TALKING POINTS

Thomas Kelly – @tommyktufc

Tom discusses the key points

AWAY FORM

It’s fair to say it’s been a sluggish start to the Gulls season on the road. What appeared to be a positive result away to Maidstone has been followed up by two extremely poor performance’s away to Horsham & Hemel Hempstead Town.

Not many in the Yellow Army would have predicted one point from nine from our first three games of the season and with the upmost respect to the Hornets & Tudor fans who were fully deserving of their results against us, we should have had enough in us to win both matches, injury crisis or not.

The social media reaction from both clubs (both part time) at full time showed what beating Torquay United means to teams at this level and is a timely reminder that no game will be a walk in the park for Paul Wotton’s side and that we have to fight for every single point this season on our travels. The reality is teams up their game against us and we have to be ready to rise to that and let our quality take over.

Our away form from the start of December to the start of March last season was a key factor in us missing out on automatic promotion and if the Gulls are to go one better this time around, we can’t afford to have too many Horsham & Hemel days going forward.

The home form for now looks to be fine but we have to start picking points on the road, starting on Tuesday.

DEFENSIVE FRAGILITY

Towards the end of last season, Torquay United became a tough side to beat, with the defensive pairing of Sam Dreyer & Jordan Dyer key members in the Gulls victories on the road to the likes of Dorking Wanderers & Truro City, a run which saw the Gulls keep clean sheets in seven of their last ten league games.

The Gulls were built with an emphasis on defensive strength first and score later. This season however, Torquay have looked decidedly shaky with no clean sheets at all in our first six games and usually dependable players such as Sam Dreyer, Jay Foulston and Jordan Thomas (just to name a few), not looking confident and allowing the opposition too many opportunities.

The goals conceded at Horsham & Hemel were all tough watches. Poor defending from set pieces, giving away goals in the last minute, not picking up the opposition from corners and just lacklustre marking in general. The swagger we are so used to seeing from our defence appears to have disappeared.

INJURIES

Our current injury crisis is playing its part. Injuries to key players such as Callum Dolan, Sonny Fish, Sonny Blu Lo-Everton, Munashe Sundire, Dylan Morgan and now potentially captain Matty Worthington who limped off at full time at Hemel Hempstead. The injury gods have not been kind to Paul Wotton, who in his pre-match presser indicated that no further incomings would be coming in and that “It is what it is”.

As a great Torquay manager once said – “The answers are in the building”

With so many key players currently on the treatment table, it’s naturally going to have an impact, but in crisis like this, this is where you get together as a team, put your absolute best foot forward and overcome the adversity. The fans turn up in great numbers each and every week.

We support you lads. We can accept losing when the effort has been put in. The last two away games have fallen well below the mark. I hope whatever the issues going on in the dressing room can be put to one side and we can get going as a united side.

PAUL WOTTON

I absolutely love Paul Wotton’s passion for the cause. I’ve been fortunate to share the stage with him and chat with him about his career and his excitement of taking Torquay United up the leagues. I truly believe he will do so, but with the pressure from the fanbase expecting of success this season after getting us so close to promotion in his first season, he looked a frustrated figure in his presser and his reaction to two dismal away displays have started to raise questions from some in the fanbase about how we set up when on the road.

I was hoping this season for the Gulls to go for it a bit more on the road and have a bit of arrogance about us. We’re here to win the game, let’s get it won kind of attitude. We’ve started slow in all three of our away games so far and have to do better. Horsham and Hemel are (most likely) not going to be anywhere near the promotion battle this season and it’s disappointing that we’ve come away empty handed from both those games with performances that are well below the expectations of the Yellow Army.

Paul placed the blame of Saturday’s defeat firmly on the players door, highlighting a lack of competitiveness in his squad and a lack of running. The buck always will be at the managers door and the pressure is already starting to build with some in the fanbase on Paul Wotton in the way the Gulls set up away from home.

I’m personally not a fan of a public slogging of players from a manager, that’s just me, but we have to start seeing a response from everyone, starting Tuesday.

Last season, you’d gave him the benefit of the doubt. This season, expectations are higher and the fans will be less forgiving if this poor away run continues.

EARLY DAYS

It’s key to have some perspective on things. It’s only been six games into the season. We have forty league games to play and despite the injury crisis and poor away form, Torquay find themselves in 7th place and amongst the pack early on.

It could always be worse. Favourites for the title Dagenham & Redbridge have had a torrid start to the season, finding this league commands respect and that no team will roll over for big names.

Us, Chelmsford, Maidstone, Dorking & Ebbsfleet have all made indifferent starts with mixed results on the road so it’s certainly not panic stations yet.

We are all hungry for success, trust me I don’t want to see us play at this level for much longer, but it’s a long season and it’s only the start of September. It’s always tough with lots of games in a short timeframe but with the focus of the FA Cup to come in a few weeks, the Gulls will have at least a break in league action as we look to do better than last season, however lady luck obviously has it in for us as we have been rewarded with a trip to AFC Totton.

Progression would be welcome to the Bryn Consortium who have stressed the importance of a cup run and what it would do for the club and local community. Defeat would raise more questions but playing devil’s advocate would give a welcome weekend off for the squad which certainly would help some in the squad recover from any ailing aches from a bruising start to our league campaign.

Not that I’m insulating that we would be better off losing. A good cup run means more finances into the football club, finances which could help facilitate a new signing or two at a time where injuries are playing a big part.

Let me put it this way.

With no offense to Michael Westcott, Paul Mulhern, Swanny and Clive, I think Boot’s and Laces could do without a footballess weekend headline act of “A live Gulls Eye View” this year.

THE BEAVERS

Hampton & Richmond Borough have had a flying start to the season. Predicted once again as relegation candidates this season, the Beavers have begun incredibly well, with wins against Dorking Wanderers, Dagenham & Ebbsfleet to boast. They even have the Borough back in their name!

The Beavers are unbeaten in their last three matches and have yet to be beaten at the Beveree.

Having watched a pre-season friendly between Hampton & Hanworth Villa in July, I saw a Hampton side without any cohesion, a side mainly built on players from Step 3 & 4 of the non-league pyramid. I had no doubt in my mind the Beavers would struggle. What do I know?!

Managed by former player Alan Julian, despite a poor end to last season, he has worked miracles on a shoestring budget to build a competitive side at this level and the Gulls will need to put in a performance if they want to take any points back from South West London.

On current form, are the Beaver’s favourites?

Keep an eye on your pizzas! The Gulls are swooping.

See you there!