Swindon Town v Torquay United Official Matchday Thread

[Processed Beats]

Looked 4-3-3 to me, and Ferry mentioned "the three up top" in his post-match interview, so i just persumed my assumptions were correct.

[Spencer_White]

The first half hour I thought Torquay were the better team. After that we took control of the game. Amankwaah was a liability at right back for the first half hour, I feared the worst when Cuthbert went off injured and the young lad came on at right back, with Kev in the middle, but they all played pretty well as a unit. For a young lad on debut, Thompson had a good game, very promising.

I thought the ref gave us a lot of decisions 2nd half, which was nice. We should have been able to add another couple of goals second half. Their keeper played very well and pulled off some great saves. Ferry was particularly unlucky not to score.

Pericard, credit where its due, he made 1 and scored 1. But he looked so isolated and slow up front to me. Our formation looked more 4-5-1 than 4-3-3. Ritchie did some good things, but at times he looked too relaxed on the ball. At one point he tried to dribble it out of our box, hurdled 2 challenges and was tackled by the third, which is just madness and will cost us goals. Ball played well, but he must have slipped over 20 times during the game. His footwear probably cost £200 a pair, but youve got to wonder how good some of these fancy boots really are?

Torquay brought a decent following (250?). But they lose points for bringing a drum. Glad to be through, another home tie next round please.

[Red Frog]

Just got back.

Well earned, confidence-boosting and welcome win.

Lined up in a 4-3-3 formation i think, and generally it worked. Closed them down well today, and created lots and lots have chances. Ritchie looked a real handful, Pericard made one and scored one and was genereally pretty good today, Ball also looked alot more confident with the passing game.

Overall, not much of a challenge, but we took advantage of it and got back to winning ways. Roll on monday!

Interesting variation on a theme there.

[Processed Beats]

Oh, and Thompson was immense. Won near enough every aerial ball aimed at him, which is quite an achievement for such a small guy. Got forward well too, could've scored two!

[Crispy]

Just got back, not bad not bad.

[aroundthefur]

It's a good job Lucas made a fine save 1-on-1 with their striker in the opening minute! That would have been a dire start to proceedings after Saturday's debacle.

Torquay gave us lots of space tonight which we were able to exploit down the flanks. Their full-backs pushed on in to midfield and because of this both Ball and Ritchie had plenty of opportunities to get in behind the defenders. I thought Pericard actually did a decent job of holding the ball up and bringing others into play. Ritchie and Rose combined well in the first half and we had genuine width tonight for the first time this season.

As pointed out in previous posts, Douglas had a good game, regularly pushing forward and dictating possession. McGovern I felt was disappointing, as ever he worked hard off the ball but I thought a number of his passes went astray tonight. Ferry actually had two decent shots from distance with one of them striking the post. Nathan Thompson impressed when he came on and will put the out-of-form Amankwaah under serious threat if he can sustain that type of performance.

Defensively I thought we looked a bit fragile and not altogether convincing; this inconsistency worries me ahead of Monday.

[Ralphy]

I went tonight. Have to say, despite his goal, i still don't rate Pericard. His first touch was awful tonight and his clumsiness is becoming annoying.

Ball and Ritchie both had good games but i'd have given Dougie man of the match.

Special mention for Nathan Thompson who looked very useful when he came on.

[jonny72]

Back in early 2009 there were some Premier League clubs interested in Nathan Thompson, so he must have something. Hopefully he's ready for the 1st team now, will be interesting to see if he's done enough to get another chance soon.

[@MacPhlea]

The first half hour I thought Torquay were the better team. After that we took control of the game. Amankwaah was a liability at right back for the first half hour, I feared the worst when Cuthbert went off injured and the young lad came on at right back, with Kev in the middle, but they all played pretty well as a unit. For a young lad on debut, Thompson had a good game, very promising.

I thought the ref gave us a lot of decisions 2nd half, which was nice. We should have been able to add another couple of goals second half. Their keeper played very well and pulled off some great saves. Ferry was particularly unlucky not to score.

Pericard, credit where its due, he made 1 and scored 1. But he looked so isolated and slow up front to me. Our formation looked more 4-5-1 than 4-3-3. Ritchie did some good things, but at times he looked too relaxed on the ball. At one point he tried to dribble it out of our box, hurdled 2 challenges and was tackled by the third, which is just madness and will cost us goals. Ball played well, but he must have slipped over 20 times during the game. His footwear probably cost £200 a pair, but youve got to wonder how good some of these fancy boots really are?

Torquay brought a decent following (250?). But they lose points for bringing a drum. Glad to be through, another home tie next round please.

We will be having a word with both Mr Ball and Mr Ritchie - blades may look nice but they fuck the pitch up something rotten 

[Batch]

We will be having a word with both Mr Ball and Mr Ritchie - blades may look nice but they fuck the pitch up something rotten 

I assumed that were wearing ice skates the amount of time they were on over on their arses. That confirms it.

Yoof of today, nothing wrong with a pair of Puma Kings. Proper black leather boots of a man. None of this synthetic metatarsal breaking nancy boy blades rubbish.

[mexico red]

i can see prutton coming in for mcgovern monday that is if austin isnt fit.

[Batch]

Is prutton available? Was it a 2 or 3 game ban?

Edit: Never mind, it was 2.

http://www.thefa.com/TheFa/Disciplinary/SuspensionLists/

[mexico red]

ithought we looked so much better with ball on the right, he was very effective, ritchie could be a cracking player for us

good news for reg - when we get relegated we walk league 2

[Highland Robin]

It is so hard, for those of us unable to get to games, to get a clear picture of what happened!!  Are some just so biassed against Pericard that they won't allow him to have played well - the Adver says he played his best game.  Torquay just hoofed it according to some, while DW says they came to play good football......defence looked wobbly, but Town dominated all but the opening minutes of both halves..... I'm bemused and confused.

[Barry Scott]

I just selectively read and believe what it is that agrees with my opinion. The rest is obviously wrong.