TALKING POINTS
Dom Roman
@DomRoman
Dom discusses the draw at the Bob Lucas Stadium
TOGETHERNESS
Before I discuss the football, let’s talk about the biggest positive from the last 10 days or so, and that’s the way the Yellow Army have ‘United’ in support of their club, and that was illustrated perfectly at Weymouth. After so many grim and depressing away days under Gary Johnson this season, this felt totally different and entering the ground you could feel a togetherness and comradery amongst supporters, plus a kind of optimism that would surprise neutrals who have been alerted to our perilous situation. All in all it made for an excellent atmosphere throughout the game, with the Yellow Army at their best, singing their hearts out and pushing their team on. Whilst we have this heart and ‘backs against the wall’ spirit the club will not die, and I hope prospective buyers have been egged on a little by seeing just how much passion we have for Torquay United.
JUDE-BOYD AND DAWSON STAND OUT AGAIN
Who have been our best players recently? Well look no further than Arkell Jude-Boyd and Kevin Dawson. I liked Jude-Boyd straight away, he’s always very keen to get involved, works hard to support team mates (as shown when he sprinted up the pitch to score on Saturday) and is not found wanting in his defensive duties. We haven’t had enough of these sort of characters in recent years, people with energy and real belief to take the game to the opposition. That takes me neatly onto Kevin Dawson, who again had a big influence on the game from midfield. With Dawson around we have a solid base in midfield and for much of the first half especially, Kev bossed proceedings, winning the ball on a number of occasions and setting the Gulls on the attack, which links me onto talking point number 3….
THE FINAL THIRD
For two thirds of the pitch on Saturday Torquay United looked like a decent team. Defensively we didn’t give much away, though of course there was a soft goal conceded (I’ll come back to that in a bit), and in the midfield we were competitive and matched our opponents, whilst overall we are working harder as a unit. But the final attacking third is still a major issue. We scored a decent goal on the counter (their defender should have done better to be honest), but aside from that the interplay and moves around the Weymouth penalty area lacked the precision to hurt the Terras, and the final result was very few chances created. To his credit you could tell Aaron Downes had asked the team to keep the ball on the deck, link play off Aaron Jarvis and go from there…but ‘going from there’ is a problem. Two culprits were Will Jenkins Davies and Brad Ash who lost possession too frequently, and in general the attack needs an infusion of skill and imagination. I’m not sure there’s an easy fix in this area, but we’ll see.
DEFENCE
With Ollie Tomlinson back from injury and Dean Moxey moved into the centre back 3 again, the defence did look slightly more solid against Weymouth but still couldn’t keep a clean sheet. Weymouth’s main attacking threat came from their two lively strikers in the form of Touray and Linton, and it was the former that scored an equaliser just before half time. A silly foul from Tomlinson allowed Weymouth a set piece chance, and from there United’s defence needed to push further up to catch the striker off-side or make sure he was properly marked. They managed neither. Whatever the defensive line-up this season, we can’t seem to maintain concentration and we can’t seem to keep clean sheets. Without a Nico Lawrence arriving this season, these existing players just have to do better.
SAVE OUR CLUB
We have people interested in Torquay United, but will this translate to new ownership? We have a positive feeling at the moment seeing the end of Osborne and Johnson’s reign at the club, we are enjoying the new social media approach from the club, the honesty from Aaron Downes is refreshing and no doubt there will be another good crowd next Saturday…so there is certainly momentum that a new owner could use and build from. The longer it drags out the more we move into ‘squeaky bum time’ though – so these are MASSIVE weeks upcoming for TUFC. All we can do is keep supporting the club and spreading the word about the Gulls, I know you’ll all keep doing that.
COYY – DOM
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TORQUAYTALK 
Totally agree with comments re our attacking options. Jarviis is class, great link up centre forward, dangerous in the air but not a natural goal scorer but Ash?
A busy fool, runs about a lot but lacks positional sense and has missed so many chances. A real disappointment
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