[Frodo]

13 Jan 15:00 Torquay v Bury

On paper, on form an easy away win. However it’s not as easy as that with Bury losing their best player Dwayne Mattis the Shakers fans are concerned about their potential lack of bite in midfield. Also this time last season when they got rid of their best players they slumped so potential warning signs there.

Torquay can’t score at the moment and have a young keeper who seems to gift the opponents a goal a game and could give league debuts to as many as 6 new signings!!

Hapgood - A striker who’s done the rounds, was doing reasonably well at Clevedon (3 levels below L2) though most of his goals were penalties. He didn’t make it in the football league before and I struggle to say why I should believe he’ll do it this time.

Baxter - Unknown to me, from Canada, my first impression would be he smacks of someone who’d write to L2 clubs and they’d all reject him.

Simpson - can’t get into the St.Albans team.

McKoy & Easter – The loan pair from Cardiff. The latter was on loan with Bristol Rovers and scored on his debut. Didn’t hear much of him after that though

Dickson – On loan from Plymouth, on paper he looks a decent player although one who’s short of match practice.

Also losing Adam Murray to Macclesfield is a bizarre move and a big blow and his loss will cause a loss of bite in the Torquay midfield too. Captain Kevin Hill is also missing through injury.

After 2 weeks without a game Bury should be fresh and chompnig at the bit to get a Torquay side who perhaps won’t be familiar with each other and even if they were I’d raise doubts to their qualities anyway.

However there’s one other thing to throw into the mix. Then appointment of Colin Lee in a coaching capacity. I’ve a feeling he’ll have a heavy input on a Czech manager who is quite frankly dieing on his arse. Colin Lee has had one spell in charge of Torquay before where he inspired a condemmed team to avoid relegation at Barnet’s expense. Being a Barnet fan I do not need to be told of the impact he could have however I just don’t think there’s the quality or continuity at Torquay at the moment for Lee to have an immediate impact. 2.7 on the away win is good value but this one may be a bit closer than you think.