Torquay United beaten by the better side

Torquay United manager Gary Johnson fully accepted the better team won after his side was dumped out of the FA Trophy at Hereford on Saturday.

The Gulls never got going in the game, falling behind to a well-struck free-kick from Tom Pugh on 20 minutes and Hereford scored a second from the penalty spot before half-time.

After the break, the hosts managed their lead with relative comfort, while United huffed and puffed without ever causing a genuine threat.

“The only words we can say is that we were beaten by the better team on the day,” said Johnson. “Hereford deserve their route into the next round of the FA Trophy and we’re all disappointed.

“We didn’t do enough and we’re sorry for the poor performance, and when we can, we’ll do something about it.

“Until we watch it [the penalty decision] again, it’s hard to say but it looked like a penalty. They put us under pressure early, scored a great free-kick and then the penalty, but they deserved that because of their play.

“We weren’t in the game until part of the second half when we had to put lads forward who don’t normally play there, just to try and impede them. We had a few corners but we still weren’t great.”

The attacking strategy from United suffered a cruel blow on just six minutes, when new signing Duane Ofori-Acheampong limped out of the game with a hamstring problem.

It was rotten luck for Ofori-Acheampong, who returned to the club on Friday, nine years after his first stint as a Gull and he was hugely excited to make a quick impact on the team.

“Duane is on a short-term contract, we needed to play him and he wanted to play. He had a game last Saturday, so it wasn’t like he’d been on a long break. He trained with us, looked fit and strong but it unfortunately looks like a hamstring problem.

“We won’t know until it settles down. He’s absolutely gutted in the dressing room because we know how excited he was to come back and play in front of the fans. He felt there was unfinished business and he was really looking forward to it.”