Torquay United hopeful weeks off will prove beneficial
Paul Wotton has a pretty fit squad ahead of Torquay United's return to National League South action - two weeks after their last game, a 1-0 away at Hampton & Richmond Borough.
Had the Gulls played Maidstone United last week, which they were supposed to do before Maidstone reached the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup, Wotton might have struggled to fill all 16 places on the team sheet, but the enforced two-week break - the second in a month - gave a number of injured players the time to get back to full fitness for the trip to Eastbourne Borough.
Wotton was even able to release midfielder Roddy Collins in the week, with the player joining Southern League Premier Division South side AFC Totton where he hopes to get more game time than he did at Plainmoor. Wotton was disappointed this week, however, when one of his targets agreed to sign for Torquay, and then changed his mind and went elsewhere.
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"We are always looking," Wotton said on Thursday. "I had a deal done yesterday for a player who agreed. A medical was sorted and the contract was sorted, and the media was ready. I spoke to him at four-thirty and it was all done. At six o'clock I got a call from his agent to say he had agreed to join someone else. That was very disappointing.
"But ultimately I need players here who want to play for Torquay United, who are excited and proud to play for Torquay United. He obviously wasn't. But we are good. Omar Mussa has been training and has done the last five sessions. So Mussa is fit. Ed Palmer [fractured eye socket], we have had a different report from another specialist, which is encouraging news so he could be back sooner than later. So it's only [goalkeeper] Matty Wonnacott really, who I think will be another three months minimum, with his broken arm."
From a situation where Wotton might have gone into a game against Maidstone without central defenders Palmer, Jordan Dyer, Sam Dreyer and Jay Foulston, he reports that Dyer, Dreyer and Foulston are all fit and ready again. So has the second two-week break in a month been an advantage for a side sitting fifth in the National South table, just two points off the top?
Wotton said: "If we go and win the next three games I will say it has been an advantage!" Eastbourne will be difficult opponents, though. The south coast team, managed by former Gulls player Adam Murray, are third in the table, one point above the Gulls having played one game more.
And Murray had a message for the club's fans on X this week, telling them: "It's a big game on Saturday. We need everybody to turn up. We need a big crowd and we need a big atmosphere. We need drums, we need singers, we need a lot of noise. For these big games, if we are serious about competing in this league, everybody needs to turn up and everybody needs to step up."
Eastbourne do have some good players, George Alexander is a top striker at this level and he will be a threat. They also play on an artificial pitch - which may or may not give them a further edge.
"We'll prepare as well as possible," said Wotton. "The boys are just looking forward to a game, to be honest with you - and I am sure the fans are as well. We'll go there and as always give it our best and see where we are."