TALKING POINTS

Dom Roman

@DomRoman

Dom discusses the loss at Plainmoor

OUTCLASSED

The misery continues at Plainmoor. One team was professional and the other part-time on Saturday afternoon, and had you been a neutral asked to guess which were the professional outfit, then the choice would have been immediate – ‘No question it’s St Albans City isn’t it? It’s not? Those players in yellow are actually paid only to play football? You’re kidding me…and so forth. United were an accident waiting to happen from the off, a team so easy to play against that gleeful St Albans’ players could barely have believed it. Second to all loose balls, slow and ponderous in possession, this Torquay United team is one of the saddest sights you’ll ever behold on a football field. Meanwhile St Albans were confident in their ability to play through our pathetic press, and then find holes in our very generous defence. The gulf in class between the two teams was apparent throughout, and had the away team scored two or three more goals, then nobody in Plainmoor would have been surprised at all. We’ve become an embarrassment.

TACTICS AND NO RESPECT FOR THE OPPOSITION

Didn’t our manager used to be able to set a team up to A) Nullify the opposition and B) Give us a strong footing to compete with any team? Well that seems like a very distant memory now. Firstly, we show no appreciation of how bad we are as a team, and secondly we show no respect for how the opposition might get at us. With confidence low and even the simplest passes looking impossible, the management team should do everything they can to get the team compact and organised, instead the gaps that were left for St Albans City to exploit just played into their hands. In times like these Gary Johnson was supposed to be our trump card, a manager who would squeeze out good performances from players. whilst also making sure each and every one of them was fit and ready for action. But the opposite is true on all accounts, the players look tired, do not fight for each other and are only getting worse under the Johnson/Downes regime. Frankly I am tired of watching them.

ATTACKING BOREDOM

Whilst St Albans enjoyed their football and played with freedom and quick movement, Torquay’s attack laboured along like it has all season. We are so predictable – plan B get it up the wings, get a one two and get it in the box, if that doesn’t work, quickly revert to plan B – chuck it up high to Brad Ash to fight out with the centre halves. We play in straight boring lines, players cannot manage anything intricate around the box and even simple things like a quick switch of play is a tough task. This is football with absolutely no frills and no imagination, the most boring team around ruining the Yellow Army’s weekends time and time again.

TIDE COMPLETELY TURNED ON GARY

Saturday was the first time that I had heard proper ‘Gary Out’ shouts in Bristow’s. People in the stand do care about their football club, but are rarely animated enough to voice their disapproval. In a rare show of unity amongst our fanbase, the vast majority believe that Gary Johnson should no longer be our manager and plenty of young people voiced this afterwards outside the ground. Do Osborne, Edwards and Hayman care enough about performances on the pitch to make this decision? Is their relationship with him more important than the club? This man is beaten and is ready to be put out of his Plainmoor misery, and at no other club would he still be employed. But this is Torquay United, a place where standards have never been so low…meaning Gary Johnson could well plod on as manager for a while yet. And that is a thoroughly depressing thought isn’t it?

COYY – DOM

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