I wasn’t at HP last night, so settled for watching it on DAZN instead. Hats off to the commentator.

Hard to disagree, I feel Torquay’s professional status and fitness showed in the second half. Realistically we should never be competing with these kind of sides, and we gave a good account of ourselves in the first 45. They were just better than us second half.

FWIW, and this showed on the TV, it’s an awful challenge on Poffley right above the ankle after he’d got to the ball first, and it should have been a red card.

Unbeaten run comes to an end and we’re into a run on four games against play-off sides, we’ll do well to add to our tally but thankfully recent form and performances have given us a more than comfortable buffer to ride through these fixtures

Last edited by 96chipp (05/3/2025 10:47 AM)

Well into time added on, 2-1 down and our goalie has the ball. Logic says that he boots it up field and we try for a route one goal and a possible point. No this Chippenham town and no matter what we play from the back because that's our way. Well that worked out well didn't it and we end up 3-1 down at the final whistle. They say be careful what you write on here as management and players read the forum, we if they do they take no notice. We have this rigid style of play which is more focused on side to side rather than going forward and then on the occasions we are on the edge of the box the next thing you know Will Henry had the ball rolling it out to a full back. We're safe from relegation and little hope of the playoff's so lets shake things up a bit and play with a bit more bravado .

I'll get the negatives out of the way first. We have now played 18 games (plus 1 cup game) at home and won 5 of them. In the NLS home table we sit 20th out of 24. Last night I would estimate there was no more than 450 Chippenham supporters in attendance for what was a very attractive looking fixture on a nice evening for watching football. The referee (interestingly named Mr Pratt) was very very poor. I must reiterate what has been written above, playing out from the back so obviously just does not work.

On a positive note I thought Will Dawes was outstanding until forced off and for most of the first half we more than matched Torquay. I would also say that Freddie Grant, Jac Poffley and Tom Mehew (apart from some wayward shooting) had good games.

Agree with all of the above - I can count on one hand the games I’ve felt truly entertained this season.  Will Henry probably had more touches than some of our outfield players.  Ours is a high risk strategy, and it’s deadly boring.  And another thing - why do we more often than not it seems, kick up the slope in the second half, or is it my imagination?  There must be some rationale for this, I’d like to know if this is another master plan - we surely can’t lose the toss every week?

On the positive side I’m not complaining about where we are in the league table.  By the end of February we were safely in mid-table, no threat of relegation or flirting with the possibility of promotion (that would surely kill us if it ever happened - perhaps a debate for a separate thread).  For a club of our size it’s no mean feat and should be applauded.  There’s a lot to be proud of at CTFC, we only gripe because we care.

Insideleft wrote:

Agree with all of the above - I can count on one hand the games I’ve felt truly entertained this season.  Will Henry probably had more touches than some of our outfield players.  Ours is a high risk strategy, and it’s deadly boring.  And another thing - why do we more often than not it seems, kick up the slope in the second half, or is it my imagination?  There must be some rationale for this, I’d like to know if this is another master plan - we surely can’t lose the toss every week?

On the positive side I’m not complaining about where we are in the league table.  By the end of February we were safely in mid-table, no threat of relegation or flirting with the possibility of promotion (that would surely kill us if it ever happened - perhaps a debate for a separate thread).  For a club of our size it’s no mean feat and should be applauded.  There’s a lot to be proud of at CTFC, we only gripe because we care.

You're right, back in the day we always opted to play down the slope in the second half. Even if we were a couple of goals behind, you still fancied us to get something from the game, as we surged forward, roared on by a packed stand behind the goal. Fast forward to the present and the scene is one of rows and rows of empty seats. The valiant efforts of those gathered around the drummer, were much appreciated, but when Freddie Grant was waving his arms in the air, urging the supporters to raise the atmosphere, there simply wasn't enough fans to make an impact.