Match Preview: Torquay United taking on tough cookies

Torquay United make the long trip to Braintree Town this weekend and the Gulls are entering a decisive period in their dreams of at least making the National League South play-offs.

Four straight defeats have left United five points adrift of the play-offs and Braintree are two points ahead of Gary Johnson’s men following their own sequence of three consecutive wins.

It all adds up to a tough assignment, with another one looming at Farnborough on Tuesday night.

“If you’re not playing at the top of your game, they’re all tough cookies and that’s why we need get it going to build that confidence,” said Johnson. “Supporters can give players confidence and players give it to the supporters, that all-round club confidence needs to come back.

“We’ve got two tough games and you don’t mind that when you need to get a result because it focusses everyone.”

As part of the confidence-building process, United will reflect on the attacking positives from the 3-4 defeat to Slough last weekend, while working on the defensive frailties that ultimately cost them a last-gasp defeat.

For all the negative noise surrounding that defeat, it was a great boost for Johnson to welcome back talismanic striker Aaron Jarvis after his injury woes.

“We were minutes away from a decent victory, leading 3-2, and at that point Jarvs [Aaron Jarvis] came on and there was a great cheer for him,” said Johnson. “Everybody was happy because we’ve all been looking forward to getting him back.

“We had a couple of chances in the last four or five minutes but so did they [Slough], and they took theirs. In the end, we were gutted, all of us, because it would have been a decent day’s work to win 3-2.

“It was good to get the three goals but not good to concede four. We try to address that every day and we’ve got to be better in our defending because we shouldn’t have to score three goals to win games.

“We don’t neglect defensive areas. It is a team game but there are individuals within that team and we need to coach them. Sometimes, things go right for you and sometimes they don’t.”

Skipper Asa Hall will miss the Braintree trip after limping off against Slough but Johnson is hopeful Jarvis can sustain a full 90-minute battle, with his chances probably aided by the midweek postponement at Taunton Town.

“Asa will be out for probably a couple of weeks with a calf injury,” added Johnson. “We’ve had a few days extra training and for some that had been playing with little niggles, it gave them a few days more to get back.

“It will come again later because there aren’t many days to fit in games. We were disappointed that the Taunton game was postponed, we wanted to play the game but the weather made it difficult.

“He [Jarvis] is ready to start but whether he’s ready to finish is unknown. We haven’t picked the team yet for Saturday and he looked really sharp when he came on [against Slough], but we’re not sure if he’s got 90 minutes in him.”