Paul Wotton: “We were bright, front-footed, we looked fit”

Torquay United manager Paul Wotton understandably declared himself satisfied with the latest pre-season victory for the Gulls, sweeping past Newport County with a 3-1 success at Plainmoor.

United were outstanding in the first-half, racing into an unassailable 3-0 lead with goals from Dylan Morgan, Jordan Dyer and Louis Dennis. The attacking pattern changed to more defensive containment after the break and Newport did notch a late consolation, but still pleasing prep for the Gulls ahead of the season-opener in three weeks.

“It was a good afternoon for us, a lot more minutes in the legs and we’re just training for August 9,” said Wotton. “I saw some really pleasing things, first half and second half, for different reasons.

“We are injury-free, which was the biggest thing, and all-in-all a good day.

“We were bright, front-footed, we looked fit, which is a huge part of pre-season, and we looked like the players were taking on board what we are trying to implement on the training ground.

“There are elements [of seeing how we want the team to play]. First-half, there were obviously lots of good bits and in the second half we were very young for the last 20 minutes, with a couple of 16 year-olds on the pitch and we played a different way.

“We changed our shape because Newport are League Two opposition but we still looked fit and we will now train on Monday and Tuesday, play Wednesday, train Thursday and play again on Friday.”

Read the match report from Torquay v Newport

The hectic schedule for next week includes back-to-back home friendlies with Plymouth Argyle on Wednesday and Exeter City on Friday.

“We will take it one game at a time,” added Wotton. “The recovery time from today to Wednesday is absolutely fine, the recovery time from Wednesday to Friday obviously isn’t perfect but it gives us the chance to have really good minutes over the whole squad.

“We’ve got three pre-season games left, I’m a big believer in not having too many games but it will be a good week for us. The National League South is very competitive and it’s relentless, so we have to get used to it.

“The Football League starts a week before us, so they [Argyle and Exeter] will be full tilt. They will probably be a little bit ahead of us in sharpness and fitness, so I’m expecting a step up from Newport.

“It’s really important we keep testing ourselves and it will be a great evening, with my affinity with Plymouth Argyle and they will bring loads of fans. The pitch will be nice and slick, so a game to enjoy.”

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The two players not involved in the win over Newport were midfielder Nashe Sundire and striker Sonny Fish. Sundire is nursing a minor calf complaint but the news is more worrying for Fish, who looks likely to be out of action until the autumn.

“Nashe Sundire has had a niggling calf injury, which has been scanned and it’s not serious,” said Wotton. “He should be back involved next week, but we’ve had some bad news on Sonny Fish. He’s nicked his meniscus and has an operation on Monday, which will leave him out for 8 – 12 weeks.

“It is disappointing for him and disappointing for us because I think he’s a top player, but we’re going to be without him for three months.

“You can get lucky in football. Last year, we didn’t have any operations and now we’ve picked up one already this year, which is just the way football goes.”