Torquay United 21st Jan H

[Markskelton]

I heard from a reliable source that a signing is imminent and that he was at the club a few days ago,he couldn’t remember his name though.

[Reading Rebel]

I thought we were second best in the first half and to only be the one goal down at half time was a real bonus.

Calamitous early goal to concede could have opened the flood gates but we stuck at it keeping it at 0-1 until the break.

Much better from us in the second half without any real threat from our two strikers Amartey and Slavi.

Really not sure playing Slavi between the midfield and striker position works and Amartey is not a number 9. 

Their second goal came following a hotly disputed decision from the ref.

We had control of the ball in a central position on the edge of their area when play was stopped because of a head injury to one of their players near the half way line. After treatment play commenced with the ref awarding a free kick to Torquay on the edge of their area which led to their second goal.

Looking at the rules, it seems the decision made by the ref depends on whether the ball was inside or outside of the area when play was stopped. Inside the area it's their keepers ball, outside the area it's a dropped ball to the team who last had the ball.

In the end we got what we deserved with a well earned point.

Edited Wednesday at 11:31 by Reading Rebel

[Bernie Gogan]

1 hour ago, Reading Rebel said:

I thought we were second best in the first half and to only be the one goal down at half time was a real bonus.

Calamitous early goal to concede could have opened the flood gates but we stuck at it keeping it at 0-1 until the break.

Much better from us in the second half without any real threat from our two strikers Amartey and Slavi.

Really not sure playing Slavi between the midfield and striker position works and Amartey is not a number 9. 

Their second goal came following a hotly disputed decision from the ref.

We had control of the ball in a central position on the edge of their area when play was stopped because of a head injury to one of their players near the half way line. After treatment play commenced with the ref awarding a free kick to Torquay on the edge of their area which led to their second goal.

Looking at the rules, it seems the decision made by the ref depends on whether the ball was inside or outside of the area when play was stopped. Inside the area it's their keepers ball, outside the area it's a dropped ball to the team who last had the ball.

In the end we got what we deserved with a well earned point.

.........but the keeper took the "free kick" from well outside the box! Enormous error from the ref., which cost us their 2nd goal. I couldn't understand what was happening as I was expecting a dropped ball pretty much adjacent to where I was standing as there was no foul involved.

Their manager is disappointed they couldn't see the game out, apparently they should have prevented the cross, ignoring Alfa's skill at tricking their defenders. In all honesty they didn't deserve the win and imo even a point after their 2nd half display. In fact they weren't all that good in the first half overall. I've yet to see the best team in this league, maybe Boreham Wood since Luke Garrard resumed managerial duties there.

[Curtis]

2 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

Their first goal imo came about because I think Bayliss should have gone for the ball in the air, as he should always if at all possible, and probably so did Scott so in the end it was just a calamitous cock-up between the two. 

No news on this new left back?

Does he actually exist or just keeping his options open looking for the highest bidder, in which case I'd say don't bother and go somewhere else.

I heard a rumour he was at the match last night, I think he watched from the Board room.

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, Bernie Gogan said:

.........but the keeper took the "free kick" from well outside the box! Enormous error from the ref., which cost us their 2nd goal. I couldn't understand what was happening as I was expecting a dropped ball pretty much adjacent to where I was standing as there was no foul involved.

Their manager is disappointed they couldn't see the game out, apparently they should have prevented the cross, ignoring Alfa's skill at tricking their defenders. In all honesty they didn't deserve the win and imo even a point after their 2nd half display. In fact they weren't all that good in the first half overall. I've yet to see the best team in this league, maybe Boreham Wood since Luke Garrard resumed managerial duties there.

I'd like to see it again but I'm sure when play was stopped it was not inside the area and if so yes an enormous error from the ref.

Having said that we still should have defended the long punt up field better.

Very few managers give the opposition any praise but I don't think Wooton mentioned us once.

[SloughFlyer]

Gents, I think you'll find the play for the free kick was stopped as Slavi fouled their defender AFTER Francis had knocked the guy that was down over on the counter. The ref didn't see the foul by Francis but gave the free kick on the edge of the box following the foul by Slavi. This allowed the guy to get treatment. The rest as they say is history.

[Reading Rebel]

6 hours ago, SloughFlyer said:

Gents, I think you'll find the play for the free kick was stopped as Slavi fouled their defender AFTER Francis had knocked the guy that was down over on the counter. The ref didn't see the foul by Francis but gave the free kick on the edge of the box following the foul by Slavi. This allowed the guy to get treatment. The rest as they say is history.

I bow to your superior knowledge SF.

Just one question how do you know this for certain?

Personally I didn't see any foul committed.

[SloughFlyer]

8 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

I bow to your superior knowledge SF.

Just one question how do you know this for certain?

Personally I didn't see any foul committed.

Just from memory of the incident RR. It stuck out as a i remember seeing Francis foul the lad and said to my old man that we had got away with one as the ref clearly hadn't seen it as he didn't blow up until Slavi got together with their defender on the edge of the box.

[RebelVilla]

A telling point is that our players did not dispute the free kick.

[Reading Rebel]

On 22/01/2025 at 10:43, Markskelton said:

I heard from a reliable source that a signing is imminent and that he was at the club a few days ago,he couldn’t remember his name though.

Just a rumour or another top secret signing? 

[SloughFlyer]

3 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

Just a rumour or another top secret signing? 

Really top secret as whomever it is, isn't in the squad today.

[Reading Rebel]

38 minutes ago, SloughFlyer said:

Really top secret as whomever it is, isn't in the squad today.

Obviously having trouble getting him to sign for us and possibly fallen through.

[Curtis]

I think it has been said they need to sort out what’s happening with Beeden & Lucan before they can make another signing 

[Reading Rebel]

3 hours ago, Curtis said:

I think it has been said they need to sort out what’s happening with Beeden & Lucan before they can make another signing 

Curtis, there was definitely a defender, possibly a left back, we wanted to sign but it seems the money he wanted has put him out of reach.

I doubt very much that Lexus and Lucan will be back and the money we've saved on them has very likely gone on signing Hollis.

[SloughFlyer]

Lucan played 90 minutes for Virginia Water today

[Markskelton]

6 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

Obviously having trouble getting him to sign for us and possibly fallen through.

Scott said he tried in the post match interview but they wanted too much money.

His comment was worrying about 1-2 exits this week with the ‘big dogs’ sniffing around 😒

[GlenSTFC]

6 minutes ago, Markskelton said:

Scott said he tried in the post match interview but they wanted too much money.

His comment was worrying about 1-2 exits this week with the ‘big dogs’ sniffing around 😒

It’ll be a massive blow to lose one of best players especially in the rut we find ourselves. But unfortunately the club aren’t in a position to match or better the offer and even if they could 99.9% of players will want to test themselves at a higher level. Add to that we’re trying to offload another 2 plus the injuries we could be looking to sign an additional 3 or 4 players. 

[Reading Rebel]

13 hours ago, GlenSTFC said:

It’ll be a massive blow to lose one of best players especially in the rut we find ourselves. But unfortunately the club aren’t in a position to match or better the offer and even if they could 99.9% of players will want to test themselves at a higher level. Add to that we’re trying to offload another 2 plus the injuries we could be looking to sign an additional 3 or 4 players. 

It doesn't have to be clubs from a higher level just ones that are challenging near the top and can pay a lot more money than us.

With one or two players leaving is it just a coincidence that we've just played Eastbourne and Torquay?

Edited 20 hours ago by Reading Rebel

[Reading Rebel]

I don't know if Leon has a good job but he'll be going full time if it's Torquay or Eastbourne.

Edited Saturday at 22:28 by Reading Rebel

[Curtis]

Wasn’t it said somewhere that 11 or 12 of our players are now on contract?

So, isn’t it likely that we will receive a fee for any of our better players being approached?

I would say it’s likely to be Bayliss, Parillon, Gilbert or Ochieng….. they would be the ones I think have been performing regularly at the upper end of our level or have the potential to play a level higher.