MATCH VERDICT
John Cadigan
@johncadigan
WORTHING FC 4-2 TORQUAY UNITED – MATCH SUMMARY
What’s the smallest denomination of hope possible for a human being to experience? A glimmer? A flicker?
Because whichever one it is, that’s all it was. A brief moment of joy where it seemed plausible that today was going to be different. Today was the day we got our house in order. Today was the day we upset the odds. Today was the day we started showing this league who was boss. And then Mark Halstead fell over the top of a shot moving so slowly that he could’ve got up and fallen over again and still saved it. And that was that. This cursed club.
Up until that point, we actually did ok. Playing a 4-4-1-1 with Lapslie in the hole behind Ash, we started brightly and scored a nice goal. Brett McGavin took a quick free quick to Dan Martin, who fed a lovely through ball for Brad Ash. After a surge into the box from the left hand side, his low cross was guided in by Tom Lapslie, who’d got in front of his man to send the ball trickling over the line.
But Worthing didn’t panic, simply stepping up a gear with ease, and we couldn’t get anywhere near them. And for all those who’ve seen us play at Hillsborough, at White Hart Lane and at St Andrews on a level playing field, I’m afraid you haven’t misread that sentence. Read it again if you must.
Utterly forgettable Gulls quiz question answer Joe Felix tore United apart time and again down Worthing’s right, and it was from that side that Dylan Fage eventually equalised after a sustained spell of pressure. Sequels are always tough to get right, but just minutes after his first aberration Halstead successfully managed the difficult second shitshow, initially looking like he’d saved well from a long distance shot, but somehow inexplicably flapping the ball into the air rather than tipping it round the post. Jack Grealish-a like and all-round irritant Danny Cashman couldn’t miss from a yard to make it 2-1.
Halstead had injured himself in the course of blowing our lead and was brought off for Rhys Lovett, achieving a pretty remarkable holy trinity of hopelessness with just over thirty minutes gone. But the pressure didn’t abate, with Worthing pouring forward time after time, passing Torquay off the pitch and slicing through holes in the Gulls’ defence where Ollie Tomlinson should’ve been if he was capable of staying in position. Just before the break, league top scorer Ollie Pearce had the time and space to shoot across Lovett from the right hand side to make it 3-1 and all but end the game as a contest.
The dugouts at Worthing are right in front of the away section, and the verdict for Gary Johnson at half time was unequivocal, just as it was when he reappeared from the tunnel. As usual, ‘The Gaffer’ gave some verbals back to those that had spent precious time and money following his underperforming team around the southern half of the country. For what it’s worth, I don’t think any manager should ever be so invincible that he can openly go to war with the fans like this.
The second half saw Worthing coast through the first twenty minutes with complete ease, until one of the few to come away with any credit, Ethon Archer, picked up on a deflected Lapslie shot at the edge of the box, turned inside and unleashed an unstoppable effort into the top corner. He really deserved it. He’s a trier.
Honourable mentions should also go to Lapslie who was the only real attacking threat, and perhaps Brett McGavin for a couple of decent passes, but the truth is we never, ever looked like finding another goal, completely lacking the quality to pose any real problems to a team absolutely light years ahead of us. And they’re far from the only part-time outfit to out-prepare, out-coach, out-recruit and outplay us this season. It’s utterly damning.
I can’t really be bothered to watch the manager’s post-match interviews any more. I’m sure he blamed the referee. We’ve had better, we’ve had worse, but she made no material impact on the result. Moxey’s two yellows were fair and Worthing could easily have had a penalty when Lovett seemed to clip the striker who’d rounded him. Johnson got himself booked for no real reason as the game fizzled out, and when Cashman sealed a deserved Worthing win late on with a sweetly hit strike across Lovett, it was utterly unsurprising.
PLAYER RATINGS
1. GK: Mark Halstead – 3
Pretty standard stuff. Made a couple of blinding saves. Then made two horrendous errors and cost us. Saves the hard ones, not the easy ones. A mad half hour, but enough credit in the bank to spare him today.
6. RB: Ross Marshall – 5
Fine. Most of the Worthing attacks came from our left or through the centre, meaning he did ok. Injured and taken off at half-time. He’s had worse games.
23. CB: Ollie Tomlinson – 2
Garbage. Drawn to the ball like a moth to the flame, constantly flying out of defence to win the ball high up, missing it and leaving us exposed. Barely won a battle all game. Genuinely awful. As Torquay Talk legend and all-round excellent human Jonny Jones pointed out during the game, that he was the replacement for Nico Lawrence says a lot about where we’ve gone wrong.
21. CB: Dean Moxey – 4
Made a couple of big interceptions and won some early duels, but struggled the longer the match went on, and his lack of pace was exposed. The sending off was justified. Again, plenty of credit in the bank.
3. LB: Dan Martin – 5
One amazing goal-line block in the first half when their striker had rounded Halstead. Through-ball for Ash for the opening goal. Er, struggling after that. Not very good.
14. MF: Brett McGavin – 5
Not one of his better games, a couple of quality passes and set Martin away with a quick free kick for the first goal. But Worthing made sure not to give him the same amount of room Dover did, and when a team does that it’s always an issue.
18. MF: Will Jenkins Davies – 5
Adam Randell he is not, his passing was woeful. Puts himself about a bit, but that’s all you can say.
4. MF: Tom Lapslie – 7
Gave it everything as ever. Played in the number ten role and was probably our most potent attacking threat. He always looked dangerous. Always pops up with important goals and you can tell he cares. Took a blow in the first half but recovered. One of our few rays of hope.
17. RW: Dillon De Silva – 2
Utterly useless. No quality. No first touch. No end product. Seemed to be doing his best to get sent off. Got a 2 for turning up.
30. LW: Ethon Archer – 7
He really does not stop running. Skilful and strong, I really like him, and he deserved his goal for the sheer quality of the strike alone, never mind the effort he put in. A rare good find from Pete Johnson, although how he hopes to find more from his position on the Worthing bench today I do not know.
11. ST: Bradley Ash – 6
Ran a lot. Got absolutely no service all game. Had one great opportunity when the ball was cut back to him in the first half but his shot was very weak. Got the assist for Lapslie’s goal. He tries.
Subs
15. RB: Finley Craske – 5
The lesser spotted Craske. Had 45 minutes at right back and their fourth goal came from that side. He was alright.
22. GK: Rhys Lovett – 5
Made a couple of saves and also picked the ball out of the net twice. Could’ve given away a penalty.
10. ST: Lewis Collins – N/A
Did not touch the ball.
MAN OF THE MATCH – ETHON ARCHER
It was a toss up between him and Lapslie but I like how direct Archer is, how unafraid he is to run at people and the quality he has when he lets fly. He deserved that goal and it was a beauty. I’d much rather we signed more players like him from lower levels of the game than the absolute dross that’s filtered down to us from higher up.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
As said, Tom Lapslie deserves a mention for his commitment and the goal. Marshall didn’t do too badly, Brett passed it nicely a few times and Martin’s goal line block was good. And that’s really all.
TACTICS
4-4-1-1. It actually worked pretty well for 15/20 minutes and Lapslie’s not too bad in that role. I’m guessing Halstead chucking two in wasn’t in the game plan. Unfortunately whilst the plan was fine until then, we had no alternative once we went behind, or if we did we didn’t try it.
OPPOSITION
Excellent. Properly drilled, properly coached, passed the ball well, had a plan, were happy to let us have the ball knowing full well we’d do nothing with it and they could flood us on the counter. Clinical in front of goal. In other words, light years ahead of where we are. 7-2 they’ve beaten us on aggregate and it could’ve been more. They’ll rightly be in the playoff mix and would do well in the league above should they go up.
THE OFFICIALS
Inconsistent but honestly it made no difference. We could’ve had Pierluigi Collina out there today delivering an absolute refereeing masterclass and still lost.
CONCLUSION
I don’t really know what supporting Torquay is any more. It’s not fun. It’s not enjoyable. It’s just something you do out of habit. But it’s getting harder and harder to get up for it, particularly away from home where group of people haven’t struggled so much on the road since The Beatles stopped being able to hear themselves. It’s not like we haven’t had lows before, but all the joy is slowly being sucked out of the experience by a manager not only out of ideas, but enjoying his mystifyingly untouchable status with something approaching arrogance. Coupled with an ownership that simply doesn’t care and is turning its eyes ominously towards stadium building despite never having successfully built a stadium, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so disenfranchised and ambivalent towards the club I’ve loved for 26 years. There is a part of me that thinks maybe this is what they want.
It comes back to hope. It feels like there is no hope at present. But on the drive home, I felt the anger. I realised I do still care. And you have to hope that, whilst there’s enough of us that still care, things will change eventually. Perhaps not yet. But you’ve always got to hope.
COYY – JOHN
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Its the RSPB bird watch weekend so this line made me laugh out loud !! ” The lesser spotted Craske.” brilliant !!
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