TALKING POINTS

Dom Roman – @DomRoman

Dom discusses the key points

DORKING AWAY

At the start of the season this game would have been marked out as a heavyweight NLS clash between two of the best teams in the league, and whilst Torquay sit handily in 3rd (yes we are doing pretty well!), Marc White’s team languish down in 13th. But with our away form this clearly doesn’t mean the fixture will be a cakewalk, because Dorking remain a dangerous team and on our travels we’ve been mostly terrible. Last season United went to Dorking and ground out a 1-0 win, a similar performance and result would be just the ticket.

THE LINE-UP

The line-up will probably stay the same as Tuesday night, but Paul Wotton could consider a couple of changes, with Dylan Morgan and Denzel Akyeampong the likeliest to come into the equation. Jordan Thomas played well enough on Tuesday night, but wasn’t really tested, so the jury is out on him after early season struggles. Meanwhile will PW decide to keep Matt Jay in for this one or relegate him back to the subs bench? Otherwise he’ll try to give Sonny Fish more minutes from bench I’m sure, but the striker looked very rusty against Chippenham. He could really do with a friendly game or two to help get him up to speed.

DEFENSIVE STRENGTH

One of the main positives to take from the last month or so is the return to form of Dyer, Dreyer and Foulston in defence. Those three were integral to our 2024-25 promotion push, and remain hugely important this time around. They’ve been focused and disciplined recently, generally making good decisions and restricting the opposition to few chances. In an ideal world our attack will catch fire at Dorking but in reality it would be wise to expect a low scoring afternoon, with the entire game possibly hinging on the first goal scored. Therefore the Torquay rear-guard (including Hamon and Thomas) need to be on form.

AWAY DAY PERFORMANCE

Our GEV team asked on social media what Torquay United could do to improve their away form, and that’s a complex one to answer! Much onus has to go on Paul Wotton to ensure his preparation gets the lads in the right frame of mind, because it feels like our mentality is holding us back from winning these games. After all, we know we have a team that should be capable of beating anybody home or away, but they clearly don’t enjoy the process and challenge of leaving Devon! Maybe a fun build up that relieves tension and loosens the team up could work, or maybe they need a more aggressive and harsher approach. Whatever the solution, this is where Paul Wotton will earn his stripes as a football manager. Make no mistake, more defeats will mean more pressure on him, at this level especially, that’s just the way it is.