U's:2 Gulls:0

I’ve been a very bad blogger this week, I must apologise. Work has got on top of me somewhat and I haven’t made time to keep this up to date.

So I’m pleased to be back with a happy report of us cementing our place in the play offs. It’s a shame it had to come at the expense of Stevenage, who I was hoping would sneak in despite their post-Christmas lacklustreness. Exeter and Burton are probably the teams I feared most of the other four, so it’s a bit annoying that we’ll definitely be up against one of those two. However, our record is so good against the top teams that they should be a bit worried about us as well. Should make for a couple of intriguing contests whoever we face.

Thanks to the ongoing Torquay/Setanta love in, I feel I know Paul Buckle’s men pretty well and, as Shania Twain might say, they’ve never impressed me much. There’s no doubt they have some of the most talented players in division, particularly going forward. But they always strike me as a group of decent individuals rather than a team, albeit individuals so decent that they can bludgeon their way past most of the other outfits at this level.

To be fair, they started last nights game really well, with Chris Zebroski, Lee Phillips, and Tim Sills linking up to good effect. Zebroski almost created an early goal with a run that took him past three half hearted challenges. His cross found Phillips lurking with intent at the back post, but his goal bound header was cleared by Danny Brown.

The Gulls continued to pour forward, and it seemed that United were showing their opponents far too much respect. Midfield were very deep, meaning Torquay saw a lot of possession, and gained plenty of throw ins and free kicks, all of which were wasted by deadball ‘specialist’ Kevin Nicholson, who spent the match traipsing back and forth across the pitch to take them like an Grid iron quarter back.

And when plan A failed to break through United’s typically watertight back line, the visitors didn’t seem to know what to do, and the U’s finally began to play a bit. Boylan persistence saw him get a lucky ricochet and run clear on goal, but he chose to take the shot early and saw it dip over the bar. Pitt slalomed past a couple of challenges before firing narrowly wide, before Albrighton came closest with a header that was cleared off the line.

After a tentative start out of position in midfield, Dan Gleeson grew in confidence as the match went on, and it was a superb run from him that created the opening goal. Leaving Zebroski in his wake, he drew a defender towards him before sending an excellent pass through for the ever-willing Beesley to chase. It didn’t look like the little striker was even going to reach the ball before it went out, but he did, and arrowed a shot across goal that almost defied the laws of physics as it found the opposite corner of the net. 1-0.

In a trice it was 2-0. Again Gleeson was the provider, with a low cross which goalkeeper Rayner should really have dealt with comfortably. But his attempt to collect was half hearted at best, and Boylan barrelled through, knocking the ball from his grasp and allowing Beesley to nip in and sweep a shot high into net.

The second half was always going to struggle to live up to the first, with United seemingly content to sit on their two goal advantage. Potter saved well twice from Sills, and there were a few other hairy moments but, as they have throughout the season, United defended in numbers and with no little skill. Purlitzer prize nominee Danny Brown was particularly outstanding, clearing the danger on a number of occasions.

There were a couple highlights during the second period: Evil replaced Boylan for his first run out since that injury, and although he looked knackered after about 20 minutes, as long as he doesn’t pick up another knock he should be in prime condition for the play offs. Welcome back big man! The other was Danny Potter urging one of the ball boys to slow things down, only for the little lad to take things literally (as one tends to do when you’re young) and boot the ball in the opposite direction. We all love Pottsy’s wind up antics, but perhaps our newly crowned Player of the Year takes things a bit far sometimes.

Man of the Match: Danny Brown – A captain’s performance from a player who is beginning to look quite at home at left back.

“If looks could kill…” hard stare of the match: A Gulls fan must have said something to Browny as he lined up to take a throw during the second half. I wouldn’t have liked to be on the end of the glare he got in return.