Western Morning News (Saturday)
Johnson sure Dover will show some soul after home thrashing
MANAGER Gary Johnson says Torquay United must be wary of a Dover Athletic ‘on the rebound’ after this afternoon’s National League opponents were beaten 5-0 by Aldershot Town on Tuesday night.
While Torquay were winning in injury-time – for the third time this season – Dover were down on their knees after being thrashed by a previously winless team who were bottom of the table.
Torquay are fifth in the National League with nine points from four games, Dover are 20th after beating Notts County 1-0 on day one – but then suffering three defeats on the bounce at Bromley (4-1), at Stockport County (3-1) and at home against Aldershot.
But Johnson knows how Dover’s manager Andy Hessenthaler will have reacted to that last result and says Torquay need to be as good as they were against Chesterfield on Tuesday night to avoid being hit on the rebound by the hurting team.
Johnson said: “Coming off the back of a home defeat like that, you’d have thought, because there are no bad teams at this level, they are going to have to try and liven themselves up.
“The manager would have got into them, Andy Hessenthaler can do that, so we have got to be ready for them on the rebound, as it were.
“You have got to worry about yourself and your own team and play your own game and see how they handle it.”
If Torquay play the high-tempo and quick passing game that they did against Chesterfield, Dover will certainly have a job on their hands – it will certainly be interesting to see how they ‘handle it’.
At times, Ben Whitfield on the left was untouchable – until the visitors resorted to foul play – and in the middle of the park Connor Lemonheigh-Evans and Adam Randell were solid and dependable. Perhaps Aaron Nemane on the right needs to find some more fuel to rival Whitfield, who Johnson called a ‘pocket-rocket winger’ this week, but he can scare defences too and has his moments.
In front of goalkeeper Lucas Covolan, the back four of Ben Wynter, Sam Sherring, Kyle Cameron and Dean Moxey is likely to stay the same, with the front two of Danny Wright and Louis Britton also unlikely to change.
That means it will probably be back on the bench for Asa Hall, who was credited with the lastminute goal on Tuesday night even though Wynter got the final touch.
“As a manager you are not satisfied 100 per cent with everything, you have to win 5-0 every week to be 100 per cent satisfied,” said Johnson.
“You are a fan yourself when you stand on the line there and you probably shout the same things as fans do – whether it is good or bad.
“But the boys are responding, we have got good enough footballers and good enough football brains in our team to take on board any information.”
“The games have all been close but I think there will be a lot of games that are close in this league.”
The home game against Dover will be the Gulls’ fifth in just 15 days, so the team will be glad of the rest that a game-less midweek will bring.
They are next in action at Sholing in the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup next Saturday.
Torquay will go to the Mackoy Stadium in Southampton expecting to win and make it into the hat for the draw of the first round proper.
Sholing play in Division One South of the Southern League with the likes of Barnstaple Town, Bideford and Willand Rovers.
Johnson said: “It would have been nice to have been at home, but of course being drawn to a lower league team, rather than a National League team, is a bonus. However we definitely won’t take them lightly.”