The highlight of the 1st half for me was the fiasco with the corner flag and Barry Knight, which held play up for 4 minutes! Personally I thought he should have booked the corner flag for time-wasting! Torquay's first goal came on the 29 minute mark with Broadhurst and Browning contriving to let in Gritton with a shot from the right of the area. Moss had no chance-1-0 to Torquay. We could have been 3-0 down if it was not for a good save by Moss and a dubious off-side decision after only a minute had gone. But minutes latter we were 2-0 down-a superb Torquay counter attack from a Cherries corner and there was David Graham finshing with ease!! Half time couldn't come soon enough for me and thankfully there were no further additions to the score!
Half time consensus was things can only get better - "If only we had known". On 47 minutes it was 3-0. Moss spilled the ball, Carl Fletecher fluffed the clearance and there was Alex Russell to hammer the ball into a unguarded net from 20 yards. The next 30 minutes or so was all Torquay with the Cherries struggling to pass the ball despite the efforts of Brian Stock who came on at half time for Neil Young. On 77 minutes it was 4-0 to Torquay - route one football with David Graham beating to defenders and Moss with ease. The last 5 minutes saw the Cherries play their best football with Stock missing two good chances and Feeney one. Not surprisingly a large percentage of the travelling support had departed as stunned as myself at our total surrender in a game we could have lost by far more. The final whistle went to a surreal atmosphere in the away end-a few boos, a smattering of applause. Most Cherries fans just wanted a large hole to vanish into!!
Not Prepared To Name Man Of The Match - no one deserved it.
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Bournemouth: Moss, Young, Ridgewell, Broadhurst, Purches, O Connor, C.Fletcher, Browning, Thomas, Hayter, S.Fletcher
Rob Mann, Newton Abbot