TALKING POINTS

Dom Roman – @DomRoman

Dom discusses the key points

BACK HOME

There was always going to be some bumps left in the 2025-26 road for this Torquay United team. Despite a strong run of form, the Gulls are far from invincible, and so often struggle against relegation threatened teams. This time it was bottom-placed Chippenham Town who beat the odds to turn us over. Whilst this loss should have been avoidable and leaves a sour taste in our mouths, United were unlucky not to see at least one shot find the back of the yet, and unlike a number of away days, enough chances were created to bring 3 points back to Plainmoor. In the end it was just of those nights. The good news? No time to mope around, back to the training pitch to work things out and then back to Plainmoor on Saturday, old National League foes Maidenhead United the visitors.

THAT FIRST GOAL

The most obvious stat in recent weeks is the concession of the first goal, and that run of games increased to 6 on Tuesday night. Hard to pinpoint why this keeps happening, and the main frustration for me is the lack of the clean sheets – overall just 7 in 32 games this season is not much to write home about. There’s been some sloppy defending in amongst those goals, moments of poor concentration that need to be eradicated as we move into this crunch period of the season. The injury to Jordan Dyer is a concern in the coming fixtures. Ed Palmer is a strong competitor but not at the same level as JD, and our other CB Ed James is a young lad coming to Plainmoor looking to gain experience. Sam Dreyer has taken the captaincy in his stride, important for him to keep minds focused, and keep Maidenhead from scoring first!

THE UNITED LINE-UP

There are some decisions to be made by Paul Wotton for this one, the main one being whether to move Louis Dennis back into the line-up, and if the answer is yes (as I assume it will be), who for? Cody Cooke had a poor game on Tuesday after his Dover goals, so perhaps he will drop out for LD, or alternatively Dennis could play to the left of Cooke, or even behind him, such is the versatility of the attacker! The other Chippenham (a) subs, Dan Hayfield, Matt Jay and Dylan Morgan are also options for PW. Could we perhaps see Matt Worthington move back into the right back role, with Sonny Everton reverting into a standard midfield position? We shall see!

THE OPPOSITION

Maidenhead United have not been pulling up trees in their first season back at this level, but interim manager Ryan Peters has done a decent job since taking over in November and the team sit just 4 points below 7th placed Hemel Hempstead, with a game in hand. They’ve had mixed results this year, but did grab a 1-0 victory at Tonbridge on Tuesday night with a last gasp winner from Matt Robinson. Upfront we are likely to see Josh Umerah, a striker who frustrated during his time at Plainmoor, but a player who can be a handful on his day and ex-Gulls can never be discounted when they return….

Other news on the club is a possible move out of York Road, a ground they have played at since 1871! Let’s hope they leave our old ground on Saturday at 5pm with precisely no points. See you at Plainmoor.