TALKING POINTS

Chris Wade

Chris discusses the NLS game

D-DAY

Wow. Who would have thought that it would all come to this on the first day? We head into the penultimate match of the season with survival, not promotion, upmost in our thoughts. We head to Taunton Town on Tuesday evening knowing that three points will guarantee our survival in the National League South for another season. The magnitude of the game was captured wonderfully in last night’s emergency Gulls Eye View recording, where the passion of Torquay supporters from Torquay Talk really came through. This game matters so much and victory would ensure survival where anything other than that will leave our fate in the hands of other clubs heading into our final match of the season against Havant at Plainmoor on Saturday.

ATTACKING THREAT

One of the features of our drab performances away from home this season has been the lack of attacking intent and threat in a lot of matches, evident at Twerton Park on Saturday against Bath City. We again had a lot of the ball in possession along with territory but we lacked any kind of threat or quality in the final third, and time and again any opportunity of a shot was thwarted by the strong home defence. That simply cannot be the case on Tuesday. We have to attack this game with all that we have and go for our attacking opportunities as best we can from the very beginning. Yet again on Saturday, we started slowly and were a goal behind in the first 10 minutes and that set the precedent for our chasing of the game again, another regular feature of this season. We have to start on the front foot with attacking intent to win the game on Tuesday.

OPTIONS

The situation behind the scenes has been the main driver over the last few weeks for the lack of options off the bench, and this was again relevant on Saturday. Two youngsters, that it would be frankly inappropriate to throw into such a battle, along with a goalkeeper and a central defender gives you nothing to be able to change the game. The only choice that we had was to bring Austen Booth on near the end and put Asa upfront in an attempt to get some height into the attacking areas. It didn’t work. We have to hope that that Duane and Lewis Collins are fit for Tuesday night to give us some more options. They may not be the most popular players, but their involvement would give us another dimension to what was a blunt attack at the weekend.

CALCULATIONS

Whilst the situation is perilous and nerve racking at the moment, it is very much within our hands. Victory on Tuesday night will ensure that Taunton cannot go above us with their remaining two matches, which is why victory is so important. Anything but three points will leave the last game in the hands of the Gods, with all Yellows looking nervously at Taunton’s match with Weston-Super-Mare on Thursday night. This situation is so often out of other clubs’ hands, but this is well within our own hands right now to make the final decision for other club. We don’t want to be leaving this to other clubs. We want to manage this and get this done.

OPPOSITION

It has been a very strange season for Taunton Town. The perilous situation of their pitch, and therefore their inability to be able to host matches has led them to be on the brink of administration with cash flow issues pretty much all winter. Some matches have been played at Gloucester, and we hope that this match can go ahead at Taunton on Tuesday night as any other option would be much further and far more nerve wracking as less it of the Yellow Army would potentially be able to attend. Two sending’s off in the last two matches have led to some selection issues for Taunton, although with the seven-day rule in the National League South, who knows which of those will be available on Tuesday night. We have to put our best foot forward whoever they put on the pitch.

LET’S DO THIS

Make no mistake; Tuesday night is massive. The Yellow Army will be there in their droves: I have no doubt of that. We need to be there to roar the players onto victory. What has gone before and what follows next is of no relevance to tomorrow night. All we need to do is to back the players, get behind the players and whatever is happening in the game, keep behind them to ensure that we can all get the result we all desperately want. Together. It really is that simple. Come on You Yellows.