TT PREVIEW

Thom talks about the Beavers

RECENT FORM

We’ve just beaten Enfield Town 4-0, which is our biggest league win since the same scoreline against Bath City in January 2022. In general, the view is that we’re playing better football than last year, and the team’s results haven’t quite matched performances yet, but that it’s a positive start to the season.

PROMOTION CHANCES

Play-offs will be a massive ask, but it looks like being a really tight league this year. There’s no one ‘massive’ like a Yeovil Town, and the teams that have come down aren’t blowing anyone away. As with every season, from my perspective survival is the first objective, and go from there.

THE MANAGER

I’m a bit biased here, as I’ve known Alan Julian for five years now from when he arrived as our goalkeeper. He’s a club legend, has over 600 senior appearances across the various leagues and the fans love him. His style of football is very easy to enjoy, and he’s spoken quite publicly about wanting a warrior mentality combined with a desire to play good football and entertain the fans – and I think that is borne out in what we’re seeing on the pitch. Simply put, the general consensus is that ‘Jules’ and his management team have got us playing the best football we’ve played since the early years of Alan Dowson.

KEY PLAYERS

Hard to pick out key players really, but a few that I know get a lot of the plaudits are our club captain Odei Martin Sorondo, who is a simply excellent midfielder, James Roberts, our leading scorer with five goals and always a threat, and Dom Revan who is a pacey, calm defender. I genuinely could make a case for any of the team to be a key player though.

POSSIBLE LINE-UP

Really difficult to pick – we’ve got most players fit, and the manager tends to pick his side with the day’s fixture in mind. If I was picking the team for Torquay, I’d go with Ted Curd in goal, Billy French, Dom Revan, Jack Taylor and Kris Campbell along the back, a midfield of Odei Martin Sorondo, Mike Atkinson and Josh Keeya, and a front three of Jake Gray, James Roberts and Bunmi Babajide.

BEST OPPOSITION

Even though we won, Salisbury impressed me most so far. They played some really excellent football. Tonbridge were defensively a class act as well. In terms of specific players, Erico Sousa at Boreham Wood is a cut above this level (although Dom Revan had him in his pocket…). Liam Nash also looked good, and I’d expect him to be similarly effective in National League South as he was in the Isthmian Prem.

PRE-MATCH FOOD & DRINK

I’d have to say the Bev itself. There’s a range of options, usually a Pizza Van as well as the Village Grill doing burgers/kebabs etc. There may be other options on the day, as well. The beer in the clubhouse is good, and the club have a great relationship with the World’s End pub, which is halfway between the station and the stadium.

STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES

Strengths and weaknesses – hard for me to answer this as I’m obviously involved, so I’ll say that the weakness is we don’t know our own potential yet! But there’s a serious answer in there, the main weakness so far is that this is still a really new squad, the team is gelling still – we only actually retained four players from last season. The strengths are this is a youthful, energetic group who love to play football and some of the play through the thirds is a joy to watch.

PREDICTION

Well my first prediction is that I’ll miss it, as I’m at a family wedding. My second prediction is that I’ll annoy my family by checking the scores constantly. And my third prediction is a 2-0 win for the Beavers, with goals from Roberts and Babajide.