TALKING POINTS

Thomas Kelly

@tommyktufc

Tom discusses the loss at Worthing

AWAY DAY BLUES CONTINUE

Torquay’s defeat to Worthing signalled the clubs 7th defeat on the road this season. From 13 away fixtures this season, United have won just four. When you look at the away form table, we have the 17th best… In the National League South.

It really has been a labour of love following Torquay on the road this season, the loyal fans continuing to travel in vast numbers and leaving in disappointment and frustration time after time after time.

If the club are serious at an immediate return to the National League this season, it’s looking ever likely that the Gulls will (as ever), have to do it the hard way and earn promotion away from Plainmoor. It’s hard to believe right now that we could go to Worthing, Maidstone or Chelmsford and win. We may have to do all three to achieve promotion, that’s if we even make the play offs. Our home form is keeping us in touch with the play-off pack but we desperately need to do better on the road to stand a chance.

POOR PERFORMANCE BUT WE HAD OUR MOMENTS

As far as performances go, Torquay weren’t completely useless at Woodside Road. We actually started well, Lapslie proving how big of a miss he has been in midfield with his Duracell bunny energy and he got a deserved goal for his efforts, as did Archer.

However, poor goalkeeping allowed Worthing back into the game and in truth, the hosts kept us at relative arms length from the moment they took the lead. Worthing managed to keep McGavin quiet and time after time managed to breakthrough our crumbling defence with ease.

The amount of space we give opposition teams time and time again is horrific and yet nothing seems to change. We don’t close down enough nor do the midfield do enough when not in possession.

It’s no surprise that we’ve only kept five clean sheets from twenty eight league games. I expect better tactical nous from a manager as experienced as Gary “I’m here forever” Johnson. More injury problems for Halstead & Marshall and with WJD & Mox out serving suspensions, maybe Pete Johnson might have been better served doing his job and scouting rather than sitting in the away dugout picking up an easy wage.

That said, it could have been a different story if not for….

THE OFFICIALS

As bad as the result was, it could have been different had the officials awarded what looked to be the clearest of all penalty shouts after Brad Ash went down from a challenge from behind at 3-2.

Having spoken to some Rebels fans at full time, they were just waiting for the ref to blow her whistle. It looked a stonewaller from where I was.

Subsequently this lead to Moxey receiving his first yellow card and his second I think the Worthing man made more of the challenge than there was but I won’t use that as an excuse. I still think even if we were awarded and scored the penalty, they would have found a way to still win but that’s another for the pages of “what ifs in football”.

I felt both sides were on the receiving end of poor officiating and it’s sad that my mentality is that you should go into games knowing the officials are poor, but we have to stop relying on officials to help us win games. We have to let our talent do the talking and actually put in the performances to boot. It seems like our hope for success now lies in Jarvis & Dawson coming back soon and finding their feet again to give the whole team much needed leadership.

ONE CLUB ON THE RISE

Living 20 mins away from Woodside Road for most of my life, I’ve always somewhat wanted to see Torquay play there, mostly because it would be such an easy journey. Never did I think that our paths would meet in a league game, nor that Worthing would beat us 7-2 on aggregate over the games!

For those who watch GEV, you’ll know how highly I rate Adam Hinchelwood as a manager. I had high expectations from them this season as promotion rivals and mentioned that they would prove a good barometer for our promotion aspirations this season. On both occasions we failed.

I hope I don’t come across in a GJ arrogant tone here but you could see how big of a game it was for Worthing, playing a club with our history in the league with both sides aiming for promotion. It was the first time they’ve ever attracted over 2,000 fans for a home league game and you can tell that they are growing as a club whilst we are sinking.

It’s full credit to everyone at the club for the rise up the ladder and the success they have and will continue to achieve.

Compare that to us where we’ve gone from being in League One 20 years ago this year to a return to regional football. The whole club feels rotten and broken. The lack of accountability from the owner, to the directors, to the manager has left the fans with a club fractured and offset with one another. I really fear for our future.

THE YELLOW ARMY AND GARY JOHNSON

The mood turned sour towards Gary Johnson when Worthing went 3-1 up just before half time. The atmosphere prior to that was not too bad. Some good banter between both sets of fans and the Yellow Army there willing their team on.

However he didn’t take kindly to the half time boos, nor the boos as he came back to his dugout, conveniently located next to the travelling Yellow Army.

His reaction was to smirk, shake his head at the fans and tell them that “I ain’t going anywhere.” This went down well about as one would expect with many of the frustrated Yellow Army. His arrogant, knowingly unsackable and resenting demeanour towards the fans continues to fracture and the relationship between us and him is broken beyond repair. Chants of “it’s not our fault” & “wrong type of fan” once again picked up traction towards the end of the game and as per, made his way off down the tunnel, leaving the rest of his squad to “thank the fans for coming”.

TIME FOR MORE ACTION?

I hate the idea of boycotting your team but this season might just be the time I consider it properly choosing whether to spend my Saturday afternoons/Tuesday evenings doing something else other than going to a ground and supporting the team I love.

I can’t justify the cost or effort to support my team knowing that the manager and owners simply don’t care about the fans and instead are fully focused on building a 15,000 all seater stadium that will never come to fruition. I feel my passion for the club is slowly dying every other week.

I respect that boycotting isn’t for everyone I respect that 100%, but I feel now is the time for the fans to act, whether that’s by voting with their feet, or via other methods.

We have a voice and we need to use it, for the best of our club. I was thinking of going Saturday, I won’t be now. Same with Maidstone, which is only 60 miles from my home. Call me an unloyal fan if you want, but I cannot justify it anymore.

I’ll still go to some games that I’ve got planned and I really hope the return of Jarvis and Dawson help improve our fortunes but I just don’t see it happening now under Gary Johnson and those running the club

Football is an emotive sport and it hurts me to see how our club has fallen in recent years. Even the local media seem to overlook the constant failures over the last two seasons. Whatever keeps them in Gary’s good books I guess!

Like I shouted to him on Saturday, I’ll say it again to end this piece.

Gary, this is Torquay United FC, not Gary Johnson FC.

COYY – TOM

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