United lost out to play-off rivals Cambridge United in tonight's Blue Square Premier fixture. Paul Buckle will be waiting on news about Roscoe Dsane and Lee Mansell who both left the field nursing injuries.
Torquay almost got off to the perfect start when Tim Sills got on to a Chris Zebroski cross after the Gulls winger finished a superb run but Sills' header was straight at Potter in the Cambridge goal. The home side were a little slow out of the blocks and during the early exchanges they weren't posing any real problem to Simon Rayner's goal.
Kevin Nicholson tested Potter after 19 minutes with a free kick but the Cambridge 'keeper was up to the challenge. The first corner of the match came soon after and it went to Torquay but nothing could be created from it and the match was being interrupted by a spate of offside decisions and numerous free kicks. The first real moment of trouble for Paul buckle came midway through the half when Roscoe Dsane had to leave the pitch with a shoulder injury to be replaced by Tony Bedeau but by this time Cambridge still hadn't created anything much to worry about. The home side didn't have a shot at goal until the 26th minute but it was no trouble to Rayner.
Gradually though, Cambridge started to impose themselves on the game although neither side were creating much in the way of clear cut chances. Kevin Nicholson cleared off the line from a corner and as the half drew to a close Cambridge were looking a lot brighter in attack and it wasn't long before the deadlock was broken. Torquay were caught out slightly by a Cambridge attack and Gleeson found himself with space to get the ball to Beesley who shot from an acute angle and his shot beat Simon Rayner inside his near post. After a positive start it must of come as something of a shock for the Torquay bench to see their side a goal down but worse was to come; right on the stroke of half-time another centre from Gleeson wasn't collected by Rayner and Beesley was on hand to score the second goal that didn't do justice to Torquay's play during the first half. Two goals down, it must have been a frustrated United side that came into the dressing room at half-time.
Torquay started the second half with some defending to do after some early pressure from the home side but this current Gulls side are made of stern stuff and many lesser teams could have folded on a night like tonight but although Cambridge's defence wasn't split apart too often Torquay kept their hosts on their toes for the whole 90 minutes.
If you were feeling really sorry for yourself you could argue that nothing fell Torquay's way tonight but 'Bucks' certainly won't be crying in a corner over this result. There was plenty to take out of the performance and into the play-offs although there were a couple of worrying moments when Chris Todd and Tim Sills went down injured but both players were fine to carry on and complete the game. One player who didn't was Lee Mansell who left the pitch with what looked like a groin injury, again it may have been a tweak rather than anything serious but he was replaced by Darren Mullings with Bedeau switching to right back. In a decent spell during the second half Torquay had numerous shots at Potter's goal but if the shots weren't wide of the mark then the Cambridge goalkeeper was in good form and dealt with all that was sent his way.
Simon Rayner didn't have a great deal to do in the second period but the damage had already been done in the first although the Gulls 'keeper should not be too downbeat about a slight off day when he has been so impressive since his return from Boston. Some cheer for the Gulls faithful was a late appearance for Kevin Hill who is creeping toward the all-time appearance record.
On the night when Stevenage fell almost at the last hurdle and missed out on a play-off place and Burton also lost, both Cambridge and Exeter should pat themselves on the back for winning their respective games but remember that the season is about to be decided in a five game shoot out. Who will blink first?..
