Torquay United:February 2010

Hello my friends and thanks for dropping by as I bring you the latest update from Life on the Riviera.

The first game of the month was away to Hereford which allowed Omar Koroma to finally get a start up front after joining us on loan from Portsmouth. It didn’t take long to get himself on the scoresheet pouncing on a deflected shot by fellow loanee Victor Palsson after just 8 minutes. We had to wait until the sesond half to extend our lead when Hofbauer pressured the Hereford defence forcing and own goal from a Benyon cross. Mark Ellis (DC) who came up from the reserve team headed in the third to seal the victory. Koroma was unfortunate to pick up a knock during the game and will be out for 4 weeks.

With Benyon getting injured in training I now had two of my four strikers injured so I secured month long loans for Andreas Weimann from Aston Villa and Alex Nimely-Tchuimeni from Man City.

The following game was at home to Port Vale which I anticipated to be a difficult match and it turned out to be just that. Our front line had a furstrating time in penetrating a well organized Port Vale defence but in the end Mark Ellis was the hero of the hour heading in two goals from corner kicks which will now may justify a regular first team spot in the back four.

We travelled north to Rotherham for our next match and they were in second place again and looking for revenge following our  6-1 thrashing of them back in November. We got off to a cracking start with club captain Nicky Wroe  smashing the ball into the roof of the net from a cleared corner after 12 minutes. From that moment on Rotherham owned the game with wave after wave of attacks forcing corner after corner but we held firm and keeper Scott Bevan produced some miraculous saves. Eventually they pulled one back in  the second half but as the match drew to a close we were finishing stronger and from a rare attack Mark Ellis headed in from a corner kick deep into injury time to give us all three points to the delight of our travelling fans.

We stayed on the road for our next game which was just three days later at Cheltenham. Andreas Weimann got us off to a terrific start finishing a lovely through ball by Falkingham after only 6 minutes but the home side who were in a far more attacking mood than us hit an equalizer form 30 yards just before half time. Our lack lustre effort continued after  the interval and Cheltenham deservedly got the winning goal 20 minutes from time.

The fianl game of the month signalled a return home to the Plainmoor Stadium and a match against Accrington. This time I remebered to give my team the correct instructions in so much as shorter passing and this paid off quickly with Mark Ellis heading in after only 3 minutes. Barrowman added from the spot 10 minutes later when Weimann was hauled down and the young Austrian who was causing the visitors all kinds of trouble set up Barrowman again to give us a 3-0 lead by the half. The second period we were less adventurous though Accrington never gave us any real problems. Barrowman completed his hat-trick from the spot for a comprehensive victory.

League Table

With 12 games remaining we have an unbelievable 31 point lead so I think it’s safe to say that the title should be ours by the end of March.

Here’s Mark Ellis who has featured so much this past month

March Fixtures

Only 4 games on the card for next month though two of them are against teams looking for a play off spot so that may cause us some difficulties.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

I’m on what we call in Canada a «Staycation» next week which means I’m off work but going nowhere other than my back yard and of course the room where my PC is located :)