MATCH VERDICT

Ben Wade

Ben reports back from Plainmoor

TORQUAY UNITED 1-1 ST ALBANS CITY – 21.09.24

SUMMARY

Our draw with St Albans started with a corner swung into the box towards Dreyer which was headed to Seymour who flicked it just wide. Another set piece but a corner this time was flown in, and a header hit the high, flailing arm of the defender. It was 50/50 whether it was inside the box or not, but it was one of many decisions that should have been given but wasn’t. St Albans were given space and had a lot of possession in the first half, but they played loads of passes without getting anywhere attacking.

TUFC had a couple of corners and crosses in the later stages of the first half but didn’t show any signs of creating chances or scoring. St Albans however had a fair share of the play and would have been extremely pleased going into the break.

After Half Time, The Gulls were starting to put their foot down and then we struck the first goal on 50 minutes. Ben Seymour made a clever run and was played in behind. Instead of attacking the keeper and shooting, he tried to lay it off to Cooke, but it was intercepted. The two defenders were indecisive and Seymour nipped in between them, and slid the ball under the keeper.

St Albans reacted to going behind by pressing hard and five minutes later the number 11 picked it up on the edge of the area. He hit a shot towards the corner which was saved onto the post and in by Hamon, who could possibly have done better.

Will Jenkins-Davies came on for Hasani after an hour. WJD had a couple of shots that he couldn’t connect with to put us into the lead. Just after the hour mark, the ball popped up in a duel towards Palmer and the number 11. Ed was clearly elbowed straight in the face with force. There was an angry reaction from both the players and the whole of Plainmoor. The referee came over and immediately booked Dreyer for questioning the challenge. The situation cooled slightly but Palmer was obviously in pain and was forced off. The referee pulled their player to one side and correctly produced the red card.

After The Saints were down to ten men, they had to make sure of salvaging a point. Ed Palmer may well have had concussion and was replaced by Finn Tonks straight away. The Yellow Army pushed forward and made an attacking change bringing on Mussa for Hayfield. We kept huffing and puffing and just before 90 minutes, a fan in the Family Stand went down having fallen it seemed. After they were treated and wheeled away, the play continued, and 10 added minutes were announced.

With 5 minutes to play, Rodney Collins was subbed on for Fin Craske. Then, with just minutes remaining, Mussa got to the by-line and stopped the ball, to keep it in. A defender came flying in and slid into him at full speed, it was a dangerous and unnecessary challenge. Neither of the officials gave it and it was as blatant as you can get. The fans were fuming and rightly so as the full time whistle blew, to send everyone home with a point apiece.

PLAYER RATINGS

1. James Hamon- 6: Booked unfairly and maybe could have kept out the goal.

3. Jay Foulston – 6: Not much impact attacking or defending.

5. Sam Dreyer – 7: Named POTM by the sponsors and fought well.

16. Ed Palmer – 6: Unfortunate injury but played fine.

2. Finley Craske – 5: Doesn’t offer enough pace or threat attacking, went off with cramp at the end.

14. Matty Carson – 6: Not one of his better games.

18. Oscar Threlkeld – 6: Didn’t really lead the pack amazingly today and his passing made little impact.

20. Dan Hayfield – 7: Quietly gets on with his work effectively.

7. Lirak Hasani – 5: Not involved nearly enough.

19. Cody Cooke – 7: The ref gave him nothing, but he did what he could with little reward.

9. Ben Seymour – 6: Was clever for the goal but does not offer much in the air or physically.

Subs:

17. Fin Tonks – 7: Offers way more than Craske down the wing.

22. Will Jenkins Davies – 6: Should have scored his double chance but was lively in the middle.

10. Omar Mussa – 5: A real shame about that injury. He’ll be devastated.

11. Brad Ash – N/A

8. Roddy Collins – N/A

TUFC PLAYER RATINGS VOTE – St Albans (h)

MAN OF THE MATCH – SAM DREYER

My POTM award goes to Sam Dreyer. It was a solid display from the main centre back, with his usual enthusiasm and energy on display. He scraps with big strikers effectively.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Cody Cooke was pretty good up against not huge defenders. If the referee had given some of the scandalous fouls that were on him he would have been deservedly earnt more.

TACTICS

Usual 3-5-2 shape seen in the Wotton era, with a few changes from the Cup game, including Foulston and Hayfield returning from injury.

OFFICIALS

Pete Wade – All the talk on social media is that the referee’s performance was one of the worst ever seen (and that includes several from Brett Huxtable), and it is hard to argue against that view. Overall, he was without doubt poor. He missed obvious fouls, including one on Cooke in the build up to their goal, booking players on a whim and then there was the penalty decision.

To be fair to him, he got the sending off correct, but that penalty looked nailed on. What the two videos on X clearly show was that Mussa drags the ball back and the defenders’ slide wipes him out. The referee has an obvious view, as does the linesman and neither give the penalty. Interestingly, the lino stands still, his right arm twitches suggesting he wants to flag, but probably/possibly remembers the referees’ instruction not to give fouls. Whatever, it was a dire decision, and after the one at Welling, won’t make officials popular with TUFC fans.

OPPOSITION

St Albans wasted a lot of time and looked to disrupt our rhythm as much as possible. Fair play to them though, you wouldn’t have thought that they were bottom, and they pushed aggressively to get their equaliser in the 2nd half.