TALKING POINTS

Thomas Kelly – @tommyktufc

Tom discusses the Cup loss

PREPARATION IS KEY

I had a 10 minute chat with Paul Wotton at 1.15pm, thanking him for joining us for our live show earlier in the week as well as discussing the day ahead and trying to scoop some team information from him. He was calm, anticipated a tough game ahead and was tight-lipped on what his starting XI would be, only divulging that Cody Cooke’s wife had given birth and that he would be absent. Many congratulations to Mr & Mrs Cooke from all at TorquayTalk!

I assumed that he had travelled with the lads and that the lads were chilling out in the dressing room. How wrong I was. The Argyle painted team coach rocked up to the ground at 2:10pm and word was that Paul Wotton was absolutely fuming. His mood wouldn’t improve for the rest of the afternoon as Torquay United self-destructed in a dismal display that left many of the Yellow Army leaving the ground embarrassed and humbled as they exited the FA Cup at the first attempt.

I don’t want to use the coach arriving late as an excuse as we should have still had enough about us to find a way to win, however this has to be a wake up call that we can’t expect to stroll up to games and expect to win all the time because we are Torquay United. We have to earn every single point and win games on merit, and I hope lessons are learnt and that more time is accounted for travelling to away games going forward from here. Our warm up looked lethargic and it set the tone for what was to come. Bishops Cleeve smelled blood and took their chances. Magic of the FA Cup right?

ERRORS

The opening goal for the hosts came from a defensive mistake from Dean Moxey, the experienced defender misguiding his header which Ross Langworthy duly took advantage off. I find it hard to criticise Deano as he is a player I have the upmost respect for, but that now makes back to back games where he has cost us a goal and with Foulston injured, I’m not sure it was in Wotton’s plans to see Deano playing full games this early into the campaign.

Once again, we persisted playing it long to Ash and Seymour, both struggling to feed on the scraps given to them against two huge defenders. Once again Brad Ash was wasteful with his few chances and frankly I feel that Ben Seymour needs to toughen up a bit, especially when on the ball.

I think Luke was very kind with his TT Match Verdict Ratings to a few. No-one came away with any credit or quite frankly any dignity in their performances over the weekend. It’s clear that Wotton wants the lads playing a certain way and yet they didn’t appear to follow his instructions and we never looked like getting back into the game. He won’t stand for that and I expect he won’t wait around for too much longer if this mindset continues.

ACCOUNTABILITY

Whilst performances by most on the pitch were far below the expectations of the Yellow Army, the blame shouldn’t fall on just the players. Whilst we had a great time with Paul Wotton at our live event, I’m sure he wouldn’t want us to stay silent when performances fall well below the standards the Yellow Army expect and whilst I appreciated his post match interview being so open and honest, he has to shoulder some of the responsibility as well in my book.

What happened in training for the rest of the week after our interview? On Tuesday, he said that “the boys look sharp”, however his post-match interview he highlights he felt “training was flat all week after the defeat in the Welling game”.

Yes, preparations weren’t ideal arriving late, however you need to get the team in the right mindset regardless and I’m sure Paul’s mood throughout the afternoon didn’t help to a degree. Not saying it wasn’t deserved at times, but when things go wrong such as arriving so late to a ground, it’s crucial that there is an air of calmness.

It happens of course, but we as a professional side should have been able to adapt and see off a spirited side on their biggest day.

Paul promised that every player representing our club will give everything to the fans. They failed that promise on Saturday. Fair play to him for coming over and apologising to the angry fans at full time. This one hurt him a lot and I trust him as manager of this club and to get things right for St Albans on the weekend.

SQUAD SELECTION/INCOMINGS

I was hoping to see Jadyn Crosbie start, considering his appearances so far have come from the bench and that I felt this would have been a good opportunity for him to impress and show the Yellow Army what he could do, considering he was playing one level below the Cleeve last season.

My main concern when seeing the starting line up was that Ash and Seymour would struggle to impose themselves and sadly this came true as the game started. I like Brad but he was wasteful with the few opportunities he had and was cut a frustrated figure feeding off the long ball scraps that summed up our afternoon. Ben Seymour also had a difficult afternoon, struggling to impose himself and being muscled off the ball at regular intervals. He was subbed early in the second half.

I was hoping to see more from Mussa but he struggled to impose himself once again and I’m beginning to question whether he’s the big star we all thing he could be. Oscar Threlkeld had a stinker, as did Ed Palmer, in fact, they all did in truth. I hope many of them took a good look in the mirror back in the dressing room, that is unless Wotton hadn’t already smashed it post-match!

It’s clear that Hayfield, Cooke & Foulston were big misses for us and we lacked creativity across the park all game and hopefully the majority will be back for selection this weekend to give us more stability in defence and in the heart of the midfield. Questions still remain over the flexibility of our 3-5-2 formation and in the last week we have been exposed to a degree, but with the talk of incomings coming in this week from reliable sources, a refresh could be what is needed to get the lads back in the right frame of mind ahead of an important game coming up at Plainmoor.

LOSS OF REVENUE

I actually wasn’t angry at full time when the referee mercifully put us out of our misery, I was just disappointed. Disappointed because we have once again thrown away a potentially good source of extra revenue and I’m sure the Bryn Consortium will be equally as frustrated with their business expertise.

Did our budget include relying on progressing to say the 4th Qualifying Round? Considering our history in the competition, it’s a fair assumption that may have been the case, although they do say assumption is the mother of all cock ups! It may not be much money in the early rounds of qualifying but it all adds up over the course of the season.

The club have made great strides in sponsorship, club shop and generating more revenue and being knocked out this early will be a bitter blow to swallow. At least we still have the Trophy and more importantly the Bowl still to come…

LET’S NOT LOSE OUR HEADS

The lads let us down for the first time this season with their weak performance, but that doesn’t make them a bad team overnight.

What is critical for the fans is to not let this result get us down going into an important match against the league’s basement side.

The facts are we’ve conceded five goals and scored none in the space of a week, but after eight league games, we are 5th in the table and four points off 1st place. I’m sure most of us would have taken that right?

Neil Warnock told me at Farnborough that there would be plenty of bumps in the road for us and the last week it certainly has felt like that!

The old cliché is that “at least we can focus on the league now” and that is ultimately our bread and butter. A win on Saturday will go a long way in moving on from last weekends shambles and we’ll all be feeling fairly content with the start to the NLS season.

Hopefully crowd numbers won’t start to dip because of a few bad results. You know what to do Yellow Army, lets get another 3,000 inside Plainmoor and carry on our good home record. We owe St Albans after last season’s result!

BISHOPS CLEEVE

The final say has to go to Bishops Cleeve and let’s not take anything away from them as they absolutely deserved the victory. In truth they should have scored 5 or 6. They were organised off the ball and pounced on our defensive fragilities all afternoon long and never looked like tiring out.

Quite rightly, they will take all the plaudits, they made the front page of the Non-League Paper and of course are milking this result with all the gusto they can put out on social media. With an average league crowd of 85ish, it was everything that the FA Cup is all about. Defeating one of, it not the biggest teams in the draw in front of over 1,100 fans, It’s their day in the sun and they fully deserve it. I wish them all the very best in the next round and hope they progress to the first round proper.

Their pre-match offering was superb. With plenty of beer available both inside and outside the clubhouse, providing some excellent food options around the ground and even getting the DJ out for pre-match tunes and post match celebrations. It was their day.