Johnson left bitterly disappointed with his Gulls
“IT was a very, very disappointing performance,” said Torquay United manager Gary Johnson after the National League leaders were beaten 2-1 at home by Altrincham on Tuesday night. writes Richard Hughes. THE result left the Gulls still nine points clear at the top of the table but it gave second-placed Sutton United the chance to make up some ground, which they did by beating Stockport County, and the title rivals now have nine points worth of games in hand again.
Torquay, playing without a recognised striker for the first hour, took the lead through Kyle Cameron - but were poor for the rest of the evening and gave up the points far too easily. Johnson didn’t hold back afterwards, saying the team looked ‘brainless’.
“I didn’t recognise anything about us really - not as individuals and certainly not as a team,” said the manager. “The opposition were ready for it, they didn’t play in midweek, and we looked leggy, brainless, and we looked mentally and physically a long, long way below par,”
“The lads have got to have a good look at themselves because not one of them came out today, unfortunately, with any credit.
“A lot of things didn’t go for us but no excuses because there wasn’t anybody who played to their normal standard.”
Johnson started with Connor Lemonheigh-Evans playing furthest forward in front of a midfield that certainly has scored its fair share of goals this season. But the warning signs were there from early on with
Dean Mooney hitting the crossbar in the eighth minute.
Tony Thompson in the Altrincham goal then made a double save, spilling a first shot from Armani Little, but stopping Aaron Nermane’s rebound, and Ben Whitfield also had a shot stopped before the Gulls took the lead - Cameron poking the ball home from close range from a Lemonheigh-Evans free kick into the box in the 21st minute.
On 32 minutes, Sam Sherring brought down Josh Hancock in the Torquay area and it was all-square after the Altrincham player got up and scored from the penalty spot.
There were four Torquay players around Jake Moult when he took the ball into the box on 45 minutes and the Altrincham captain’s neat pass found substitute Ryan Colclough, whose shot across goal beat Shaun MacDonald and hit the net for 2-1.
Torquay go to Southport in the FA Trophy on Saturday, before returning to National League action on Tuesday night when they host Wealdstone at Plainmoor.