TALKING POINTS

Dan Elliott – @dan_torquay_man

Dan discusses the loss at Maidstone for the Gulls

NOT GOOD ENOUGH

Not my words, but the words of the gaffer in his post match interview straight after the game for Radio Devon, and he is spot on. For the majority of the game on Saturday, it kind of felt like stood there watching the game that Torquay, for the majority of the game, were hanging on. Wave after wave of Maidstone attacks were coming towards the goal, and time after time we were reliant on the brilliance of Sam Dreyer to bail us out.

It was like we are a bottom of a table side up against the runway leaders. There was a gulf in class, energy and performance. It’s hard to put your finger on it, especially when the manager seemed to think the exactly the same with his comment in the post match interview.

When you are going into a game while you’re on the same points for whatever reason the level of performance was just not there, it’s a little worrying.

INJURIES

Sad to see once again after some brilliant performances Jordan Dyer hobble off the pitch to be replaced by Ed Palmer. As Jordan came out with his tracksuit on just after the start of the second half, you could see and tell that this was a recurrence of the original injury he had at the start of the season. You could just see the disappointment and frustration on his face as he walks past us to make his way to the dugout to join the rest of the team. You feel for him as it must be highly frustrating. Especially as we are coming to a pivotal part of the season.

And it’s not just one Jordan we were down, it’s two Jordans. Right on the byline directly in front of us midway through the second half, a challenge goes in on Jordan Young, he stays down for a while . Five minutes later and just as you think he’s shaken it off, he hits a deck, you could just tell he was done.

Just to be crystal clear the injuries did not change the game nor would’ve ever been a different result if the injuries hadn’t happened. There was only one team that deserved to win and the injuries are more concerning for future games and didn’t impact the result in this game.

THE GALLAGHER

It’s safe to say that since we have been in the National League South on our away days we have been to a broad spectrum of grounds and we have had a variation of experiences at these grounds. We’ve had afternoon tea on a sunny bank holiday at Chesham, we stood on the balcony on the QE2 at Enfield, and we’ve had to walk through the shot put arena to get to the stand at Chelmsford.

The Gallagher is right up there with one of the best grounds that we have been to since we have dropped town into this league. Whilst our performances and our record there is not great, you do have to admire the stadium itself.

I do love the stand for home fans, fully standing behind the goal. There was also a decent noise around the ground.

Entering and exiting the stadium the interaction with the Maidstone fans was a pleasure!

PERSPECTIVE VS EXPECTATION

This is a tough one, because I see it from all sides. Firstly, we have to put into perspective where we are right now in the league versus where we were as a football club almost a year ago when we’re about to be placed into administration. The fact we only had one player at the start of the season and how this squad has been put together, its nothing short than a remarkable.

There’s an opportunity, to do what the owners want, the manager wants, the players wants and the fans want, that opportunity is to get out of this league.

Going into the festive period top of the league and entering that away day on Boxing Day at Weymouth the expectation pretty much from everyone was that we were going to stay top of the league, well we all hoped at least anyway.

So the question is, where do you draw the line of perspective versus expectation.

The answer is…..I don’t know.

All I do know is that everybody wants the same thing and everyone is pulling together in the right direction.

LOOKING AHEAD

All is not lost. There are still plenty of games to go. There are pivotal games coming up against Eastbourne and Worthing. Take points in these games or even managed to take maximum points in these games and then the Maidstone defeat is long forgotten.

Whilst you don’t want to look too far ahead, you also want to think to yourself if we end up finishing in a play-off place, how are we gonna perform against the teams around us in a one off game or a two legged game?

I will quote a tweet put out by Paul Mulhurn yesterday that he tweeted this great start – “of all 8 teams around us in contention for play-off place that was our first defeat to any of those 8 teams”. Now that’s a stat.

I will go one step further as well, the tweet put out by Frank Noble stating very complimentary that he believes that Plainmoor will be a decisive factor and an advantage to us with the run in.

So whilst we are on this little wobble, and all teams have them, we have to stick together, remember where we came from at the start of the season, remember what the objective is for the end of the season and above all do what will we all do best as the #YellowArmy

Bring the noise and get behind the team!

We’re not down and we’re certainly not out, there is a long way to go and many more twists and turns!