TT BLOG
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Clive Hayward – @Byehorse
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ROSS MARSHALL
Ipswich Town is a famous football club, and rightly so. They shocked the footballing world by going from the Third Division to League Champions in two years in the early 1960s- which got Sir Alf Ramsey the England job- and were top-flight mainstays during my formative years in the 1970’s and early 80’s. They won the FA Cup during those glory days under Bobby Robson, as well as bringing the UEFA Cup back to Suffolk in 1981. This year, of course, they have again shocked many by storming to Championship promotion at the first time of asking.
They have produced many good players over the years- including Steve McCall, who was a Rolls Royce in Kevin Hodges’ playoff team.
But as far as Torquay United are concerned, we are probably their dirty little secret. Because Ipswich spawned three of the most disappointing Gulls signings in recent years. I refer of course to Dylan Crowe, Brett McGavin and- last but not least- the ticking timebomb that was Ross Marshall.
Marshall became a figure of fun in the end. I am not going to spare his blushes in this valedictory, but before I get stuck in it is appropriate to add quite a big caveat.
I have never spoken to Ross Marshall. I know nothing about his background or his general character. He may be a lovely fellow off the pitch and his on-field behaviour may have been a case of “white line fever”. He wouldn’t be the first or the last sufferer. We read this week about the affect that racial abuse and bullying had had on our old centre half Jimmy Aggrey. There’s normally more to people than meets the eye, and there may well be reasons why Ross Marshall spent his Torquay career charging around like a wounded bull with extreme anger issues.
There may be some mitigating factors too. He was normally playing n a poor defence behind an often-overrun midfield.
But the raw stats tell their own story. In his career so far he has been sent off 6 times.
Whilst at Maidstone, he saw red at Braintree in 2019. In a later spell at Stevenage in 2021 he managed to get sent off in the 90th minute of an EFL Trophy match against Spurs Under 23s. I’m not sure how he managed that!
But as a young professional at Torquay Marshall really got into his stride.
In two seasons that sometimes felt like a lifetime to those of us who had to watch them, he clocked up four more dismissals.
I think baths are rare at football grounds nowadays but they’ve all got showers, and Marshall got first use twice before Christmas in 2022/23- Bromley and Altrincham being the beneficiaries.
His poor temperament and “headless chicken” defending played their part in the embarrassing relegation to regional football. “Dorking (away)” is not, as is often wrongly said, the first line of an Aha song. It was, depressingly, the scene of a Marshall-inspired capitulation where we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Twice in four second half minutes Marshall lost Harry Ottaway and we conceded identical goals to headers. Ottaway? Whatta Way to lose a game we simply couldn’t afford to.
It was later revealed that Marshall had sight problems, and he was prescribed contact lenses. I am not going to speculate about the cause of his defective eyesight. He’s a young man who has spent months on end away from home and, frankly, we’ve all been there.
Unfortunately, any improvement in his vision was rendered irrelevant by the frequent red mist that he saw during 2023/24.
In a season when the Gulls floated almost all the way up shit creek, Marshall seemed to spend most of it trying to attack opponents, fans, corner flags- anything within range really- rather than actually doing what he was being paid for.
Never mind showers, he was gone too early even for a half time orange when he was sent off after half an hour against Maidstone (h).
As we plummeted down the league he continued to rack up bookings at a frightening rate. During a 0-0 draw for the ages at Farnborough in February (memorable only for its protest leaflets and that iconic “Our Club” banner), he clocked up his tenth yellow in twenty-eight games.
Many have speculated on the reasons for “owner” Clarke Osborne pulling the plug/spitting the dummy just 48 hours later. Perhaps it was the certain knowledge that Marshall would face a ban under the “totting up” procedure. There were Japanese soldiers in the jungles of Borneo who realised. Sadly, Torquay United’s admin didn‘t know, and if he knew… Marshall kept quiet. Consequently, in a season where we turned self-sabotage into an art form, he was allowed to play at Weymouth. A hard earned point was taken away when the ever-efficient National League caught up on their paperwork. Interestingly, as well as the club being fined & losing an eleventh point, Marshall was also hit with a £250 penalty, suggesting that the league believed him partly culpable.
Marshall had not endeared himself to fans with a series of petulant reactions to justified post-match criticism, notably at Hereford where a spirit-crushing FA Trophy defeat was followed by him offering to fight the away fans.
Surely the least we could expect was for him to put in a shift for Aaron Downes in the crucial last weeks of the season? Not a bit of it. His final appearance in a Torquay shirt was emblematic of a shocking two years. After 22 minutes of another “must not lose” game at Welling he lunged for no reason at an opponent. It was the sort of challenge where the referee has his card out of his pocket at the moment of impact. We lost 1-0.
Fortunately, that was it. With Marshall disgraced/banned we won three of the last four, digging out big results at Truro (Gloucester) and Taunton before a feel-good 5-0 win on the last day of the season against relegated Havant.
Are there any redeeming features? Possibly. He can play at centre back or right back, and did try hard in a desperation striker role on a couple of occasions. But at 24 he desperately needs to sort himself out if he is to have a future in the game. Not our problem now though.
MARSHALL TUFC STATS – APPEARANCES 67, GOALS 5, ASSISTS 2
COYY
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