MATCH VERDICT
Ben Wade
TORQUAY UNITED 0-4 ST ALBANS CITY – MATCH SUMMARY
Wow, where to start! That truly wasn’t good enough, actually it was dreadful. Another sloppy start saw us concede after just 6 minutes. A long punt forward saw a flick on from one of their strikers and a huge great hole opened up in the middle of our defence as the number 9 ran through, blatantly offside, as he took a shot that Halstead saved but fell straight into the path of their player and finished it into an empty net.
St Albans were flooding through our midfield which seemed non-existent, bar Brett McGavin. A cut back saw them with a free man on the edge of our box, who hit it first time but against the crossbar – should have scored. To make matters worse, Finley Craske who was just returning from months sidelined, sat down with what looked like a hamstring injury. Young centre back Callum Thomas replaced him.
A flurry of attacking opportunities finally resulted in a second goal, with heaps of space in behind wing back Dan Martin. The winger had what felt like years to pick his place and finished it across Mark Halstead and into the side netting.
Just minutes later, acres of space once again behind our back three, a free player was given the time and space to run on curl the ball into the bottom corner.
It was disappointing during the first half to see stewards getting involved with fans in an attempt to remove a banner from the pop side, which succeeded. This encouraged the fans to gather near the family stand to demonstrate their feelings to Johnson who was sat in the Directors’ Box serving a suspension. At half time, the “GARY OUT” banner reappeared.
It emerged into a nothing game after half time with a lot of 50/50 duels to be won. A potential stamp on Thomas was brushed aside just short of an hour. A bizarre substation took place on the hour mark, with Ethon Archer, who had an alright game, making way for the more physical Asa Hall. Surely the dire Lewis Collins was the man to sub off.
Towards the end, Austen Booth made a phenomenal goal-line clearance to deny Jeffers his hat trick but he soon got his wish from a similar scenario where he headed in despite Thomas’ best efforts. A lull hushed upon Plainmoor but boos immediately rained down at full time.
PLAYER RATINGS
1. GK: Mark Halstead – 6
5. RB/CB: Austen Booth – 6
23. CB: Ollie Tomlinson – 4
15. CB: Finley Craske – 5
3. LB/WB: Dan Martin – 4
14. MF: Brett McGavin – 5
4. MF: Tom Lapslie – 6
17. WB/RW: Dillon De Silva – 4
30. LW: Ethon Archer – 5
10. ST: Lewis Collins – 3
11. ST: Bradley Ash – 5
Subs
24. CB: Callum Thomas – 5
8. MF: Asa Hall – 5
MAN OF THE MATCH – AUSTEN BOOTH
Austen Booth is my player of the match. He used the ball pretty well and could pick out a player with a pass. Defensively he was decent and had a good amount of pace and physicality. I don’t know who I would have picked without him!
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Mark Halstead grabs my first honourable mention. He made a couple of good saves and wasn’t at fault for any of the goals. Tom Lapslie works incredibly hard and although his technical ability isn’t the best, he is a ball winner. Goodness knows why he is arguably being played out of position as a number 10.
TACTICS
A 3-4-1-2 formation with Booth, Tomlinson, Craske/Thomas- De Silva, McGavin, Archer/Hall, Martin- Lapslie- Ash, Collins. Too complicated; play a simpler formation with the players you’ve got and the people know where they are playing.
OPPOSITION
To be fair, they ran through us and took most of their chances. We made it way too easy for them. They passed well but we were all over the place. Ran through us and got round the sides nicely.
THE OFFICIALS
Referee had an alright game and didn’t have a lot of decisions to make. I would like to see the 1st goal again because anyone who knows anything could see that was miles offside. The assistant ref by Bristow’s Bench was guessing on several occasions.
CONCLUSION
I googled words that mean terrible and all of these are appropriate: dreadful, awful, appalling, horrific, horrendous, atrocious, frightful, shocking.
COYY – BEN
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I told you it would be 0-4 !!!
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