LEMON HAS PUT A ZEST BACK INTO THE GULLS

GARY Johnson’s Torquay side continue their resurgence with a comfortable victory at struggling Altrincham, who are now winless in ten games.

Goals from Connor Lemonheigh-Evans and Stephen Wearne in either half were enough for the Gulls in a game they controlled for long periods that sees them win their fourth in their last six and continue to climb the table.

“It’s a huge three points” said Johnson, “Some of our lads were heroic out there. But it was also a great team performance and we deserved the win.

“We set out to press them high from the start, which we did well and we rightly went in front.

“However, we didn’t kick on and I was disappointed to go in 1-1, but after we got the second we should’ve then gone on to put it to bed, but it wasn’t that easy.”

United went ahead inside six minutes with a quality move. A neat flick over the defence by Danny Wright was met by the run of Lemonheigh-Evans, who rounded Tony Thompson in goal and passed the ball in.

The visitors continued to dominate the half, with the Alty backline struggling to cope with the slick passing of Torquay’s frontmen.

And the Gulls almost doubled their lead later in the half when Armani Little’s corner was headed onto the bar by Ali Omar.

Then completely against the run of play, the Robins levelled on the half hour with a sublime strike from Toby Mullarkey. The defender carried the ball from his own half with the visitors defence backing off and Mullarkey took the invitation and struck a 25yard effort into the bottom corner.

Altrincham then had Thompson to thank just before the break as the stopper produced a sublime reaction stop to parry Lemonheigh-Evans close range header.

However, Torquay did retake the lead four minutes after the restart following a gift from Kennedy Digie. The Robins defender’s sloppy pass went straight to Wearne in the penalty area, and the Sunderland loanee calmly placed his effort passed Thompson in goal.

At the other end, Ryan Colclough struck the bar from a free-kick as the hosts began to come into the game more.

But the visitors should’ve sealed the win soon after when Lemonheigh-Evans’ smart turn in the box allowed him in one-on-one with Thompson but he somehow fired over from 15 yards.

“We can’t keep gifting teams chances”, said a frustrated Altrincham assistant boss Neil Sorvel.

“That’s three games now we have conceded within 10 minutes of the break.

“I thought we finally had our mojo back, as we showed in spells in the first half. But we were poor today, especially after the break.”

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