Decision-making deals Torquay United a disappointing result at Chesham

Torquay United suffered their third defeat of the National League South season and dropped down to fourth in the table after struggling to find any rhythm on a disjointed afternoon at Chesham.

The Gulls fell behind to a Nathan Minhas goal in the first half and failed to get going as an attacking force against a home team who showed why they have developed their own promotion aspirations over the opening weeks of the campaign.

“It was obviously a disappointing afternoon,” said United boss Paul Wotton. “When you concede the first goal here, you can see what Chesham do with their game-management and time-wasting, which meant we never got into our rhythm.

“In the second half, we were much better and the changes made a difference but the goal we conceded was really poor. We had two great chances in the first half but we haven’t tested the goalkeeper enough.

“We were huffing and puffing, our decision-making in the final third was really poor. There was nothing really in the game but we didn’t start the game positively enough. We played backwards and sideways too much, and we’d spoken all week about not doing that.

“We let Chesham get into their shape, sit in a low block and we didn’t move the ball quickly enough, and we didn’t play forwards enough. I don’t know if we deserved to lose the game, don’t know if we deserved to win it either.

“You’ve got to get over disappointments quickly.”

If there was one bright spot for the Gulls, it was the sight of striker Sonny Fish finally making his debut for the club after missing the opening ten weeks of the campaign through injury.

The young forward will bring pace and power to the United vanguard, and he provided glimpses of his potential at Chesham, but Wotton is naturally cautious about expecting too much too soon.

“It was probably a little longer than I would have liked to have given him but he came on and gave us a purpose,” said the manager.

“He showed a will to win and some fight. You could see he hasn’t played for a while but he will get better, and he will benefit an awful lot from that 32 minutes.”