Match Preview: Time to turn it around

In his five-and-a-half year tenure as Torquay United manager, Gary Johnson has been forced to fight through some rough patches, and the visit of Slough Town on Saturday represents a huge challenge after a run of three defeats that has seen the Gulls drop out of the play-off picture.

United started that unwanted sequence with defeat at Worthing, followed by a humbling 4-0 home loss to St Albans and then the 3-2 reverse at Maidstone in midweek.

The pressure is on as the club enters a defining period in the season and Johnson remains defiant in his belief that he can find the results needed for a play-off push, while also admitting the fan protests after the St Albans defeat did hurt.

“I think we’re still the second team as far as home wins are concerned, just behind Yeovil, and we need to keep that going,” he said.

“We lost the St Albans game badly and we have to turn that around. Slough are a decent team and, if you’re not on your game, the opposition will show you their game.

“We will pick an experienced that that knows what it’s about.

“Our target is to be back in the play-offs. I know people wanted us to win the league and that’s not happened, but we have faith in ourselves to come through a bad patch.

“I’ve got confidence in myself, my staff, the players and the club that, when we have a bad run of form, we will turn it around. It [the protests] hurt from a personal point of view but not from a professional one.

“It would be easier to just walk away but perhaps not everybody has given up, and they shouldn’t give up. Personally, it does hurt but it is part of the job. I want to turn it around and I will.”

Johnson will take heart and encouragement from the performance at Maidstone, where United twice levelled with goals from Asa Hall and Ross Marshall before losing to a late stunner.

Despite the marked improvements, it was still a loss and results are everything in this business, but the Gulls had to show a reaction to the St Albans display, and to show the Yellow Army that their club is still up for the fight.

“It was very disappointing last Saturday and there was no covering up from that,” said Johnson. “I was disappointed, embarrassed and I understand people’s frustrations from that performance because I felt the same.

“We knew we had a couple of lads coming back and knew we could go to Maidstone and perform better. After Saturday, we had a two-hour discussion in the changing room and it was important to let them know the state of play.

“Everybody needs to pick it up lively because our squad is getting bigger and I’ve always said we want more competition. We took more to Maidstone and we will have more available to us against Slough.

“Sometimes, you get to a stage where you need to discuss things with the team and with individuals because individuals lost their game.

“It was a combination of things but we’ve still got our principles. Maidstone would have been a good game to get a result because they’re going very well but you’ve also got to compete and to fight against Maidstone.

“They are very good at things like body contact and if we’d been shrinking violets, we would have been beaten up. Not only did we compete at Maidstone, we also had a bit of confidence in our game.

“For all those who were there and watched it on the streaming, they could see we should have come away with at least a draw, but we certainly played a lot better, with a lot more confidence, more quality and aggression.

“We had more experience in the squad against Maidstone, we were stronger and ready for the battle, which is why I’m looking forward to the next game. I know we lost, and we’re disappointed to lose, but we needed a performance.”