Torquay United: October 2009

Hello friends and welcome to another Torquay update. It was a public holiday in Canada on Monday which gave me a few hours to play!

First up and by request from Ravenie is the profile of Jake Thomson.

Our first game of the month was against Bury which proved to be one of the toughest games so far with Bury causing us all kinds of problems. However we held firm and got the only goal of the game through Chris Zebroski whose fantastic run down the right side ended with him cutting inside and hammering the ball into the old onion bag. Great individual effort but overall it was a disappointing team performance.  

Next up was Bournemouth at the Plainmoor Stadium in Second Round JPT action. The visitors were odds on favorites so I decided not to employ my usual attacking strategy but adopt a more  cautious  style of play. Within 10 minutes of the start this paid off as Barrowman found acres of space  between the Bournemouth back four and easily placed home a through ball from Falkingham. Barrowman got his second just before the interval heading in from a curling Levi Porter cross to kill the game off and put us through to the quarter-finals.

After the Bournemouth game was over I decided to take advantage of some short term loan signings from our parent club Arsenal. We had established the link earlier in the season but had been unable to take on any long term loans due to a full quota already in the squad whose contracts I was reluctant to terminate. I’ll add their profiles at the end of the post.

We were at home again for the following game against third place Morecambe and 17 year old Arsenal striker Luke Freeman made an impressive debut setting up Zebroski in the 17 th minute and scoring himself just before half time after Morecambe had made an instant reply to our earlier goal. Another brilliant run by Freeman teeded  up Barrowman to neatly strike into the net. Defender Chris Robertson then completed the rout by heading in from a corner 3 minutes from time.

Next up was a trip to Meadow Lane to take on Notts County. We got off to a great start with Wayne Carlisle putting us ahead after only six minutes and Luke Freeman providing the assist. However, we were unable to build on the early advantage and although had the greater possession we once again relied on the goalkeeping abilities of Michael Poke to keep us in front and secure another three points.

The next game was away from home also against  17^th place Lincoln though once the game got underway they played more like title contenders. Elliot Benyon managed to break the deadlock just before the interval running onto a fine pass from Hooks but after the break Lincoln hit us with a double strike that sent us reeling  and they continued to torment the back four. Danijel Subotic spared our blushes with a fine individual effort though the home side deserved a win having a total of nineteen shots to our measly four. So the 100% record has finally gone and hopefully this won’t be a start of a trend.

Our return to Plainmoor Stadium signalled a return to winning ways as we entertained the home fans with a comprehensive 3-0 win over Northampton. Danjiel Subotic got us off to the perfect start with an early goal heading in from a rare cross by right back Craig Eastmond. Six minutes later we doubled the lead as Falkingham who went on to give a commanding performance found Benyon for an easy tap in. Robertson added the third with a powerful header in from a corner and captain Nicky Wroe twice hit the bar before half time. We were never under any real pressure from the visitors and so the three first half goals was enough to give us all three points.

League Table

So despite losing the 100% record we remained top and have quite the lead over the chasing pack which I hope will continue as we head toward the end of the year. As mentioned earlier here are the profiles of two short term loans that I picked up from Arsenal.

I think they are both pretty useful and seem to be doing well thus far.

We start next month with a couple of cup games and then have a top of the table clash with Rotherham which should be intersting.

As always, thanks for reading.