Match Discussion: Game 2 - The Gulls (H)

[PON_News]

Game 2 - The Gulls (H)

Team: Torquay United

Date: 28/08/2021

Where: Meadow Lane

What line-up should Ian Burchnall opt for? What will be the key areas for the Magpies to get a victory? What do you think the final score will be?

Have your say below, join in with the Pride of Nottingham match discussion.

[menzinho]

Our last two performances under IB against Torquay were pretty good – the first game probably shouldn’t have drawn and the play-off game Torquay got the luck in extra-time.

They’ve got a whole new team now, and like Barnet I think playing them early is a good thing. First proper full crowd back for us as well. I think we’ll do well against them. For me the result will depend on how ruthless we can be and how well we can deal with a more physical and aerial threat.

I terms of changes I wouldn’t want to but with Wrexham so close after I think it’ll be beneficial. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the likes of Nemane, Mitchell, Chicksen and O’Brien in the first 11.

3-1 Notts. Roberts, Wootton and Taylor to score.

[DangerousSausage]

I'm leaning towards a home win too with our home advantage and Torquay having so many changes. The Barnet game was nice, but it doesn't tell us a lot about how the rest of the season is going to go and I'm expecting Torquay to give us a much sterner test.

I don't think IB will play both Taylor and Nemane, he seems to want one of our wing backs to be defensively minded. Could imagine him playing Chicksen and Nemane and then switching to Taylor/DKE for Wrexham. If I were him I'd probably want to bed the new team in a bit before switching around.

[Dripsey3]

Torquay are not as good as they were last season. They'll be doing well if they make the playoffs. It will be interesting to see how Notts deal with a big crowd. It should be a fantastic atmosphere. I'll go for a nervy 1-0 win. 

[liampie]

will they want to make us pay for signing several of their players? its already a bit of a grudge match for both teams.

i can see a desperate draw at 2-2, torquay scoring late on from a set piece.

[Dripsey3]

We conceded a goal against 10 men. No surprise that it was a header. Wootton does what Wootton does and despite it resembling the Alamo, Torquay held on. 2 points dropped? Yes. On to Monday. 

[Feral Fox]

Not the best tbh. First half we were dire.  No pace, no intent etc…almost like watching an Ardley side again.

The two subs at half time helped. Both bought energy to the team, which was badly needed. 
Thought the defence were rubbish. Rawlinson still looking shaky and Cameron not much better today. Sloppy passing…

And their goal. Oh dear. Shouldn’t bounce/head  over a centre half like that and Slocombe out of position.

 

Not the same team that won convincingly last week. Hope the rocket that IB gave them works in time for Wrexham.

 

The one good thing for me…IB sees it like a fan does. Ardley used to stand there. IB is waving his hands at poor passes, shouting in frustration with the lack of tempo. His intentions are clear. Attack. We’ll be ok with him in charge. 

[Joshua]

Its hardly a bad draw.

Torquay started very brightly and they made it difficult for Notts to get hold of the game.

The first half had some good chances, I don't think it was awful but it was somewhere between acceptable and that.

Torquay looked like they knew it was a matter of time before Notts pulled level, the time wasting was pathetic. I thought Notts handled the second half way, coming out fast and the subs made a big impact. I think Nemane coming on injects a lot of skill, his linking with Roberts was enjoyable. I did feel DKE needed to be allowed to run a little more, but its frustrating to see players hit stupidly high balls towards him.

Defensively I thought Notts did just fine.

Attacking we need to be more decisive in the first half, slow the game down and avoid passing sideways all the time. I liked some of the runs players did, but a lot of the time it went unnoticed. In the second half, this was the biggest change because we started moving with the ball better and passing it to players in space. With others making runs and finding their own pockets of space, we did not have much of this in the first half.

[Fozzy]

Not sure about Nemane yet, he came on and ran round like a raggy doll to begin with and he clearly only uses his left foot for standing on. He has potential but is still very raw.

As for the game generally, I thought Torquay worked hard from the start without looking that great, but we just seemed a little slow. We need to get the ball to Ruben & Cal more as we were just too crab like with our approach play. I counted at least six times when we could have taken a a shot from around 25 yards out but decided to go sideways rather than test the keeper (who had a very easy day). 
First half was pretty bad, but we did look better in the second half when we switched to a back four.

At least we didn’t lose, but we also didn’t deserve to win the game. I can see us being a lot better on Monday though.

 

 

 

[menzinho]

Were the players over-confident yesterday? The way we started that first-half suggests so. As well as the general slowness and sloppiness I thought we lacked an outlet out wide. Taylor was a big miss and whilst Chicksen was solid he didn't fly forward in the way Taylor probably would've. We needed Nemane, he was able to just get at their defence and caused more problems albeit his final ball wasn’t always on point.  

As poor as we were first half we still had the better chances. Ruben, Roberts and Rawlinson all probably could’ve scored. I think had we scored first yesterday, or even levelled before half-time we would’ve gone on and won that.

Torquay an absolute master-class in time-wasting, but that was on the ref to deal with and he was very poor in that respect.

Early days, but not bad to have a little reality check just before one of our toughest away games.

[DangerousSausage]

Well that was an anticlimax. At least we didn't lose. A good result on Monday night and it'll be quickly forgotten.

I only listened on the radio, but for all the possession we had after the sending off, we didn't seem to test their keeper much. Of course the timewasting from Torquay was annoying and at times ludicrous, but let's be honest with ourselves - if the roles had been reversed, we'd have wanted our players to do exactly the same. We brought it on ourselves by falling behind to an unnecessary goal.

I was a bit confused by Charlie Slater saying "the man" in the second half, until I realised he was referring to Nemane. Maybe I'll just call him The Man in future to avoid confusion.

[Chris]

Good performance by both teams, that made an exciting game in all fairness.

Torquay came out looking to score early on, Their build up play at times was very good but lacked the end product.

Notts started sluggish and lacked directness, but people should understand it's simply due to how high Torquay pressed. The main issues in the first half, was the high balls to DKE - it's ridiculous and anyone who genuinely blames Dion for this issue needs to get their heads checked.

I felt the chances Notts created in the first half were actually much better than Torquay, yet they are few and far between. It was a decent first half, I don't think anyone can really say it was awful or rubbish.

I'm starting to believe that the signings and, win over Barnet is starting to cloud some peoples' judgement.

Much like Don Masson's comments at half-time has got people all in arms over us playing the ball out from the back, it was difficult for me to hear exactly what was said, but I made the jist of it. I just wasn't sure if Masson was trying to claim Slocombe couldn't hit a free kick to our striker - if so, this is nonsense.

In the second half, Ian Burchnall actually addressed some issues from the first half.

However, I think it's completely unfair to blame DKE for his performance because he did fine with the ball at his feet.

Nemane made a huge difference, but he needs to avoid doing to much. I mean when it works, it's exciting, but it does seem wasteful when theirs better options available.

O'Brien seems revived and keen to play a bigger role in the squad, he was a real bright point when he came on. His movement and ability to get forward, it made a huge difference.

With Roberts and Nemane pulling strings over on the right side, it forced Rodrigues to drift to the left and I think he would've been more effective if he could have stayed central. O'Brien went to the left often enough, but Chicksen didn't really support O'Brien. He seemed more interested in taking players on and, getting the ball into the box.

Chicksen played okay for me, he did some exciting things, but largely I feel he could've worked better with others.

The decision-making wasn't always ideal from Notts, I do agree at times it could've been much better, but the game was good.

Torquay knew the pressure would mount on them. They slowed down and took to dropping to the ground to kill any momentum or simply to hold onto their lead. Their keeper should've been booked earlier than he did, and still managed to time waste beyond a point where he could get away with it in my eyes.

I got the impression the referee didn't want to make any more bookings after a certain point with Torquay, as he looked to hold out and 6 minutes for all the antics was short. Yet, I accept it because a draw isn't the worst result.

Notts played some exciting football in the second half, Burchnall needs to make sure we maintain the same level of intensity and directness.

If a team decides to park every player in their penalty area, we need to draw them out with the creative players that we have - Roberts did well in this regard, he tried to draw people onto him, and it often created Nemane time to get a cross in. Unfortunately, Nemane's crosses was hit-and-miss. This needs to be improved, but I don't think people suggesting we should shoot from outside the box understand anything about football.

You've got to have a clear target, or see a way for your ability to get something in on goal - this won't happen with 3-5 bodies all in your way.

Honestly, I left happy and felt we could've won - yet I will always take a point in games like this.

It could've easily turned in favour of Torquay, although Notts really should've made the most of them having 10-men. I don't think it's worth criticising and, moaning because it's very early in the season. Just because we won Barnet 5-0, it doesn't mean we'll batter every side [unlike people on social media seems to think].

[Super_Danny_Allsopp]

We were too predictable at times. Right to left is all well and good, but we all knew what was going on and who the next pass was to. Sometimes, you have to put the ball in the mixer to keep them guessing and we never tried that, until Chicksen did it and we scored. Strangely, we never tried again.

Very frustrating game in the end. Torquay are a one-dimensional side (lump it to Wright and hope for the knock-ons), who time wasted but ran themselves into the ground. Ref should have punished them for the antics but bottled it because of the red already given. I see yesterday they were thumped 4-0... probably as a direct consequence of the effort they put into defending against us, or the cramp - if you are to believe it.