TALKING POINTS

Matt Roberts

@MatthewVA438

Matt discusses the Trophy defeat

THE BRIEFEST OF CAMEOS

Given the complete lack of anything to really get excited about these days, the attention of the yellow army naturally turned to the rumours of former Gull Duane Ofori-Acheampong signing once more us almost a decade after his last less than memorable stint. Does anything else better exemplify the depths to which this club has sunk than by signing a player who hasn’t played at this level for almost two years? And whom has achieved little of note in that time? When even the usually fanatically optimistic official website can only describe a player as “imposing”, you sense expectations may not be high.

Anyway, forget all that, maybe he’ll just be what we’re looking for? He’s a striker anyway and we don’t have any of those. Never mind, Duane limped off after five minutes with a hamstring injury. Surely not another example of us signing a player who’s unfit? Or maybe we just Torquayified him in record time.

TACTICS, WHAT TACTICS?

I know the injuries are causing us all sorts of problems but I still expect Torquay United to go out onto the pitch with some sort of plan of how they’re going to approach the game in mind. Hereford certainly did but we didn’t. Hoof it long and that was about it. What do we practice on the training pitch? Passing to team mates would be nice, or just some team building in general given that the players looked like they hadn’t a clue who each other were.

WE ARE NOT A SERIOUS CLUB

What is a solid indicator that we are plumbing the depths in this season? Why, Hall and Marshall as a duo up front of course! Yes, I know we’ve got injury problems but this utterly signifies the mess we are in. Lump the ball up to two players who are totally unsuited to the role they’re being asked to play and hope something happens as a result. Shockingly, nothing came of it. Perhaps it would have helped if another striker or two had been signed in the summer to compliment the two we had at the club at the time?

IT ALL SPILLS OVER

Full time saw more anger and recrimination than I have seen at a Torquay game before. The fans who had travelled in their numbers (267) gave plenty of positivity at the beginning of the game, but the team needs to give something back. They didn’t do their part. Aaron Downes came over to do his now standard apologies to the crowd whilst Gary remained way off by the halfway line, looking on before shuffling down the tunnel. Top marks for letting your assistant take all the flak Gary.

It wasn’t just that anger was directed at the staff and players though, fans started to fall out amongst themselves. I heard some utter delusion in that stand, apparently we shouldn’t boo or criticise the players after a performance like that because. They might play better if we clap them. I was at a complete loss at this astounding inability to face reality.

To top it off as we were leaving the ground, my mate who said that Gary should “get out of the club” was told we were being “toxic”. We’ve had years of what I would most certainly call toxicity from the club with inept management, poor signings, utter contempt of the fanbase but we dare criticise this and it’s our fault? Like most people reading this, I’ve spent an ungodly amount of money supporting my team for decades and I’ve been there for the highs and lows. We, the fans, have more than done our bit, perhaps some of the more blinkered of our fans might ask when the club will start doing their bit?

COYY – MATT

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