TALKING POINTS

Dom Roman – @DomRoman

Dom discusses the key points

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CUP

What’s our priority this season? Well, that’s obvious, we need to find a way back to the National League and take a vital step back towards the ultimate aim of League Football. The next priority should be a Cup run of some kind though…heck even a ‘Cup jog’ or ‘Cup ramble’ would do! And that’s no simple task because the draw has given us a tough looking tie away at promoted AFC Totton. Often the Gulls haven’t looked energized for the FA Cup over the years, but any progress through the rounds is financially beneficial to United and could help the Bryn Consortium increase our playing budget as we (hopefully) push for promotion. So I want to see Torquay up for the Cup!

THE LINE-UP

There has been suggestions we could see a weakened line-up this Saturday, but I can’t see it. We’ve got very little squad depth at the moment, and with Louis Dennis likely to miss this game, I’m not sure how many we will have on the bench! The most obvious change from last Saturday would be moving Dan Hayfield back into the line-up for Dennis. He might also add Ed Palmer to give us more size and strength. Apart from that our bench includes the likes of Jordan Thomas and Jadyn Crosbie, and it would be surprising to see either of those two from the start. The midfield injuries have been extremely disappointing, because it felt like we could rotate a strong contingent of players, but new man Keane Anderson looks steady and combative at least, so his addition has come at the right time.

CONCENTRATE AND GET STUCK IN!

I often hear that the Gulls should stamp their authority on away games, playing their football and showing their professional quality. Well that’s fine, but it’s just not that straightforward! What we should be able to do is be concentrated and focused from the start, win our fair share of second balls and show that we are ready for a battle. AFC Totton showed at Plainmoor that they could cause us problems and if we’re passive and slow in the early stages, then we could be a goal down in no time. Our sluggish performances away from Plainmoor will hinder our season if they continue, tomorrow would be a great time to buck that trend and begin our Cup campaign with a bang.

THE OPPOSITION

Although we beat Totton 3-1 at Plainmoor, that score did not tell the whole story of the game. United had enough goal-scoring prowess to win that evening, but the away team caused us a lot of problems going forward and could easily have scored 2 or 3 goals themselves. Upfront, Scott Rendell and Tony Lee were a handful, and we’ll have to be aggressive and organised in defence, especially on set pieces which have been an issue this season. Manager Jimmy Ball has been doing a great job and their start to the season shows they are not just here to make up the numbers.

This is a good test for the Gulls, if we can find more defensive resilience and focus, then we will hopefully have enough quality going forward to win the tie. But it clearly won’t be easy!