Torquay United: January 2011

Hello friends and a warm welcome back to the next chapter of  my Torquay United story. We left off  at the end of 2010 with «The Gulls» leading the table and about to enter the Third Round of the FA Cup…..

We started the New Year away to Coventry in the 3rd round of The FA Cup and got off to a dramatic start as Jason Demetriou was pushed over running into the box and Barowman stepped up to convert the penalty to give us the lead after only 3 minutes. Omar Koroma had a great chance to double the lead but his long range effort rattled the underside of the bar and did the ball go over the line? At the other end Coventry were blasting away at us but most chances were erratic and so the score remained unchanged at half time. The second half produced far less chances for us as we chased Coventry around the park and my lads began to tire quickly. As the match drew to a close a memorable victory was in sight until we pushed too far forward for a free kick and got caught on the break and the home side equalized 4 minutes into injury time. It was a great effort though I was disappointed  at how things ended up.

Our first league game of 2011 was away to Wycombe and we fell behind in the opening 5 minutes by giving away a penalty on their first attack. We soon equalized as Hooks’ through ball found Koroma whose shot easily beat the keeper. From there on in it was pretty much an even  game though we took the lead after the break when Hooks headed in from a corner and Wiktorski added a third to cement the victory. With an injury to Steve Irwin who will be out for 6 weeks Dominick Hofbauer has come in from Aston Villa again on a short term loan. Players from my parent club Arsenal once more refused to join the club even on short term loans.

The next match was at home to sixth place Hartelepool and Omar Koroma gave us an early lead  picking up a through ball from Wroe and drilling it past the Hartlepool keeper. The visiting team then took over the game in terms of chances and it was only the woodwork and some great saves that kept the scoreline at 1-0 by halftime. Just on the hour Jamie Adams( more on him in a moment) headed in our second from a corner and it looked like we were set for three points. Hartlepool pulled one back in the 67^th minute and scored a dramtic equalizer in injury time. We just weren’t able to cope with their attacks and have dropped a valuable two points and three places in the table!

Here’s Jamie Adams who I signed before the season started but an early injury placed him in the reserve side where he was totally forgotten about. Looking at his attributes I decided to re-train him as a central defender as I was still having difficulty in loaning anynone.

Following the game with Hartlepool I received some terrible news from the medical team. Striker Guidetti out for 2 weeks, ML, Eunan O’Kane out 4 weeks and Andrew Barrowman out 6 weeks! As  far as I was concerned that’s nothing short of a disaster especially as we have an FA Cup replay against Coventry and then meet new league leaders Norwich afterwards.

We travelled to Coventry next for our FA Cup replay and as anticipated the home side dominated the proceedings and we failed to make any real impact up front. I had brought in Jonathan Obika to replace Barrowman but he struggled against a well organized Coventry defence. We managed to hold them until the interval but they finally broke us down with two second half goals and ended our cup run.

Here’s Jonathan Obika on loan from Spurs

Finally a central defender would come to Torquay and not exactly the best of choices but he’ll do for a short term loan

Our next game was also away to league leaders Norwich at Carrow Road. The home side took the lead after only two minutes as we stood around watching them pass the ball from the halfway line to the goal without any serious challenge. Josh Payne who came on for the injured Livermore set up captain Nicky Wroe for the equalizer with a lovely shot from just outside the box.After that we rarely saw the other end of the field again as Norwich kept us on the back foot and with the team struggling with fatigue they got their inevitable winning goal. The bad news kept piling up as Livermore will be out for 4 weeks.

What seemed like one of Johnnys road trips continued on with a visit to MK Dons. With two back to back defeats behind us I told the players the pressure is off for a victory. This seemed to spur them on and we produced a rock solid dominating performance which saw the likes of Carolan, Falkingham and Benyon return to the first team after long absences.  As usual Wroe hit the woodwork which seems to be his trademark and a vicious strike by Koroma also thundered against the post but the hero of the day was teenager Wiktorski who headed in the winner in the last minute of the game for a valuable three points.

Finally we were back at the Plainmoor Stadium for the visit of Barnsley. We really had to get  a victory here as Norwich had firmly established themselves at the top of the table with Southampton tucked in behind. Danny Stevens who had been a reserve player since I took over  gave us the lead after 12 minutes with a beautiful curling shot from outside the box after Barnsley had cleared a free kick. Three minutes later he rattled the woodwork after a terrific strike following a solo run down the right flank. We held the lead until half time when I gave Obika a stern talking too for a lousy effort and he came right back out on the field an made it 2-0 within 4 minutes of the restart. Omar Koroma was desperately unlucky in having two goals disallowed but it was a satisfying win overall.

We travelled to London for the final game of the month against Orient. The match was played in an absolute downpour. Although we had the greater possession we allowed Orient far too many opportunites but somehow the game was tied at the interval. After the break we stepped up the pace and a Danny Stevens cross found the head of Obika and it was 1-0. Orient though equalized with a spectacular long range effort and so we ended up with a point though we should have lost.

Injury Table

Here’s Danny Stevens who has come in from the reserves and has done really well. Also another short term loan signing Barry Bannan from Aston Villa.

Kamil Wiktorski who I featured in an earlier post signed a new contract during January. Thanks for the tip Johnny!!

I did get my first job offer this month from Leicester City but turned it down.

Results at a glance

Current League Table

Next Months Fixtures

We only have five games next month with three of them at home so I hope to take full advantage of that though the first of them is a derby encounter with Exeter.

Thanks for reading this longer than normal post :)