So the game a whopping 7839 eager fans had waited months for was finally here, with City triumphing 4-3 in a titanic battle that had everything from first whistle to last on a bright and fresh Boxing Day lunchtime at the Park. City lined up: Jones; Edwards, Seaborne, Matt Taylor, Tully; Moxey, Gill, Andy Taylor, Carlisle; Basham, Mackie

 

As expected the game started at a frenetic pace and was more crash, bang wallop than silky passing football. The first chance of the game though fell to the visitors in the 12th minute when a mistake by Tully allowed former City player Lee Philips through for a one on one with Jones. He rounded Jones and had the whole of an empty goal to aim at from fifteen yards when Seaborne appeared from nowhere to clear Phillips' wasted shot.

 

In the 15th minute it was City's turn to have Torquay hearts in mouths when Mackie set off on a run to the heart of the Gulls' defence. After surging through he laid the ball off left to Basham, but unfortunately Bash's bash lacked any power and it was easily cleared.

 

Midway through the half City took a deserved lead. A long clearance up the pitch was nodded into Mackie's path by Basham. Mackie stormed through two defenders and looked to have lost the chance taking the ball slightly wide, but he had other ideas and smashed the ball righteously past Rice high into the top corner to send three sides of ground delirious and make the score 1-0 to City.

 

On 35 minutes delirium turned to completely mental as City went two up. A deep corner to the far post saw Matt Taylor rise magnificently to nod the ball back into the crowded six yard box. After a few hacks it eventually found it's way to Deano six yards out and unmarked at the opposite post where he gleefully crashed the ball home high into the net to send the place into meltdown. The place was rocking, and it was rocking to a City beat with a deserved 2-0 scoreline.

 

A few minutes later the ball way played out wide to Wayno on the right. With Mackie in front taking defenders with him, it created space for Wayno to advance towards goal, eventually giving Wayno the opportunity to test his luck from 20 yards that the keeper saved comfortably.

 

On 40 minutes the final action of a pulsating half saw Wayno feed Bash on the break , but he let his shot go a little hurriedly and once again it was an easy collect for the keeper.

 

Soon enough it was time for the second half, and Torquay came out of the blocks all guns blazing. In the fourth minute a Torquay free kick on the edge of the box was fired in low through a crowd of players where Jones did well to get down and parry. Before a Torquay player had chance to react though, Seaborne was there to mop up, hammering away the rebound for a corner.

 

However, relief was short lived as the resulting corner was fired back in and pinged about between defenders and attackers before former City captain Chris Todd sent a looping header into the top corner across Jones' despairing drive.

 

Torquay were well on top, and it was something of a relief to see Mackie collect the ball out wide and advance towards the Torquay penalty area. He stood there waiting and waiting for support before Wayno eventually came bursting into the box. Mackie laid off the perfect ball and with the Torquay defence static Wayno stooped at the near post to gleefully butt home from close range to put City 3-1 up.

 

Almost immediately the ball was up around the City box, and with tempers fraying a few players got involved in a bit of handbags. Seaborne looked to shape to headbutt Tim Sills after Sills had been dishing it out himself, resulting in Sills theatrically falling to the floor clutching his face as though Lennox Lewis had just given him a battering. I saw no contact myself, which makes Sills' actions even more pathetic, although I have heard others say Seaborne caught him. Either way, any contact was minimal at best, and although Sills made the most of it, Seaborne should have been professional enough not to give the referee the opportunity to produce a card. As it was, the card was red, and you have to say it was Seaborne's own fault for a moment of madness.

 

But back to the proper action, and despite being a man short it was City who pressed on further. Once again the Gulls' defence was static as a ball was played in to Mackie who waltzed his way nonchalantly into the Torquay box. With Rice offering little in the way of a last line of resistance Mackie had the easiest job of rolling the ball past him low into the far corner to put City 4-1 up and send the disbelieving crowd into a frenzy of delight.

 

But Torquay had other ideas, and their position in the table isn't because they roll over and die at the first sign of any difficulties. They came storming back at City, and with fifteen minutes to go a deep ball over to the far post found Phillips unmarked where he butted home with some aplomb to make the score 4-2.

 

A minute later a shattered Basham was replaced by the jet heeled Stansfield as manager Tisdale sought to exploit a lumbering Gulls rearguard. With ten minutes to go, however, quite the opposite happened as Phillips latched on to a huge clearance and burst into the City penalty area. Edwards stretched out a leg and took the ball cleanly deflecting it back towards Jones, but as Jones collected the ref deemed it to be a back pass and so Torquay were awarded a free kick fifteen yards out. The ball was played sideways to full back Nicholson who crashed an unstoppable drive high into the roof of the net to reduce the deficit to a single goal and make the score 4-3 to City with ten minutes of the game left.

 

In the 40th minute Torquay thought they'd got an equaliser when a huge scramble in the City penalty area saw half the City team clear from off the line. The Turks thought it was over, the officials thought otherwise and thus the score remained unchanged.

 

With the final whistle looming City sought comfort in the far corners of the pitch, content to try and hold the ball up and waste precious seconds. Such play resulted in good work from Stansfield and Mackie on the left, and in turn Gill and Taylor in the middle. Eventually the ball ended up with Wayno on the right, and spotting an opportunity to make the game safe fed Mackie in space who's low drive ended up the wrong side of the post in the side netting.

 

Torquay had one final chance, but fortunately for City and the majority of the crowd, Jones remained alert and blocked magnificently to give City a much deserved 4-3 win and return City fans' heart rates to something approaching normality!

 

But what a game though! The viewing millions watching live on Setanta must have been mightily impressed and mightily entertained too - seven goals, a bit of fisticuffs, a sending off, and some terrific football to boot too. It has to be said that City deserved the win, if only for the strength of their dominating first half performance that left Jones a virtual spectator for all but the merest instances. The second half wasn't so easy with Torquay storming back, but given their man advantage for the majority of it, it was hardly surprising that they'd put the City goal under some serious pressure.

 

Unfortunately for them, and backed up by the respective interviews of both Paul Buckle and Paul Tisdale on Gemini's excellent 'Kellow's Bootlaces' radio show in which it seemed as though Tisdale was the manager more up for the game, it seemed as though most of the Torquay players were viewing the game as just another game, with only Todd and Phillips - both City players last season - looking like players relishing a Devon derby.

 

As for the City players, once again on the big occasion Paul Jones didn't disappoint with a series of smart stops and brave clearances through intense opposition pressure.

The defence looked good too, giving Torquay's shot-crazy forward line hardly a sniff in the first half, especially with Seaborne and Matt Taylor winning the majority of the aerial battles against the giant, but flimsy, Sills.

 

In midfield Andy Taylor showed how sorely missed he's been of late, with timely challenges and a willingness never to give up chasing. This in turn helped Gill to spray the ball around with relative ease, and down the flanks there were terrific performances from both Moxey and Carlisle, with both more than most looking especially up for the game.

 

Up front Basham supported Mackie ably, but hats off to Jamie for his constant torment of the Gulls' back line. It was just rewards that he helped himself to two well taken goals, and also testament to his confidence borne out of scoring ten in the last ten games, and to be honest once through he never looked like missing either.

 

So a real confidence booster with Histon on Saturday and then the return to Plainmoor on New Year's Day. At times today the football was simply breathtaking, and for a team over a dozen points to the good before kick-off, Torquay were ripped apart at will on more than one occasion. If you think about it, there isn't really anything that could have been better than being at the Park today.

 

Hopefully, after seeing a game like that today, a good majority of you will be back again on Saturday, and that we'll have an equally successful trip down the road in a week's time. If not, you just have to wonder just what the team has to do to get you through the turnstiles, but if they carry on performing like they did today you just know it'll be harder to stay away than to come along and cheer the boys on.

 

See you on Saturday for more of the same.