TALKING POINTS

IAN EAST – @EASTERS86

Ian discusses the game at Maidenhead

ROAD WARRIORS

What away form problem? Gulls fans would have been forgiven for being slightly pessimistic heading to 2 away games in 4 days with the teams wretched form on the road this season, but two dominant performances resulted in 6 points. The only disappointment for Torquay is neither game was even more convincing in score line.

STYLE POINTS

When Torquay added players like Lo-Everton, Worthington, Dennis and Dolan in the summer I think there was an expectation that the Gulls would dominate possession more. It hasn’t really materialised for the most part but whether it’s the injury to Cooke forcing a change in style or whether it’s just the natural evolution of the team through a season, it’s been massively welcome to see Torquay far more confident in possession and using their superior quality to dominate the football and manage games. At no point of the first 91 minutes of the game at Maidenhead did I believe Torquay weren’t winning the game such was the superiority the Gulls had.

NIT PICKING

Because that’s what we do and that’s the way to improve, both games at Farnborough and Maidenhead should have been more convincing. On both occasions we’ve given limited opposition a route back into the game that they didn’t deserve from a combination of a lack of ruthlessness in attack and then a silly late error in defence to just make the final few minutes needlessly worrying. I’m sure it’s something they’ll talk about to maintain focus for the full game but these things happen in a football match but just something we need to be better with.

IMPROVING ACROSS THE BOARD

I really felt Saturday was a team performance of the highest level, I was thinking about who should be MOTM and I came up with 6 names, that’s a really good sign. I felt Jordan Thomas had his best game for us, he defended really well against a tricky winger for Maidenhead, he got forward and linked play up well, that’s what we need from him. Don’t need him to be outstanding but he just need him to be reliable and not hurt us defensively. Sam Dreyer excellent against Umerah who as we know can be a handful especially at this level but what I’ve always felt it’s crucial when you get a matchup like that is win the initial first exchanges. Sam won the first 2 or 3 headed challenges and from there erased that threat throughout.

Midfield was outstanding, SLBE ran the show, busy around the pitch excellent in possession got forward when he could, Dolan and Young a constant threat from out wide, Jay and Dennis linking everything up and looking after the ball with quality. We lost Worthington early, Dan Hayfield came on and we didn’t miss a beat. We need this consistently, if we do we are the best side in the division.

GOING FORWARD

I mentioned it above about the style change, is it down to Cody not being available? That’s not a slight on him, don’t get me wrong we need him back asap because we do lack that natural centre forward albeit Dennis is doing a good job but you can see he want to drop deep and get involved. But when you have that target forward it is easy to hit it long towards him, it doesn’t suit our game especially with the midfield and wingers we have accumulated to bypass them and play for knock downs.

It’s a fine plan B but we need to make that so otherwise we will do our team a disservice, the challenge is to add that forward back but maintain this current playing style. If Cooke is out for more than a couple of weeks I would be doing everything possible to get a forward in, Fish is going to need time he’s missed the whole of pre season and hasn’t played much football. He has some traits you like but he lacks physicality at times and he’s not fit enough to start and play more than an hour.

FAVOURABLE FIXTURES

Looking ahead beyond the trophy game our fixtures look favourable on paper, on the back of two away wins the stage is set now for Torquay to assert themselves on this division. 3 out of the next 4 are at home 2 of those are in the bottom half of the division. There is a tricky trip to Chelmsford in amongst it but if you want to be contenders this is a time of the season as we move towards December where things really do start to shake up a bit and the teams with the bigger and better squads can catch up some of that early ground lost, hopefully that’s us.