TT BLOG

Clive Hayward – @Byehorse

Clive blogs about Paul Wotton’s latest presser

“THREE O’CLOCK ON A SATURDAY: THAT’S WHEN YOU PLAY FOOTBALL”

With these words, answering a question from Radio Devon’s Alan Richardson about whether it will be good to have a home game again on Saturday after a tough week on the road, Paul Wotton set a much more positive tone for Thursday’s press call. He pointed out that the fixture computer has allowed only one Saturday home game so far this season: Enfield at home on the first day.

Wotton wears his heart on his sleeve, and it was pretty clear that Tuesday’s much improved performance in injury adversity at Hampton has put him in much better heart than last Thursday or during his “shocked” post-match interview at Hemel. The manager cut a much more positive figure today. He gave the appearance of a man who had needed to get it off his chest.

As they will for some time, injuries took up much of our time this afternoon. For those who didn’t hear it, this was the update:

Sonny Fish and Sonny Blu Lo-Everton:

Making progress, but no specific time for a return. Fish is having to start from scratch following his knee op and will struggle to train on astroturf. But if and when he comes back: “We’ve got a really good Centre Forward who we’ve not seen yet”

Dylan Morgan:

“Not quite getting better as quick as we’d hope”, but there might be scope for him to return against Ebbsfleet in on the 20th

Callum Dolan:

Ebbsfleet is also a possibility for him, as he continues his comeback from a torn groin muscle.

Matt Worthington:

It’s very likely that the skipper’s dead leg will be good enough for us to see him against Slough on Saturday.

That was the good news.

Unfortunately, the big-hearted Munashe Sundire has not been so lucky. His injury is a really bad one. He has ruptured his hamstring off the tendon behind the knee. It sounds as though it may have become detached from the tendon (shades of Kevin Dawson in 23/24), and he’s likely to need an operation to repair the damage. It’s a huge blow, and “Nash” is understandably feeling very down as he contemplates a difficult future. Our hearts go out to him.

There has been some speculation on social media that the summer’s signings were a gamble because the incoming players have poor injury records. It felt quite uninformed, and for the most part Wotton scotched the theory.

He explained that all signings had had to undergo rigorous medicals. He listed injuries (Lo Everton, Morgan, Worthington) that had been caused by contact. He also pointed out that Sundire’s is a really unlucky one- falling awkwardly.

Although Callum Dolan has had a patchy injury record, he played a lot of games last year. He accepted that Sonny Fish had perhaps come with some risk attached (but sometimes if players had better injury records they wouldn’t be available to Torquay with our resources), and pointed out that the knee that needed to go under the knife wasn’t the one that had given previous trouble.

In my second question, I asked about our defensive issues. The same personnel had the best defensive record in the league last year, but in his post-match interview at Hampton, Paul pointed out that you make life difficult for yourself if you have to score three to win every game. He puts it down to individual errors, but the upside is that: “At the moment we are being punished for every individual mistake, and I promise you that will change.”

He said, of course(!), that Slough won’t be easy. They feature the massive Greenidge brothers, and as always in the NLS it will more than likely be a game where we have to win some physical battles before we are able to let our football do the talking.