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Dom Roman – @DomRoman

Dom discusses the Gulls

MAIDSTONE IS MASSIVE!

I’ve been hearing ‘MUST-WIN’ a lot this season, the reasons being obvious! But it’s not been quite true I’d say…until now. Other teams are starting to gather points around us (witness Aldershot suddenly winning a couple and moving up to 14th!) and a 5 point gap has now opened up between 20th and 21st. Increasingly worrying times for Torquay United and it leads us to this weekend. If we fail to beat a poor Maidstone team at Plainmoor then the fat lady will start doing some warm up exercises and the NLS will begin to beckon us back down to the regional fixtures. It’s simply massive.

FIXTURES

Not all is lost of course, but you can’t help but take a peek at the upcoming fixtures after the Maidstone game. High-flying Woking away, 2nd placed Notts County at home and Barnet, a team that we usually struggle to beat. After that the likes of Dorking, Southend and Aldershot line up on the fixture list, but without 3 points against Maidstone, the gap could be decidedly bigger and more troubling by that time. We could upset the odds before that point, but the Gulls have to fly into this game like it’s a relegation decider.

MAIDSTONE UNITED

Maidstone have lost their last 8 National League games, so let’s be honest if we can’t beat them then we don’t deserve to be in the National League for much longer. Caretaker manager George Elokobi has overseen some better performances from his team, with an FA Trophy penalties win over Notts County and a narrow defeat against Wrexham, but they currently look destined to return to the National League South.

SCUNTHORPE

In the relegation spots Scunthorpe earned a victory at Halifax in mid-week and joined us on 22 points. With new owners in place, you do worry that they’ll start picking up more points and complicate matters at the bottom of the league. They play Bromley this weekend at home, another win and Scunny supporters will believe that survival is definitely possible. After a horrible few years the Scunthorpe supporters certainly deserve some joy, but we’d rather it not be at our expense!

GATESHEAD

Mike Williamson’s Gateshead FC team sit on 22 points as well, and have a favourable goal difference over Torquay and Scunthorpe. Like most teams their recent fixtures have been disrupted by the weather. They did predictably lose to Wrexham 0-3 during the week, but picked up 4 points over Xmas against York and grabbed a decent draw away to Barnet. They face Wealdstone away tomorrow, let’s hope Corie Andrews’ new team does us a favour.

YEOVIL AND OLDHAM

19th and 20th placed Yeovil Town and Oldham sit on 27 points. Oldham Athletic are a team you’d expect to rise up to mid-table. They have won 3 out of their last 5 games and should have more than enough quality to avoid any relegation scrap. They travel to Aldershot tomorrow. Meanwhile Mark Cooper’s Yeovil Town team remain in danger this season. The Glovers have a tough fixture away at Daggers tomorrow, a game you’d expect them to lose. 3 points for us at Plainmoor could place us 2 points behind them. Don’t let us down Daggers!

OTHERS

In 18th place with 29 points sit Alan Devonshire’s Maidenhead United. A club that always seem to sit…around 18th place. The Magpies are in a bad run of form and play York City away from home tomorrow. They could get dragged into the relegation fight if this form continues, but year after year they seem to gather themselves and gather enough points, so we’ll see. Marc White’s Dorking team started the season with a bang, but have started to fade in recent months and have lost convincingly against both Oldham & Eastleigh this month. Wanderers are an attacking team, but will concede goals with their style of play and have a big home game against Solihull Moors tomorrow. Solihull are fumbling along aimlessly this season, so that could go either way.

JUST WIN!

No excuses please lads, take care of business tomorrow and let the other results fall as they may. A defeat and a possible 8 point gap is unthinkable, and would make our decision to stick with Gary Johnson look silly. But the good news is we have played reasonably well in the last few games, we have a fit squad with Asa Hall and Tom Lapslie both available in midfield, we have a new signing in Tope Fadahunsi who could make an impact upfront…and not forgetting we have the Yellow Army pushing the team on. Fingers firmly crossed, see you at Plainmoor.