MATCH VERDICT
Ben Wade
TORQUAY UNITED 4-1 DARTFORD – MATCH SUMMARY
Yet another poor start consisted of three attacking chances in the first ten minutes for The Darts, with the pick of the chances coming in the second minute with a near post effort striking the woodwork. We picked up a bit soon after, and Stobbs delivered several good balls, as he did all day, to no avail. Brad Ash also had a tame shot saved but should’ve passed to two oncoming Gulls players.
A lot of opportunities were opening for both teams in the middle part of the first half as a slick corner routine saw Brett McGavin curl the ball narrowly past the far bottom corner. A pass from Jarvis went behind the sleepy Booth which allowed the number 23 to run into the space but luckily power the ball well wide of the goal. Straight after, a hand put in Booth’s face and Jarvis being pulled off his haunches were both brushed aside by the referee. Not long after, the ref blew his whistle for half time following two additional minutes.
What happened after that was both unexpected and brilliant. After just a minute of second half action, Jarvis turned his man in the box and was immediately pulled over for a stone wall penalty. Aaron picked himself to take it and hammered it into the top corner. Literally with the next play, Stobbs went running down the right and cut it back to Lewis Collins who played an exquisite flick into the path of Jude-Boyd. He fired it into the gaping net; what a brilliant team move!
The attacks kept on coming as did the goals. Another shot came in which the keeper parried right into the path of the onrushing Brad Ash to smash it into the empty net. Kevin Dawson had a fantastic game and made way for Tom Lapslie just short of an hour. Some nice patterns of play were made by the home side and an attempted one two, dragged the number four into a yellow card offence.
However, a shock ball over the top let their number 11 go through on goal and poke it past Halstead to produce a glimmer of hope for The Darts. This was followed by two very good saves from Halstead. In the 78th minute, Brett McGavin was sensibly taken off, he is on nine yellow cards, for Will Jenkins Davies and Aaron Jarvis was rested for midweek, making way for Duane Ofori Acheampong. A Jack Stobbs’ cross hit the bar, and he put another cross in and DOA finished it off.
That wrapped up a well earned three points.
PLAYER RATINGS
1. GK: Mark Halstead – 7
Made the few saves he had to make.
21. CB: Dean Moxey – 7
As solid as always, won a lot of duels and covered well.
23. CB: Ollie Tomlinson – 7
Bounced back well from last week; wasn’t dispossessed as much.
5. CB: Austen Booth – 7.5
Very good defensively plus supported Stobbs nicely.
2. LM: Arkell Jude-Boyd – 8
Used the ball very well and took his goal well.
14. MF: Brett McGavin – 8
Played as the usual pivot but also improved his game by moving the ball forward more often.
28. MF: Kevin Dawson – 7
Ran around lots and was very energized.
27. CM: Jack Stobbs – 7
Delivered superb crosses and attacked their full back.
10. RM: Lewis Collins – 6
He got more involved in the play but we couldn’t always find him.
11. ST: Brad Ash – 6
He doesn’t always influence the game enough, but his running is vital.
9. ST: Aaron Jarvis – 7
Wins a lot of the knock downs and gets people into the game.
Subs
4. CM: Tom Lapslie – 6
Buzzed about in the middle and flew into a few tackles.
18. CM: Will Jenkins Davies – 6
Ran around and played a good pass in the 4th goal.
19. ST: Duane Ofori-Acheampong – N/A
Took his goal nicely and won headers.
MAN OF THE MATCH – BRETT MCGAVIN
My player of the match is Brett McGavin. I liked the way he made good attacking runs as well as his usual key pivot role. He is a very important player for us and links defence to attack. He receives the ball from a centre back often and spreads it out to the full back to progress forward.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
My first honourable mention goes to Arkell Jude-Boyd. He is quite frankly a quality player. I hope that we can keep him till the end of the season, as he is practically free and can create, score and still have a solid display from full back.
My final mention goes to the one and only Aaron Downes. The transformation of everything that we have seen at our club over the last couple of weeks is truly remarkable. He has brought hope when there was anything but. Everyone has been getting behind him and the Aussie has given us the win that we so desperately needed, and you can see the improvement in the play.
TACTICS
I think the formation was a 3-4-1-2. With a back 3 of Booth, Tomlinson and Moxey, a midfield 4 of Jude Boyd, McGavin/WJD, Dawson/Lapslie and Stobbs. Collins played ‘in the hole’ and Jarvis/DOA and Ash were up front. I think this worked well when we were put under pressure because Arkell shifted back to left back which left a centre back pairing of Moxey and Tomlinson with Booth pushing out to right back.
OPPOSITION
A decent NLS side who could attack well but were slightly open in defence which was exploited.
THE OFFICIALS
The referee had an alright game but was unfortunately in the way of the ball in the 1st half several times. He could arguably have given two penalty shouts but gave the obvious one on Jarvis. The assistant referees must have had an okay time because they were almost unnoticed.
CONCLUSION
The most crucial thing to take away from that game is 3 points! It was an improved performance from last week and Downes has got them playing football and winning. That is our 1st win in 10 games and 2nd in 15 games. Let’s keep getting results.