BLUE SQUARE PREMIER BURTON ALBION- TORQUAY UNITED
Albion lead the BSP by 9 points from Cambridge, with Torquay a further two points behind with a game in hand. If Burton win tonight the title and more importantly the sole automatic promotion place into the Football League, which goes with it, will be all but over. However, they come here on the back of a 4-0 thrashing at Crawley on Saturday and if United could win, they would reduce the gap to eight , with the game still in hand, which could take that down to five. You might think that that is still too much,with so few games left to play, except, incredibly, the leaders have still to visit sunny Torquay, on the last day of the season !
The visitors will go all out for the win tonight, they are in great form, on a ten match unbeaten run, which includes a win at the Kassam Stadium over Oxford, something which very few teams have done this season and if they can win there, this is certainly not beyond them. Boss Paul Buckle speaking on the club site said :
'I've got a good squad of players at the club. We worked very hard in the summer to get this group together and improve on last season. It will be no good after Saturday's win if we go to Burton and don't give a similar performance. We are going to give it everything we have got and play as if our lives depend on it for the last six games. It is so important to me, the staff and the supporters, to everyone connected to Torquay United.
'I think it will be a wide open game because that is the way we want to play. Burton try and play attractive football, they have some very good players and we aren't just going to open the pitch up from the start. We will have to attack but be safe behind the ball and be prepared to counter but at the same time we will not be sitting back.
'Burton are up at the top of the league for a reason, they have very good forwards and are a very good side and if we are not at it from the start we will get beaten but if we reach the standard we set against Kettering then we will take some stopping, whether it is Burton Albion or anyone else.
'We are on a ten game unbeaten run and we proved earlier in the season when we had a seventeen game unbeaten run that we haven't done a lot wrong this season, we have just drawn a few too many games. We know we are in good form and we know that the title has not been won yet, there are three or four teams who can win it and we will never give it up until it is mathematically impossible and we will go to Burton with that belief.'
I know Buckle from his playing days at yes, you guessed it, Brentford (cannot believe he only played 59 games for the Bees), he was an excellent pro who would not know how to give less than 100% and has taken this attitude into management and you can see it in his team. I think that Torquay will win tonight, Burton have been feeling the pressure since Nigel Clough left and have underperformed against the better BSP teams, they were fortunate that they had built up such a big lead at the top of the table. At the moment, I feel that United are the stronger and often, at this stage of the season, in such huge games, it can be easier to play on the road, where all the pressure is on your opponent, very nice odds and I think we should get stuck in !
7 points Torquay -1/2 ball 3.20 + general quote ..... up to 3.40 in places.
Good Luck.
No comments:
Post a Comment