Crawley Town 0 – 1 Torquay United, Broadfield Stadium, 3rd March 2012.
Crawley: Gilmartin, James, Mills, McFadzean, Howell, Bulman, Akpan, Neilson, Watt, Clarke, Akinde. Subs: Cummings, Torres, Simpson, Batt, Kuipers (GK)
Torquay: Olejnik, Oastler, McDonald, Ellis, Nicholson, Lathrope, Mansell, O’Kane, Stevens, Morris, Howe. Subs: Rowe-Turner, Jarvis, Rice (GK), Craig, Atieno
After two below-par performances, and two successive defeats, Torquay United got the best possible start to March by picking up a vital 3 points at fellow promotion rivals, Crawley Town. Town, managed by the man who’s one of the most despised men in lower-league football, (yet still seems to lap up all the media attention;see the Football League Show), drew a blank infront of their own fans for only the second time in the league this season. That fact shows just how strong our back five is, and with Bobby Olejnik in goal, clean sheets are a common thing for us so far this year, as we racked up our 14th clean sheet in total.
Infront of 3,361 spectators, with a noisy and mightily impressive 451 Gulls in the away end (or corner), a volleyed finish from Eunan O’Kane saw the points return to Devon. Martin Ling lined up with one change from the side that went down at Gillingham just 7 days before; young loanee Angus McDonald replacing the suspended Brian Saah. It was McDonald’s professional debut, but from reading reports he seemed to fit straight into our side and our system, which was very positive to see. Our hosts lined up with new signing Lloyd James starting at right back, with another new signing, Wayne Cummings, on the bench to start.
Crawley created the first chance of the game, a long ball from Pablo Mills was met by Akinde who headed down to Clarke, but Olejnik diverted the ball wide for a corner. About 20 minutes had gone when Danny Stevens went down after chasing a ball. He was taken off and taken to hospital, with a suspected broken ankle, which will keep the wide man out for the remainder of the season. Loanee Ryan Jarvis came on in his place, moving onto the right wing, with Ian Morris switching to the left. Both sides were creating chances, but neither could find the knockout blow to take advantage of the game. It reached halftime goalless.
The second half followed in the same way, both sides creating chances but no defence was breached. Torquay almost undid themselves as a shot from the edge of the box ricocheted off of Joe Oastler, but it was scrambled clear by the young McDonald. As the clock showed 12 minutes plus stoppages remaining, the home defence was broken. A long ball down the line was played for Rene Howe to chase, he put a low cross in, Jarvis had a shot blocked but Eunan O’Kane slammed the rebound into the bottom corner with his first touch. Cue wild celebrations from the travelling yellows behind the goal.
Crawley deflated by O'Kane's winner
From reading the reports, it sounds like we weren’t under any real pressure after the goal, and we very nearly added gloss to the scoreline when another ball down the left set Lathaniel Rowe-Turner away, and his lob over Gilmartin was taken off the line by Lloyd James. Gilmartin was involved in a Crawley corner right at the end, but the Gulls got it clear as the final whistle blew. Martin Ling has successfully ended a 5-game losing streak against the Red Devils, and to do it in their own park is excellent.
That result meant the two clubs swapped places in the League table, with Torquay moving 3 points ahead of their hosts, who do have games in hand. It is also another signal of intent from Ling’s troops, just when some people started to question their credentials for the run-in, this suggests we’re in it until the end. And why not?
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