Torquay United; September 2010

Hello my friends and welcome back to the latest report from the English Riviera.

Our first game of the new month was at home to Orient and we couldn’t have gotten off to a better start as Barrowman put us ahead after only two minutes from a through ball by Jake Livermore. Seventeen year old Kamil Wiktorski finally made his debut alongside Carolan in the back four and looked comfortable against the Orient forwards. Barrowman added a second for us just after the half hour being first to pounce on Wroe’s shot that hit the post for an easy tap in. Following the interval Orient were far more aggressive and they did pull one back from the penalty spot but were unable to add to their tally.

Next up was a trip to Oakwell in our top of the table clash against Barnsley. I went with an unchanged starting eleven with both Guidetti and Barrowman having early chances. The home side settled and began to unleash their firepower though goalkeeper Scott Bevan was flying around like Superman in the six yard box making some fantastic saves. By the half it was scoreless and as the second period started a long kick by the Barnsley keeper caught us off guard and a delicate first time chip by the Barnsley forward was dramatically cleared off the line by right back Kieran Trippier. The next attack was ours which resulted in a corner in which the ball was hoofed away by the Barnsley defence straight into the path of Livermore who curled it into the corner of the net. Sam Hewson who came on for Wroe could have made it 2-0 but his strike went narrowly wide though the 1-0 win was truly satisfying.

The following game was a short trip up the coastline to face local rivals Exeter. The first half was very much a midfield battle and the chances created by both teams were never enough to get the fans excited. The second half was playing out very much the same way until a long thorw into the box by LB Nicholson was cleared away to Irwin whose chip back in the box was met by the head of Barrowman and it was 1-0 after 73 minutes. A Ryan Carolan clearance out of defence six minutes later was headed on by Wroe straight to the feet of Barrowman who struck it first time to double the lead. Exeter did pull back a consolation goal but it was all too late and the derby was ours.

Following the game it was confirmed that both Omar Komora and Kamil Wiktorski will be out for at least six weeks with injuries.

We were at home against Charlton for our next match with Barrowman putting us ahead after 25 minutes  after a good build up between Nicholson and Demetriou down the left flank. Charltons equalizer was not long about as Nicholson got caught out of posistion allowing plenty of space for the visitors to work with. Demetriou put us in front again after the break with an easy placed shot after being left totally unmarked from an Irwin cross. Poor defending again allowed Charlton to claw one back but when Barrowman out us ahead once more we looked to have the game wrapped up but  a late penalty awarded to Charlton tied the game and in all honesty they deserved the draw.

We entered the final game of the month against bottom club Tranmere with only one fully fit defender as Carolan had picked up a knock in training and will be out for two weeks. Josh Falkingham was drafted in as a make shift defender with more defensive minded Shane Hooks coming back into midfield. The back four looked very uneasy and Tranmere took the lead after 30 minutes and kept us on the back foot for most of the first half. A nice little string of passes early in the second half allowed Steve Irwin to net the equalizer but Tranmere took the lead on the hour exploiting our defensive misfortune. When all seemed lost our only fit defender Mark Ellis headed in a dramatic late equalizer from a corner to maintain our unbeaten start to the season.

Results at a glance

Current League Table

Andrew Barrowman picked up the player of the month award and not surprisingly as he’s been in terrific form.

Injury Table

As you can see I have a few injury concerns right now so have picked up Jay Simpson and Arnuad Mendy on two month loans to help things out a little.

Fixtures

So that completes this months report which finds me very concerned about my central defence as it really is not good enough for this league but thanks to our front line we remain on top but for how long??

Thanks for reading.