TALKING POINTS

Dom Roman – @Dom Roman

Dom discusses the game at Plainmoor

ANOTHER ONE

I don’t like to talk too much about poor officiating decisions, but let’s be honest this game’s headlines are dominated by one. Offsides are the toughest part of a linesman’s task I’d say, judging the movement of an attacker at the point that a ball is played can be very difficult. On this occasion Jeffers darts in and out of his position behind the defender and that seems enough to convince the linesman that he’s off, but with plenty of camera phones at Plainmoor the decision was quickly shown as a bad one. Another case of poor officiating in a season littered with them (and we’re only at game 16!). Is there a conspiracy going against the Gulls? My belief is that it’s just lower league officials showing why they are..lower league! If these decisions are going to even out then we’ve got a lot to look forward to…

TACTICAL CONFUSION AND LONG BALLS

The line-up was interesting from the Gulls, WJD sat deeper in midfield, whilst Jordan Young was based primarily on the right hand side and Omar Mussa played somewhere around and behind Brad Ash. This was an attempt by Paul Wotton to give the Gulls more craft and guile, but the whole thing just seemed confused and United only properly took charge of the game when Angels tired and retreated in the second half. The initial plan looked okay and some sharp passing gave promise, but before long we resorted to going direct to Brad Ash and predictably that failed to bring any joy. Indeed after the 10th clobbered pass to Bradley I was starting to lose my rag in Bristow’s! If Paul Wotton wants to prove his credentials at Plainmoor he needs to instil more imagination and movement into his team coupled with sharper patterns of play, otherwise opponents will continue to frustrate us by sitting deep and taking the sting out of our attack.

IN GOOD HANDS

We had the pleasure of Michael Westcott’s company in the Gulls Nest for a little while on Saturday. He didn’t need to stop for a chat and less than 30 minutes before kick off he’d have been forgiven for rushing past the Yellow Army! But he was only too happy to discuss the football club and his passion and ambition for TUFC is simply fantastic. He’s clearly obsessed with all aspects of Torquay United, and overall we can be confident that the Bryn Consortium will do everything they can to bring success to Plainmoor. We’re in very good hands, and despite a very dreary afternoon of football that is a nice feeling.

UP FOR GRABS

This is an odd season to appraise, we’re a decent team but not pulling up any trees with games closely contested week in week out, and it feels like we should be about 6th and about 7 points behind 1st place. But the reality is we’re only 2 points from the top, and had some of these decisions gone our way then that top place would be ours! If we had been offered a spot 2 points off the top in November at season start, would we have taken it? Yes I think so! Can we play better? Yes I think so! Is this season alive and kicking, and is this league there for the winning? Another comprehensive Yes! So despite sitting through one of the dullest games of the season I still feel optimistic and you should too. See you on Tuesday night.