Harsh penalty call denies Gulls yet another handy cup pay-day

Gary Johnson isn’t really interested in hard-luck stories at Plainmoor these days, and the Gulls’ boss was not about to offer a consoling arm-round-the-shoulder to the players who undoubtedly deserved at least a draw from their FA Cup defeat to old rivals Woking.

He didn’t even argue with the penalty decision which decided the tie – most people who got a decent view of Jean-Yves Koue Niate’s tackle on Jamar Loza were adamant that it was a fair challenge, TV replays appeared to support them and Woking manager Alan Dowson said he wouldn’t have been surprised if referee Declan Bourne had given a corner instead.

Johnson did grumble about the latest exhibition of time-wasting we’ve seen at Plainmoor recently – at least Mr Bourne booked two Woking players for it, and the Cards weren’t quite as blatant as Billericay Town had been seven days before.

But Johnson is here for much more than near-misses and if-onlys, and when a team dominates possession, territory and chances like United did at the weekend, he demands that they finish the job.

He knows from 30 years’ experience in coaching that games are usually won in both penalty-areas, and United ultimately failed in both.

Even if Niate did recover lost ground, then stretch his full 6ft 4in and win the ball just before Loza went down, the fact was that he had been caught out of position and for pace in the first place.

Yes, goalkeeper Craig Ross pulled off a series of excep-

Ben Wynter of Torquay United puts in a tackle on Woking’s Josh Casey tional saves in both halves and pected it. After all, Johnson had ance in a Torquay shirt so far was Woking’s best player, but just been named the NL South and Ryan Dickson won enough United had more than enough Manager Of The Month for Ocmidfield headers to suggest that opportunities to score and did tober, and we all know what he might revert to the back-four not make any of them count. happens to men and teams who one day.

In purely financial terms it win that award. They were at least as good as cost United £36,000 in prize This was United’s first defeat their opponents, without ever money, to go with the £49,000 in ten games under him, the first quite ‘clicking’ in terms of real they had earned from beating time that they have failed to quality, and Jamie Reid was ofLymington Town, Brightlingscore in that run and it was the ten isolated up front. sea Regent and Winchester second time in three years that With Woking also playing City. That extra cash would Woking have knocked the with just Jake Hyde as their have come in very useful as Gulls out of the Cup. lone targetman – exactly as they Johnson tries to strengthen his It wasn’t through lack of efhad done in the 2-2 league draw squad in those two crucial fort – Connor Lemonat Plainmoor six weeks before – areas. heigh-Evans was tireless, Kalvit was never likely to be a

Maybe we should have ex- in Kalala gave his best perform- ‘goalfest’ and was always prone to be decided by a twist of fate.

So it proved.

Mr. Bourne’s decision to penalise Niate’s 48th minute tackle – “I’ve seen them given and I’ve seen them not given“, said Dowson – gave Max Kretzschmar the chance to score from the penalty, and he made no mistake.

Later, in the 71st minute, United had Woking stretched as Lemonheigh-Evans found Saikou Janneh in the box a second or two after he had been fouled. Janneh was also clearly felled, but instead of giving the ‘advantage’ a chance, Mr. Bourne pulled play back and gave a free-kick to Torquay.

Mr. Bourne booked Armani Little for the foul and later cautioned Ross and Kretschmar for time-wasting as United hit more and more long balls and Woking hung grimly on to their lead.

For one United set-piece in the closing stages even keeper Shaun MacDonald went up to join 21 other players in the Cards’ penalty-area.

Such was the pressure that a Gulls equaliser at any time in the last 20 minutes might well have sparked a winner.

United fans also hoped for a fairytale moment when Johnson sent on 16-year-old Academy striker Olaf Koszela for his senior debut with four minutes of normal and, as it turned out, four ridiculous minutes of stoppage-time to go.

It was not to be. And it was not good enough for Johnson.

Torquay United (4-3-3): MacDonald; Wynter, Koue Niate, Cameron, Davis; Andrews (Keating 64), Dickson, Lemonheigh-Evans; Janneh (Williams 82), Reid, Kalala (Koszela 86); subs not used – Sendles-White, Burton, Baxter. Booked: Niate 48, Wynter 88

Woking (4-4-1-1): Ross; Collier, Gerring, Cook, Casey; Kretzschmar, Little, Hester-Cook (Gayle 82), Loza; Edser; Hyde; subs not used – Ofori-Acheampong, Hodges, Spence, Luer, Wheeler, Schotterl (gk). Booked: Little 71, Hester-Cook 72, Ross 83, Kretzschmar 90+2.

Referee: Declan Bourne (Notts). Attendance: 2,419 (323 Cards fans). Statistics: Fouls – United 11, Woking 14; Offsides – United 3, Woking 9; Corners – United 7, Woking 1; Shots/Headers On Target – United 6, Woking 4; Off Target – United 6, Woking 2; Hit Woodwork – None

Sean Hernon/PPAUK