only a result of having faith in the ability of players and the manager that have taken us to within a few points of promotion since the beginning of the season, which most people here haven't had for the vast majority of it. So there's far more positivity in my posts here tonight than those who are saying "ah well, I didn't expect us to go up anyway"

I've not expected anything this year - I've been optimistic all year but I've thought for a while that we'd fall just short, although that doesn't make it any easier to take in the circumstances. The people who have been expecting have been the ones expecting us to disappoint. And it's a sad reflection on the fans of this club that most people here go into a season expecting us to be mediocre and then when we aren't say "I never expected us to be that good anyway, so what difference does it make that we didn't get promoted?" The last few years have been a golden age for the club, with 4 top 6 finishes in the last 5 years and several good cup runs (and what other lower league clubs can say that?), and yet the way people are talking, you'd think we'd been stuck in mid-table for years. And I'm getting criticised for expecting success? Our track record suggests success is in the blood at this club at the moment, so, hell, why not expect success?

what an excellent post budleigh. reading that has really brightened my day following the doom and gloom of yesterday. cheers!!!

Lucky to have seen the game having narrowly avoided being run over by some git up from the 'smoke' in his 'pimped up jam' .

Very true - I guess we'll never know if the boat had been pushed out (or at least launched in readiness) with the injection of a few additional players we may have got those 5 precious points.

One of those games and one of those days. Hereford only had to touch the ball in the first half and it ended up in the back of the net aided by some poor refereeing (definite push by fat boy Facey and a foul is a foul in anyones language) and some very poor touches - what was Mansell thinking for the penalty.

Second half started like Meat Loaf and we quickly pulled one back from Jarvis and an 'off side' goal from Aiteno. That left us nearly 30 minutes (or half an hour in real time) to pull off a miracle and hope that Crawley didn't win. It was not to be and after saying our goodbyes and cheerio my son we headed back to God's country via Tintern Abbey and the Wye Valley before being dropped outside the Dumpling at 2000 - cheers Jon. First beer of the day.

Cheltenham next - lovely place and know the area well having worked in Stow-on-the-Wold in the late 70's where I met the future Mrs Chelston who then followed me back to Torquay in the early 80's (not sure what smiley to put in there).

if we had started with 4-4-2 yesterday,hereford would of been well mullered by half time,no disrespect to rene howe who has had a superb season,but the second half changes proved that,we were just not at the races first half,it was all over by half time,irrespective off what crawley or southend did.But it wasnt yesterday that cost us,it was inept recent performances that finally undid our promotion challenge.Good luck to crawley,thats twice now they have turned us over,man utd fa cup now promotion,despite selling tubbs and co they re invested in quality and its shown.We have run out of steam and ideas,and no freshens in the squad to keep everyone on their toes,fantastic season or not we have come so close but blown it,as far as the play offs are concerned i think we will blow that as well,we have become too over cautious rather than going for it,i hope i am wrong,but cheltenham are back in form,and will seriously be up for a scrap

...and Macklin who has blistering pace....