Jourdan

In fairness though, the conditions in Torquay were a huge leveller. The pitch was poor and deteriorating. The weather was extremely wet and windy and not really conducive to any kind of football. Some of the refereeing was very questionable and indeed favourable to the home side - a penalty and a red card went against us. Torquay’s fans and players leaned into all of that. Yesterday we played virtually our strongest and most experienced XI with the exception of 1-2 players and had none of that to contend with. Coming off our best performance of the season in midweek, surely you can understand the disappointment in making hard work of yesterday?

We potentially have nine games in three competitions before Christmas, and as many as seven of those games will be at home! The significance of that last minute equaliser could be huge for Warne and taking the pressure off. Given that our home and away form is starting to trend in different directions, there might not be a better opportunity for him and the players to click, find form and confidence, and turn the tide. The way things have gone v Cheltenham, Shrewsbury, Stevenage and Crewe will make every away game coming up feel like a potential trip hazard and so it might be good for us to have a run of games at home and get some wins under our belt.

All the credit has to go to Crewe. For 88 minutes, they got their game plan spot on and took advantage of our poor defending. They would have been worthy winners and all while missing some important players. A goalkeeping mistake gifted us a way back into the game and the equaliser got us completely out of jail. The jeopardy, the drama - it’s why we love the FA Cup. Were we poor? No. Were we frustrating and disappointing? Absolutely. We had more possession, more shots, more time spent in their half, but how many quality chances did we create? A handful at best? Crewe were pretty comfortable it seemed, until we showed some desperation and urgency in the last 15 minutes. It had an air of the players playing for Warne’s job. A huge reprieve for Warne there…

Well deserved for Crewe. Their game plan has worked to perfection. It looks a long way back for us as you can barely see us scoring one, never mind two or three. Crewe are defending in numbers and that’s all they need to do really.