Gulls must ensure they deliver on home patch

Torquay United have reached a crunch period in their quest for promotion from the National League South and the weekend visit from St Albans is probably the first six-pointer of the campaign.
The Gulls slumped to a painful 4-2 defeat at second-placed Worthing on Saturday and are just clinging on to seventh place in the table, the final berth in the play-off positions.
St Albans are one place below United and on the same points. Only goal difference separates the sides ahead of the Saturday showdown at Plainmoor and the visitors are on a run of five games unbeaten, four of them resulted in victory.
Last weekend, runaway leaders Yeovil Town travelled to Hertfordshire and were held to a 1-1 draw by a confident St Albans unit, who lost the services of head coach David Noble just a couple of days before the game as he took up the role of Wealdstone manager.
Despite that upheaval, St Albans thoroughly deserved the point given to them by a Mitchell Weiss equaliser early in the second period.
They will be a tough nut to crack, the pressure is on to deliver a good result and United may have to do it without the services of goalkeeper Mark Halstead and Ross Marshall after they hobbled off in the first half at Worthing.
“Mark made a good save but, as he landed, I don’t know what he fell on, but he couldn’t go on. We think he will just need a week’s rest,” said United manager Gary Johnson.
“Ross has played a lot of games recently and put in a lot of yardage, but it was good to have Fin [Craske] back to fill that space. We wait and see to see how long they will be out.”
Johnson has seen enough in his long managerial career to know one big performance can change the dynamic of a season, and Saturday would be a perfect place to start. There is no denying that Johnson has come in for criticism from some sections of the Yellow Army and his team will need to respond on Community Day at Plainmoor. There is talent within the squad and now is the time to deliver. Johnson accepted the Worthing defeat was a disappointment but other results were kind to Torquay United and the run of games coming up are generally, on paper, winnable, although the midweek trip to FA Cup history-makers Maidstone United will be very tough on February 6.
“You’re not going to beat every team, however good you are, and sometimes the opposition will have decisions go for them or their players step up to the plate,” said Johnson. “Every team can beat each other, as you can see from the league on Saturday, when a lot of the teams that won were lower [in the table] than their opposition.
“We’ve got a home game coming up and St Albans are just below us. We need to keep our home form going.”
Home form is massive for Torquay United and if Johnson can rekindle the magic from his first season in charge at Plainmoor, there is still hope this can be a successful season.