TALKING POINTS

Dom Roman

@DomRoman

Dom discusses talking points ahead of the NL game

NEEDING A CURE FOR THE AWAY DAY BLUES

Trying – check, Missed Chances – check, Great Away Following – check. Saturday’s game had familiarities with many of our away days this season, an opportunity to win but not doing enough to make it happen. Gary Johnson’s men are contesting pretty much every game until the last minute and there is plenty of fine margins to discuss in our match verdicts, but close will not be good enough to save us from relegation. This recent run of 7 games – 1 win, 2 draws and 4 losses is a very poor return and does not point to the Gulls moving up the table. Solihull Moors (a) is another possibility of 3 points, but without a win on their travels since early December can the Gulls actually bag them? I live in hope!

THE LINE-UP

Brett McGavin scored a super goal on Saturday and then unfortunately got injured, whilst Tom Lapslie is struggling fitness wise after a number of games and a number of typically whole-hearted efforts. So the midfield could conceivably include Saturday’s subs Kevin Dawson and Ryan Hanson, though I guess enough Deep Heat will be rubbed on Tom to prevent that happening! Otherwise there’s little changes likely unless Asa Hall or Dan Martin make sudden unexpected returns to the starting line-up. Have the Gulls ever spent a whole season so lacking in squad depth and resources? I doubt it.

ROSS MARSHALL

Ian East awarded Saturday’s man of the match to Ross Marshall, and the defender has shown seeds of promise since the New Year. There’s still been much incompetence, but perhaps the centre back is working out his game and working out how to be a National League professional. He’s got a great partner in Nico Lawrence, and seems like an honest chap who’ll give his all for the Gulls. With the run-in nearing we have to hope these two young lads can help United to some valuable clean sheets – with our lack of firepower we need them.

SOLIHULL MOORS

Solihull Moors are not the same team as last season, sitting in 13th with 45 points from 35 games, they are very much rooted to mid-table and will be unhappy with how their campaign has panned out. Moors include players such as Joe Sbarra and Jamey Osborne in midfield, and with United’s engine room very fragile, that area of the pitch is a major concern heading into this one. Dangerous striker Andrew Dallas has left for Chesterfield so that helps…well until we play the Spireites anyway! Neal Ardley’s men taught us a lesson in September when they whipped us 4-1 at Plainmoor, but this will surely be yet another close affair for United. Close but hopefully not painful….

STILL TIME…

It feels like we’ve been holding onto the coat tails of 20th position for months. The gap has generally been around 2-5 points, but we just cannot find any consistency to lift us out of the bottom four. 12 games remain and time is still on our side, but we can’t keep missing out on opportunities like Aldershot (a) and we can’t keep expecting the likes of Dorking, Yeovil and York to keep failing. At the moment 50 points seems highly unlikely, but less than that could do it. There is still time, there is still hope and a win at Moors could be huge. Fingers crossed (again!) and please concentrate on set pieces lads.