So on a perfect night for football at the Park, football was the ultimate loser as City stun the whopping 8276 crowd into silence by gifting Torquay a priceless 2-1 lead to take into the second leg of the play-off semi final at Plainmoor on Monday. City lined up: Jones; Friend, Seaborne, Matt Taylor, Tully; Moxey, Harley, Edwards, Gill, Carlisle; Stansfield.
Combating the threat down the flanks of the Torquay wide men, manager Tisdale sprung a bit of a surprise by employing a 4-5-1 formation with Edwards, Gill and Harley packing the centre of midfield and Stansfield making mischief on his own up front. And it seemed to work too, as once the two teams had got the opening exchanges out of the way, it was City who got into their stride quickest.
In the fifth minute a long Gill throw from the right found the shiny bonce of Edwards six yards out, but his header lacked the power needed to trouble the keeper and he made an easy collect. A minute later Stansfield scurrying down the right whipped in a terrific cross that only just evaded the curly mop of the rushing Carlisle and was cleared for a corner.
On 18 minutes Harley danced his way down the left before chipping to Taylor half a dozen yards out but his good looking header was plucked from the top corner by the keeper comfortably. Two minutes later a vicious Deano corner beat all three rushing City players: Taylor at the near post, Stan in the middle and Friend at the far post when the merest of touches would have seen the ball in the net. A further two minutes elapsed before a clever Stan knockdown invited Harley to rush forward and chance his arm but his curling drive from the edge of the box wasn't enough to beat the keeper.
On 25 five minutes Harley sent a ball in from the left where Wayno met it with a lovely first time volley that unfortunately crashed high onto the Bank from the edge of the box, then three minutes later Stan threaded the ball through to Wayno under pressure, but his chip from distance was read well by the keeper and he saved easily.
Then the equally inevitable and unbelievable happened as Torquay mounted their first serious attack of the game in the 39th minute. A whipped in cross from the right was met perfectly by beanpole striker Tim Sills who guided his header back across goal from a central position to give Jones no chance and Torquay an extremely against the run of play and undeserved 1-0 lead.
City heads didn't drop though, as two minutes later a driving Gill run through the middle ended with Harley's low 25 yard drive that the scrambling keeper did well to collect in the last action of an unusually one sided first half.
But soon enough the second half was underway, and City took little time in trying to reduce arrears. In the eighth minute a deep Harley free kick was met by Taylor who rose highest at the far post, but he succeeded in hoisting his header not only over the keeper but cross bar as well as the ball nestled on top of the net. Five minutes later good work from Moxey and Friend down the left saw the ball fed inside to Harley who in turn laid off to Gill storming round the outside where his ferocious low 25 yarder was deflected wide for a corner.
After fifteen minutes Friend and Harley combined for Friend to send over a sweet sweet cross that took a light deflection to the far post where Carlisle was rushing in to smash home from point blank range. The lino, however, had other ideas with his flag raised for offside - a decision that the watching millions on TV saw to be incorrect as Wayno was miles onside and the goal should have stood.
Heads stayed up and City continued to press however, and in the 20th minute Wayno's deep cross was headed back across goal by Moxey but it was cleared before a fellow attacker could profit. In the 28th minute City reverted to a 4-4-2 formation with Seaborne being withdrawn for Logan with Edwards dropping back into defence, and three minutes later it looked to be an inspired decision as Edwards sent a raking deep cross to Logan just outside the box who nodded on to Wayno who crashed an unstoppable left foot volley high into the roof of the net from 18 yards for a thoroughly deserved equaliser.
Soon after Stansfield was rested for Watson, then ten minutes later Elam replaced Carlisle as both sides looked to play out the remaining minutes. However, disaster struck just as the fourth official raised the board to signal four minutes of stoppage time. Matt Taylor played what appeared to be an innocuous back pass back to the largely untroubled Jones, but the pass was ever so slightly under hit and Jones took ever so slightly too long to shape himself to hit it with his right foot. It was time enough for fleet footed Gulls striker Zebroski to pounce as he charged down Jones' clearance and prodded the ball into an empty net from fifteen yards out to hand Torquay an unlikely 2-1 victory to take with them back to Plainmoor.
But what a bizarre end to one of the most one sided games at the Park in years. And what a shame too - all of the football, all of the passing, all of the possession and all of the attacking was from City. Torquay's contribution to the game was simply to bang the ball as high and as hard up to Sills and Phillips up front. City can take heart from the fact that they completely outplayed their opponents for virtually the entire game, but one thing they must do before Monday's return leg is learn how to finish their chances and make their advantage count. If they can do that, then there's no reason why they can't overcome Torquay's one sided approach to the game and book their place at Wembley.
In goal Paul Jones will live with his mistake for a long time, and for much of the rest of the game was virtually a spectator except for the regulation stuff, and the back four in front of him were largely untroubled by the aerial bombardment with Tully in particular having one of his better games bombing up and down the right touchline.
In midfield Edwards was masterful in the middle and Gill covered an awful lot of ground, as did Harley, but a word to the wise Ryan: you still have to make the odd challenge here and there and not wait for the ball to come to you all the time. Out wide both wingers had their full backs in all sorts of trouble, and although Deano quietened down a bit in the second half, Carlisle kept it going right up until his late substitution. Plus he scored a terrific and timely goal to boot.
Up front it was difficult for Stansfield on his own against, at times, four defenders, but he led the line well and worked hard all game. Only Logan had time to make a telling contribution from the bench, but when that contribution sets up a goal you have to congratulate the manager for making the change.
So where to from here? Well down to Plainmoor on Monday lunchtime. It's ain't over yet, we're only half way there, and this time last year we wondered how we could ever turn it around after letting Oxford leave the Park a goal to the good. But turn it round we did, and against a team infinitely better and trickier than Torquay. The tie is still very much in the balance, and we are still very much in it. Tickets were snapped up within hours of going on sale, so well done to you if you're lucky enough to have one in your grasp. As for everyone else, well get yourselves in front of the telly and switch over to Setanta for what is now the most important game of the season.
Can we do it and book our second successive trip to Wembley for this year's play-off final? Course we can, especially if we play like we did tonight. Believe people, we can still do it, and hopefully we'll see you all at Wembley in a couple of weeks time.
