LITTLE’S BIG REWARD IN A MAGPIES GOAL FEST
SLOW-STARTING Torquay United finally got their season up and running with victory at Maidenhead – but they were made to sweat every inch of the way with the Magpies rallying back from three goals down to set uip a thrilling finish.
The Gulls, with just one ppoint from their previous three matches and on the back of a 4-0 trouncing by Woking on Monday – powered into a 4-0 first-half lead with Armani Little netting twice and Asa Hall and Lemonheigh-Evans also netting.
Victory looked assured but back came the Magpies to snatch three goals back after the interval through Remy Clerima, Alan Massey, and Emile Acquah to set up a thrilling finale.
Manager Alan Devonshire, though, couldn’t look any further than the goals his side gave away.
“I’m very disappointed with the first half display,” he said. “You just can’t give goals away like that or even defend like that. Not at this level. It’s so poor.”
Gary Johnson’s Torquay started on the front foot and went in front on 14 minutes when Littlelatched onto a through ball and finished neatly past James Holden.
Six minutes later it was 2-0 – Little tucking away his second at the back post following a cross into Maidenhead’s box.
Josh Kelly caused panic at the other end as Torquay desperately cleared their lines, while keeper Mark Halstead was forced to push a looping header from one of his own defenders onto the woodwork and out for a corner.
Torquay made it three a minute before half-time when Little turned provider for his captain Hall, who glanced the midfieldConnor
er’s free-kick comfortably past Holden at the near post.
And it was 4-0 moments later – Lemonheigh-Evans finding the room to shift the ball onto his left and rifle it into the bottom right corner.
Remarkably, the hosts got themselves swiftly back in contention after the restart with Clerima lobbing the ball over Halstead and into the back of the net.
Five minutes later, Massey converted Charlee Adams’ low corner and might have grabbed a rare brace five minutes later had he connected better with the ball inside the area.
Nevertheless, Emile Acquah brought Maidenhead to within touching distance of an extraordinary comeback when he scored on 66 minutes after Will de Havilland struck the woodwork and Maidenhead were in the ascendency. Nathan Blissett headed wide from a free kick next and Dan Holman rattled the crossbar with a volley from the edge of the area down the other end.
A frantic 15 minutes was brought to a halt when Danny Wright required medical attention on 76 minutes for a blow to the face. The stoppage certainly slowed things down.
Clerima nodded an effort goalbound on 84 minutes and bodies were thrown on the line in the 90th as Maidenhead piled forward in the eight minutes of time added on, but to no avail. ★★★★★