TT BLOG

Clive Hayward – @Byehorse

Clive blogs about Paul Wotton’s latest presser

“You’re going to have to trust me ‘cos we’re 2-0 down. If you trust me I’m convinced it’ll work. And they did. And it did!”’.

This was Paul Wotton’s recollection of his rallying cry to our shellshocked troops on Tuesday night. But before we get to that, let’s do this week’s medical bulletin.

Injuries & Availability

There was a lot to cover today.

After two home games in four days with the same starting eleven, there are bumps and bruises as you would expect, but Paul said there are two players in particular who is worried about ahead of the long trip to Chelmsford. Although he didn’t name them, one would assume he was referring to Dan Hayfield and Dylan Morgan, both of whom came off injured in the second half on Tuesday evening.

Ed Palmer isn’t expected to be fit, as he continues to nurse a hamstring injury, although Dave Thomas told us that he had been doing some jogging in training.

Both our longer-term absentees are also now able to do some training, although an imminent return isn’t on the cards for either Nashe Sundire or Cody Cooke. Sundire is well ahead of schedule but probably won’t be fully recovered until the end of February. Cooke is building up his running on a day-by-day basis, and the hope is that he continues to make progress, with a possibility that he may make the squad for the immediate pre-Christmas trip to Totton.

The sanctioned duo of Callum Dolan and Matt Worthington remain unavailable- as widely discussed elsewhere, If we see them again, Dolan will clearly be the first given Worthington’s decision to share with the fanbase that he is currently recovering from surgery.

It wasn’t entirely bad news. A glimmer of late November sunshine is that we are apparently “99%” in terms of getting another loanee in for Saturday.

In other loanee chat, Wotton gave more details about wingback Matty Carson, centre forward Jadyn Crosbie and young goalkeeper Matt Wonnacott.

Although he confirmed that he had thought about getting the outfielders back, it appears that this isn’t an immediate plan. If he should change his mind, Torquay do have 24-hour recall clauses in Carson and Crosbie’s loan agreements, and they don’t have too much longer to run: as things stand Carson is due to return from Taunton on January 30th whilst Crosbie’s deal expires on December 19th.

Matt Wonnacott left for Tiverton this week, Wotton commenting that: “We were hindering his progress” by not giving him match time.

Worthing

For a manager who has been under pressure at times this season, the comeback victory on Tuesday must have been manna from heaven.

Wotton confirmed that the unscheduled “time out” to allow treatment to Joe Cook after he scored Worthing’s second goal really worked in his favour.

“We started slowly & we weren’t executing the game plan. We had to be extremely brave out of possession, and I felt the boys weren’t fully committed to it. So I pulled them in and said: ‘Look, you’re going to have to commit to it now. You’re going to have to trust me cos we’re 2-0 down. If you trust me I’m convinced it’ll work.’ And they did. And it did!”’.

He was insistent that we used what he described as a “full court press” on Worthing, who always play out from the back. He described the football we then managed to play for the rest of the half as “exhilarating,” and was full of praise for the intense physical effort that the team had put in. Richard Hughes asked about in-form front man Louis Dennis, and the Manager was full of praise, describing him as a quiet leader who commands huge respect in the dressing room, as well as being a deadly finisher on current form. He recalled that his pursuit of the Bromley man went back as far as Christmas 2024, with many phone calls, which eventually prised Louis away from London, relocating with partner and young child.

Wotton said he would be amazed if Worthing don’t finish high up the league: they’ve got good players, are well coached and he said he has massive respect for the way

they go about their football. Interestingly, he said that his game plan on Tuesday had been well out of his own comfort zone: he’s rarely used the high press before.

Chelmsford

He apologised for giving “such a boring answer” but said that Chelmsford is going to be tough. He referenced the unconducive surrounding. For anyone who hasn’t been to the Melbourne Stadium, it holds a lot less than the famous Boxing Day Test venue in Australia. It is also blighted by a running track, and Wotton echoed the views of most Torquay fans when he said:

“It’s a tough venue to go to…but we’ve got to go there and show them what we are.”

He was fulsome in his appreciation for Tom Lapslie, who now plies his trade there (although he’s not featured for several weeks):

“A fantastic human, a great guy. I’ve got a ton of respect for him…I wish him nothing but the best…it’ll be good to see him”

He did point out that he had decided to target other players in the summer so there is no suggestion that we lost out to Chelmsford for his services.

Repetition, Repetition, Repetition!

I asked Paul if he gets bored of shouting simple instructions from the touchline. In summary, it does bore him, but there’s no prospect he will stop any time soon!

“Do you ever get bored?”

“Yeah. Constantly. It’s like Play Station football isn’t it? I watched Arsenal v Bayern Munich last night. Arteta’s nonstop. Arteta’s saying exactly the same things, Narrow off, squeeze, get up, get tighter. It’s the fundamentals of football that if you don’t do you’re gonna struggle. I’m trying to become less vocal on the bench, believe it or not. (But) I just feel the boys need constant reminders of it….football is a lot about repetition”

I don’t underestimate how lucky Torquay Talk are to have the sort of access Paul and the club allow us. Today was another really interesting experience. The boss is sharing a lot more of the tactical side of the game with us this season, and although he’s got a really stressful job he mainly goes about it with good humour.

I feel everyone has deserved a brief pause this week to celebrate a couple of fantastic results before getting back on the motorway or train tracks before it has got light on Saturday!