Torquay United: December 2010

Hello Friends and welcome back to my Torquay story as I wrap things up for the end of 2010.

The festive season arrived early on The Riviera thanks to a 3-0 thumping of promotion candidates Southampton at The Plainmor Stadium. We totally outplayed  The Saints from start to finish in what was one of our best performces of the season. Andrew Barrowman who had two goals disallowed for offside in the first half finally convinced the assistant referee he was onside and put us ahead on the hour with a powerful strike from a Livermore through ball. Constant pressure resulted in a goal for 17 year old Kamil Wiktorski who headed in from a corner and Livermore capped a brilliant individual performance with a 20 yard screamer 2 minutes from time. We managed to keep a clean sheet which was even more pleasing.

Next up was a trip to London to face Milwall who were huge favorites to win the game. I decided to switch to a 4-1-4-1 formation and although it wasn’t pretty we got the draw I was after.

The following game was at home to Gillingham who we had recently beaten in the FA Cup. Although my staff suggested a 4-5-1 formation as in the cup I reverted back to my favorable 4-4-2 line up as after all we were at home. The first half couldn’t end quick enough with the most interesting thing happening was the clock ticking over! After a harsh team talk Kamil Wiktorski broke the deadlock heading in from a corner after 52 minutes with Barrowman adding a second minutes later from a Nicky Wroe through ball. Gilingham rarely gave us any trouble after that and a Komora’s effort  went narrowly wide to deny us a third goal.

Our Boxing Day fixutre saw us travel to Brentford and our on field performance very much suggested that we had all eaten too much turkey the day before and were still suffering from the after effects. Brentford weren’t much better either though took the lead with a long range effort just before half time. Kamil Wiktorski was again the hero for us heading in the equalizer 5 minutes from time and securing  us at least a point.

The final game of the month was in front of our home fans at The Plainmoor Stadium. We got off to a fantastic start as Eckersley’s cross from the left flank was met by the head of Steve Irwin who glanced the ball into the corner of the net. It wasn’t too long before we double our lead as Komora flew past the Morecambe defence and finished with a low driving shot into the net. Kamil Wiktorski added a third before 20 minutes had gone by with a curling shot from a free kick 25 yards out. Kamil got another heading in from a corner and so we found ourselves 4-0 up inside 30 minutes. The score stayed the same unitl the interval but after the break Komora quickly added another as Shane Hooks forward pass split the Morecambe defence for Komora to pounce on . We weren’t able to add anymore but it was a great way to end the year.

Results at a glance

Current League Table

Remarkably we find ourselves sitting on top of the table as the year comes to a close. I say that as we have bounced around a bit in the standings over the last few weeks but nonetheless there we are in the lead.

Kamil Wiktorski has had a fabulous month and below is his profile which isn’t that bad for a youngster and he’s really established himself in the back four.

Here’s a look at our year end finances and at least we are in the black which is good news.

Janaury Fixtures

We have a sizeable amout of games next month beginning with a difficult FA Cup encounter with Coventry and then tough league games with Hartlepool and Norwich.

Thanks for reading.